Edward Barbour and Grant Wilson, Associate Professors in Chemical Engineering, explored detailed domestic heat pump demand data and became interested in their operational costs under different energy tariffs. They quickly discovered that tariff data was difficult to obtain and compare across different suppliers. With help from Mingxue (Jean) Du, a Research Software Engineer, they identified … Continue reading “Energy Data Landscape – Challenges and Opportunities”
SMLM Data Exploration with Nano-org and BlueBEAR
This case study highlights the ongoing collaboration between the Research Software Group, Professor Dylan Owen, and Dr Sandeep Shirgill in the development of Nano-org. Nano-org has recently been published in Nature Communications. Nano-org uses ultra-precise coordinate data to represent the nanoscale distributions of individual proteins within cells. The unique functionality provided by Nano-org supports a … Continue reading “SMLM Data Exploration with Nano-org and BlueBEAR”
Undergraduate student work experience in Advanced Research Computing
In September, two undergraduate students came to spend a week experiencing work in the Advanced Research Computing team. You can find out how their week went below, as they describe their first-hand experience. Our names are Sereya and Harry; we are Theoretical Physics undergraduates who had the opportunity of experiencing a week working in the … Continue reading “Undergraduate student work experience in Advanced Research Computing”
September 2025 BEAR Newsletter
Birmingham Environment for Academic Research (BEAR) Newsletter We kicked off September with a BEAR Champion meetup, celebrating all the help that our expanding team of volunteers have given over the past academic year and going on a data centre tour to meet our supercomputer, BlueBEAR. As we head into the new academic year, we have updated our training homepage to accommodate … Continue reading “September 2025 BEAR Newsletter”
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”
Bayesian Modelling of Rising Decision Thresholds in DDMs using BlueBEAR
In this case study we hear from Sophie Wetz, a Masters student in Psychology, who has been using BlueBEAR to investigate whether a dynamic, rising boundary improved the fit of the full Drift Diffusion Model (DDM) to Random Dot Kinematogram (RDK) task data. I’m a Master’s student on the Computational Neuroscience stream in the School … Continue reading “Bayesian Modelling of Rising Decision Thresholds in DDMs using BlueBEAR”
Atomic Simulation to Build Better Batteries
In this case study we hear from Oskar Soulas, a PhD student in Chemistry, who has been using BlueBEAR to investigate lithium–sulphur–nitrogen solid electrolytes for next-generation battery technologies. I am a second year PhD student in the Scanlon Materials Theory Group (SMTG) based at the University of Birmingham. The group uses powerful computational tools to understand … Continue reading “Atomic Simulation to Build Better Batteries”
July 2025 BEAR Newsletter
Birmingham Environment for Academic Research (BEAR) Newsletter July sees us nearing the end of a busy training, events, and conference season – we look forward to meeting new members of staff at the central induction event on Monday 21 July in the Great Hall. Three members of the team attended STEP-UP RSLondon last week, including myself, who … Continue reading “July 2025 BEAR Newsletter”
Bio-inspired FSI and HPC-driven aerodynamic optimisation
In this case study we hear from Hibah Saddal, a PhD student in Aerospace Engineering, who is using BlueBEAR to optimise aerodynamic performance. At the 14th BEAR Conference 2025, I had the opportunity to present my research carried out with my PhD advisor, Dr Chandan Bose, on bio-inspired fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems, where we leveraged … Continue reading “Bio-inspired FSI and HPC-driven aerodynamic optimisation”
High-Resolution Soil Hydrology Analysis Enabled by BlueBEAR
In this case study, we hear from Guilin Luo, a PhD student in the School of Geography, who has been harnessing BEAR’s advanced computing resources to investigate how temperate forest soils respond to climatic change. By integrating high-resolution environmental monitoring data from the Birmingham Institute of Forest Research (BIFoR) site, and using workflows in R … Continue reading “High-Resolution Soil Hydrology Analysis Enabled by BlueBEAR”