This project was initiated and led by Dr Vincenzo Brachetta and carried out by PhD researcher Ritesh Moon at the University of Birmingham. Conducted between January and February 2026, it evaluated the performance and practical usability of Julia on BlueBEAR, the University’s institutional high-performance computing (HPC) platform. BlueBEAR supports multi-core CPU workloads, distributed execution across nodes, and GPU-accelerated computation, with … Continue reading “Research project: Exploring Julia for High-Performance Computing”
Category: High Performance Computing
Understanding multi-agent learning through large-scale simulations
In this case study we hear from Tuo Zhang, a researcher working in Machine Learning, who has been using BlueBEAR to run large-scale simulations of multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) algorithms. His research focuses on understanding how learning agents behave when interacting with each other in complex and changing environments. In many real-world systems, decision-making is not performed … Continue reading “Understanding multi-agent learning through large-scale simulations”
Your chance to shape funding into national AI and HPC infrastructure
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) are seeking members of the researcher community using AI to provide their expertise and experience to help shape the UK’s future AI compute infrastructure. Below is the letter inviting contributions: The survey should take around 20 minutes to complete and can be found via the link here: … Continue reading “Your chance to shape funding into national AI and HPC infrastructure”
Cooling works in data centre – upcoming service disruption
Update – 16:17 on Friday 17 April, 2026 The cleaning of the cooling system is now complete. The effort required to get all the parties involved was a mammoth task which was admirably managed by our AIS (systems teams). The maintenance was essential to ensure optimal performance and longevity of equipment. Particularly given the imminent … Continue reading “Cooling works in data centre – upcoming service disruption”
How green is the BEAR? 2025 updates
In 2022, we took part in the University’s Sustainability Town Hall and published a blog post highlighting Advanced Research Computing’s efforts in sustainable computing over the previous decade. Since then, we’ve continued to explore and develop initiatives in this space. With growing concerns around the energy demands of data centres – such as a recent … Continue reading “How green is the BEAR? 2025 updates”
BEAR Challenge 2025
Over the three days of 24-26 June, we welcomed 90 undergraduate and postgraduate taught students to #BEARChallenge2025. In an attempt to meet demand for places, this year we expanded to allow 15 teams but demand also rose at a pace, with 31 teams registering their interest! It is great to see the level of interest … Continue reading “BEAR Challenge 2025”
What makes things go BOOM! – from vibrations to detonation
In this case study we talk to Jakob Hein-Paar, a PhD student in the Michalchuk Group, Chemistry, who looked into the effects of phonons on the reactivity of energetic materials. My research deals with vibrational metallization of metal azides, a group of energetic materials or explosives, investigating energy transfer within their crystal structures. As “vibrational” implies, … Continue reading “What makes things go BOOM! – from vibrations to detonation”
Planned work to improve resilience of the Research Data Store
Users of the Research Data Store (RDS) may have noticed intermittent performance issues affecting storage recently, which has been causing some disruption to users. This work is a necessary precursor to a major program of work in which we will replace, expand and enhance, the RDS service. Phase 1 Between now and summer 2025 we … Continue reading “Planned work to improve resilience of the Research Data Store”
‘Data and AI for researchers’ at the University’s first Data Conference
On Wednesday 26 February, the University’s inaugural Data Conference was held. With a series of talks and interactive sessions covering advice and tips on handling data, and a focus on building a community of data professionals, we ran a session in collaboration with the Institute for Data and AI entitled ‘Research and AI for researchers’. … Continue reading “‘Data and AI for researchers’ at the University’s first Data Conference”
Elucidating the Pathways for Human Tooth Enamel Mineralisation
In this case study, we hear from Mahdi Tavakol (based at University of Oxford, and visiting researcher), who has been utilising BEAR to study tooth mineralisation and demineralisation. My name is Mahdi Tavakol. I am a computational scientist in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford and a visiting researcher and collaborator … Continue reading “Elucidating the Pathways for Human Tooth Enamel Mineralisation”