The document discusses high-performance computing (HPC) as a catalyst for innovation across various sectors, such as pharmaceuticals, environmental modeling, and genomics. It includes a case study on HPC Midlands, detailing its supercomputing capabilities and flexible usage for research and industry. Additionally, it addresses grand challenges in HPC, including common misconceptions and the need for training and skills development in the tech workforce.

1. High Performance Computing:
The Future is Here
Martin Hamilton
(invited presentation to DARC)

4. Topics
1. HPC as Catalyst
2. Case Study: HPC
Midlands
3. Eight Great Technologies
4. Grand Challenges

5. Topics
1. HPC as Catalyst
2. Case Study: HPC
Midlands
3. Eight Great Technologies
4. Grand Challenges

6. 1. HPC as Catalyst Virtual prototyping:
“Make” and test 1,000
prototypes before
committing any atoms
Pharma: Drug
discovery,
computational chemistry
and clinical trial
simulations

7. 1. HPC as Catalyst Render farms:
Graphics for gaming,
film and television
industries
Environmental
modelling:
Flooding, climate
change and weather
systems

8. 1. HPC as Catalyst Safety and risk
modeling: Industrial
processes, e.g. gas and
radiation dispersal
Machine learning:
Recommendation engines
real time translation and
virtual assistants

9. 1. HPC as Catalyst Genomics and
bioinformatics:
— Which interventions
will yield the best
outcomes?
— What am I genetically
predisposed to?
— 100,000 Genomes
— 23andme

10. Topics
1. HPC as Catalyst
2. Case Study: HPC
Midlands
3. Eight Great Technologies
4. Grand Challenges

11. 2. Case Study
HPC Midlands
— Supercomputing for
research and industry
— Software from leading
ISVs
— Flexible usage model for
use by research and
industry
— Expertise from
Loughborough University &
University of Leicester

12. 2. Case Study
HPC Midlands
— Supercomputing for
research and industry
— Software from leading
ISVs
— Flexible usage model for
use by research and
industry
— Expertise from
Loughborough University &
University of Leicester

13. 2. Case Study
HPC Midlands
— 3,008 core Linux based
supercomputer
— 15TB RAM, 120TB Lustre
storage
— Non-blocking QDR
Infiniband interconnect
— 188 compute nodes
— 2 x 2.0GHz 8 core Sandy
Bridge CPUs per node
— 140 nodes with 64GB RAM
— 48 nodes with 128GB RAM

14. 2. Case Study
HPC Midlands
— Popular scientific and
engineering packages
— Commercial and open
source
— Examples:
— ANSYS CFX, FLUENT
— CD-adapco Star-CCM+
— MSC Marc, NASTRAN etc
— OpenFOAM
— Intel MKL, compiler suite
— PETSc, Quantum Espresso

15. 2. Case Study: HPC Midlands

16. 2. Case Study: HPC Midlands

17. 2. Case Study: HPC Midlands

18. 2. Case Study: HPC Midlands

20. Topics
1. HPC as Catalyst
2. Case Study: HPC
Midlands
3. Eight Great Technologies
4. Grand Challenges

21. OGL 2.0 from www.gov.uk/bis/industrial-strategy

22. OGL 2.0 from www.gov.uk/bis/industrial-strategy

23. OGL 2.0 from www.gov.uk/bis/industrial-strategy

24. OGL 2.0 from www.gov.uk/bis/industrial-strategy

25. OGL 2.0 from www.gov.uk/bis/industrial-strategy

26. OGL 2.0 from www.gov.uk/bis/industrial-strategy

27. OGL 2.0 from www.gov.uk/bis/industrial-strategy

28. OGL 2.0 from www.gov.uk/bis/industrial-strategy

29. 3. Eight Great
Technologies
Role of e-Infrastructure:
- Academic context:
HPC, SKA, LHC, DLS,
NGS and other TLAs
- Industrial context:
TSB, Catapults, “on
ramps” for SMEs
- Not just kit:
- Open Access Pubs
- Open Data + Software
- People!

30. 3. Eight Great
Technologies
Role of e-Infrastructure:
- Academic context:
HPC, SKA, LHC, DLS,
NGS and other TLAs
- Industrial context:
TSB, Catapults, “on
ramps” for SMEs
- Not just kit:
- Open Access Pubs
- Open Data + Software
- People!

32. Topics
1. HPC as Catalyst
2. Case Study: HPC
Midlands
3. Eight Great Technologies
4. Grand Challenges

33. 4. Grand Challenges
Challenging
preconceptions:
—“Supercomputing is just
for rocket scientists”
—“Academic services are
inherently insecure”
—“Legal would never sign
off on anything like this”
—“It’s just too hard to
satisfy assurance
requirements”

34. 4. Grand Challenges Challenging
preconceptions:
—Common off-the-shelf
packages have HPC solver
capability, e.g. FLUENT,
NASTRAN, MATLAB
—ISO 27002, CESG InfoSec,
physical security (e.g. LPS
1175), CIS audit tool
—FTSE100 firms’ have
similar requirements to
research and education
organizations
Photo credit: CC-BY-NC Flickr user justin_case

35. 4. Grand Challenges: Awareness

36. 4. Grand Challenges: Awareness

37. 4. Grand Challenges Training and Skills:
—The Missing Million:
—100,000 unfilled tech
vacancies
—1m young unemployed
(NEETs)
—CPD into CFD 
—(Parallel) Coding
—UG/PG level training in bite
sized chunks
—FutureLearn?
—Generation Pi

38. 4. Grand Challenges: Parallel Coding

39. 4. Grand Challenges: Next Gen Computing
From Mont Blanc project - www.montblanc-project.eu

40. From Mont Blanc project - www.montblanc-project.eu

41. 4. Grand Challenges: The Missing Million

42. 4. Grand Challenges: The Missing Million

43. Wearables
4. Grand Challenges: Generation Pi
Photo credits: Technocamps, DesignSpark

44. Wearables
4. Grand Challenges: Generation Pi

45. Wearables
4. Grand Challenges: Generation Pi

46. Wearables
4. Grand Challenges: Generation Pi
From codeclub.org.uk

47. Wearables
4. Grand Challenges: Generation Pi
From codeclub.org.uk

48. Martin Hamilton
m.t.hamilton@lboro.ac.uk
@martin_hamilton