Author: Chris Greasley, Research Applications Specialist The Research Software Group (RSG) Hackathon returned for its third edition this April with a growing team and a new one-week format. Like previous editions, RSG members had time dedicated to taking part in a wide range of sessions. These covered everything from developing reusable container images for Continuous Integration (CI) pipelines to group discussions on career pathways. The broad range of sessions gave everyone the chance to work with others they don’t normally work with, which allowed the … Continue reading “BEAR Research Software Group Hackathon 2026”
Using AI to Bring Indigenous Storytelling Character Figures into Chemistry Education
In this blog, we hear from Dina, a second-year Ph.D. student in Chemical Education, School of Chemistry, who won the best short talk at the BEAR conference 2026. Dina, conducted research that intersects chemistry education, technology, and ethnochemistry. Ethnochemistry is a multidisciplinary field that explores the relationship between chemistry and the traditional wisdom, practices, and … Continue reading “Using AI to Bring Indigenous Storytelling Character Figures into Chemistry Education”
Learning from Nature: Using HPC to Design Efficient Jet Propulsion
In this case study, we hear from Yukesh Karki, a doctoral student from Aerospace Engineering in the School of Metallurgy and Materials, who used BlueBEAR to identify the optimal three-dimensional nozzle geometry for hydrodynamic jet propulsion. He is also the winner of ‘best talk’ at the BEAR Conference 2026. Nature has already evolved highly efficient methods … Continue reading “Learning from Nature: Using HPC to Design Efficient Jet Propulsion “
GPU and BEAR Portal changes
Dear BlueBEAR users, We have taken feedback from our user base regarding the time it takes for GPU jobs to start and have made changes with the aim of getting your jobs to start quicker. The changes we have made are as below: Our reasoning in making these changes are: BEAR Portal is intended for … Continue reading “GPU and BEAR Portal changes”
April 2026 BEAR Newsletter
Birmingham Environment for Academic Research (BEAR) Newsletter April brings an exciting new chapter for the Advanced Research Computing team as we are delighted to welcome a new Head, Dr Andrew Edmondson (Ed), to lead the team into its next phase. Alongside this, we’re also delighted to have two new Research Software Engineers joining us, further strengthening our capability … Continue reading “April 2026 BEAR Newsletter”
Research project: Exploring Julia for High-Performance Computing
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”
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”
New Head of Advanced Research Computing
We’re pleased to share that Dr Andrew Edmondson (Ed) has been appointed as the new Head of Advanced Research Computing (ARC), which is also highlighted in a recent ARC story on the University Sharepoint. Many of you will know Ed from his previous roles as Deputy Head of ARC and founder and leader of the … Continue reading “New Head of Advanced Research Computing”
Students’ journey from HPC newcomers to international competitors
Below we hear from the Beariables team in their own words about their experience going to Computing Insight UK and winning the national cluster challenge. Authors: Team Beariables – Harry Vicaradge, Jamie Cline, Ewan Hallatt, Sereya Mee, Adam Wilson and Arthur Baverstock In December, our team the Beariables? attended the Computing Insight UK Conference, where … Continue reading “Students’ journey from HPC newcomers to international competitors”
From BEAR Challenge to research innovation: A student’s journey into HPC
We previously heard from several participants of BEAR Challenge 2025 how they had enjoyed attending the event and the skills they developed (see blog post here), with one team going onto win the national CIUK challenge. In this blog post, we hear from undergraduate student David Adesoye-Amoo on how the challenge helped him navigate a … Continue reading “From BEAR Challenge to research innovation: A student’s journey into HPC”