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”
From Image Analysis to ThunderSTORM
In July’s case study we hear from Stanimir Tashev, a PhD student in Cardiovascular Science, who has been making use of BEAR’s storage and data processing power, specifically the BEAR Portal to enable his research… I have been a Ph.D. student in the Herten Lab (@HertenDirk) since 2019 and my project deals with single molecule … Continue reading “From Image Analysis to ThunderSTORM”
I’m doing a PhD, how can BEAR help me?
So you’re working on a PhD and you’re going to be managing data of some sort, even if you don’t produce any data of your own, you may be re-using existing data. Either way, you need to keep that data safe as it will get you your PhD! You might also need to use software … Continue reading “I’m doing a PhD, how can BEAR help me?”
BEAR Challenge 2022 Winners Interview
BEAR Challenge 2022 was a whirlwind of GPUs, AI and pizza! It was a great opportunity to showcase the computing power of the EPSRC Tier 2 Baskerville HPC system, and have the contestants tackle some real-world problems in Artificial Intelligence with Baskerville’s GPUs. To find out more about the challenges involved, read our BEAR Challenge 2022 blog … Continue reading “BEAR Challenge 2022 Winners Interview”
BEAR Challenge 2022
Update 15/03/24: BEAR Challenge 2024 – registration open! If you are interested in joining BEAR Challenge 2024 and are either an undergraduate or masters student, from any discipline, please see our Eventbrite registration page for details. —- After a two year hiatus, the BEAR Challenge is back! The popular three day event was held on … Continue reading “BEAR Challenge 2022”
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”
A Case Study on Using BEAR Services
One of our BEAR Champions, Dr Jason Turner, described how he makes use of the many different BEAR services to enable his research at a recent seminar for the Institute for Inflammation and Ageing, which BEAR were invited to present at. Read on to find out how quickly he can transfer 260GB of data! Jason … Continue reading “A Case Study on Using BEAR Services”
Further Coding Club sessions (May-July)
We’re happy to announce a further 3 coding club sessions, these range from building pipelines and using GPU’s to a workshop where you can bring in your issues, queries and questions. Our aim is to build a community of members of the University who would like to learn and share good software practices. We meet … Continue reading “Further Coding Club sessions (May-July)”
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”
New Coding Club Starting Up in January!
[For sessions in May, June and July see here: https://blog.bham.ac.uk/bear/2022/04/26/further-codingclub-sessions-may-july/ ] We are setting up a Coding Club from January for researchers and staff at the University of Birmingham to help them meet the goal of the Software Sustainability Institute of “Better Software, Better Research” i.e. if the software is incorrect then the resulting research … Continue reading “New Coding Club Starting Up in January!”