Seven brand new posts in Advanced Research Computing

Join our brilliant team at the University of Birmingham‘s Advanced Research Computing department (ARC), where you will have the opportunity to work with cutting-edge technology and innovative research projects at a world-class university. The University of Birmingham aspires to establish itself as a World Top 50 university by 2030, and ARC have a key part … Continue reading “Seven brand new posts in Advanced Research Computing”

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Bear on Tour! (Ole Jensen)

Our next researcher in the #BearonTour series is Professor Ole Jensen (ORCID ID), Co-Director of the Centre for Human Brain Health in the School of Psychology. Q1 – Tell me about your researchWe are using various kind of brain imaging tools to investigate the human brain in the context of clinical and cognitive neuroscience. My … Continue reading “Bear on Tour! (Ole Jensen)”

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Machine Learning and AI use in Business & Economics

On the 24th November, Advanced Research Computing (or the BEAR team!) and researchers in the Business School and Economics presented a hybrid 1 hour session around the use of Machine Learning and AI techniques, in relation to their research areas. There was also a short demo on using the BEAR portal for Economics/Business-related software applications … Continue reading “Machine Learning and AI use in Business & Economics”

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Covid made me do it….

In November’s case study, we hear from researcher Gabrela da Silva Xavier who has been making use of BEAR’s storage and data processing power for imaging and RNA-sequencing data, in both her research and teaching… My name is Gabriela da Silva Xavier. I am an Associate Professor based at the Institute of Metabolism and Systems … Continue reading “Covid made me do it….”

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IT Needs of Active Research Survey News – BEAR

Written by Carol Sandys (Head of Advanced Research Computing) & Stephanie Thompson Thank you to everyone who took time to respond to the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research’s (PVC-R’s) ‘IT Needs of Active Research’ Survey (pdf of questions available below). Whilst the response rate was lower than in previous generations of this survey (with 173 responses) … Continue reading “IT Needs of Active Research Survey News – BEAR”

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Using BEAR to build a database of global forest disturbance data

In the second case study for September, we hear from one of our BEAR Champions, Nezha Acil, about how she has made use of BEAR storage, data processing and our training throughout her PhD, based on studying global forest disturbance data… My name is Nezha Acil and I am part of Thomas Pugh’s TreeMort team … Continue reading “Using BEAR to build a database of global forest disturbance data”

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BEAR: Maintaining Services when it’s 38C + Outside

If you are reading this, you probably know that we did not…. as we could not…. in the face of sustained temperatures beyond the design specification of the Research Data Centre. As with all engineering, there are safe operational limits and decisions are made about the conditions in which the system will operate. Similarly, air … Continue reading “BEAR: Maintaining Services when it’s 38C + Outside”

BEAR Challenge 2022

After a two year hiatus, the BEAR Challenge is back! The popular three day event was held on June 21st-23rd and attended by seven teams of 3-5 undergraduate and taught postgraduate students (see below). The teams tackled a heady array of machine learning, deep learning, data engineering, parallelisation, and computer cluster design challenges using the … Continue reading “BEAR Challenge 2022”

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How Green is the BEAR? Sustainable Supercomputing

Last week we attended the University’s Sustainability Town Hall where we could be found on the IT Services stand, discussing our response to the challenge of delivering sustainable supercomputing. On our agenda for more than a decade, the major breakthrough for BEAR came with the adoption of direct liquid cooling in 2015. Read on to … Continue reading “How Green is the BEAR? Sustainable Supercomputing”

Requesting BEAR Services – 2022 changes

In April 2022 we have made some changes to how you can request BEAR services (including CaStLeS), and also changes to free vs. premium resources. In this post we’ll set out some of the changes, and help you choose the right forms to use. These changes were authorised by the Research Computing Management Committee in … Continue reading “Requesting BEAR Services – 2022 changes”

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