SCD News and Features

News and Features

Dr Paul Quinn Appointed as Director of the Ada Lovelace Centre
We are pleased to announce that Dr Paul Quinn has been appointed as Director of the Ada Lovelace Centre (ALC), a leading centre of expertise within STFC Scientific Computing. He will take up the role in December 2023.
STFC Scientific Computing welcomes investment in a new AI Research Resource
We welcome the announcement today of a £300 million investment in the first phase of AIRR, a cluster of advanced computers for AI research.
£1.4 million awarded to boost UK infrastructure resilience against climate change
There is an urgent and increasing need to protect the UK's natural and built environments from a surge in population growth, and severe weather events such as extreme floods and droughts caused by climate change.
Professor David Newbold Appointed as STFC Executive Director, National Laboratories Science and Technologies
Experimental particle physicist Professor David Newbold has commenced work as the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Executive Director, National Laboratories Science and Technologies.
The world’s oldest mathematical software library celebrates 60 years of continuous development and use.
This month, STFC Scientific Computing celebrates the 60th anniversary of the Harwell Subroutine Library (HSL), the world’s oldest mathematical software library in continuous development and use.
STFC scientific data centre has the largest TFinity 'tape robot’ in the UK and Europe.
With the installation of five new frames, the 15- frame Spectra TFinity 'tape robot' in the scientific data centre at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) is now the largest Tfinity library of tape storage in the UK and Europe.
Centre of Excellence for Resilient Infrastructure Analysis announced
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced a £4M investment via the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Scientific Computing Department to establish a national Centre of Excellence for Resilient Infrastructure Analysis.
Standing room only for "Sustainable Computing" at CIUK 2022
The first two days of December saw the return of STFC’s ever-popular flagship High Performance Computing Conference, Computing Insight UK (CIUK).
Ada Lovelace Centre Studentships
Ada Lovelace Centre is now accepting proposals for 50% funded PhD studentships, closing date 9th December 2022.
H2H: High-Performance Computing to Boost Hypersonic Flight
Dr. Jian Fang, Senior Computational Scientist in the Computational Science and Engineering Division shares his vision for the significance of high-performance computing in hypersonic engineering
STFC oneAPI Centre of Excellence to Accelerate Exascale Software in Computational Fluid Dynamics and Code Coupling
The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Scientific Computing Department (SCD) has established a new oneAPI Centre of Excellence in collaboration with Intel.
Gold for UK Research and Innovation
UKRI has been awarded Gold partnership status by BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT thanks largely to the efforts of John Kewley in STFC’s Scientific Computing Department.
Queen's Jubilee Medal for STFC's John Kewley
John Kewley, a senior software engineer in STFC’s Scientific Computing Department, has received a Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Medal for his front-line emergency service with Cheshire Search and Rescue.
Popular cryo-Microscopy Conference Returns as In-Person Event
Computational scientists boost skin’s natural defences
Computational scientists have found that vitamin B3 could be used to boost the skin’s natural defences, according to a recent study.
Using Computers to Design Safe and Sustainable Nuclear Reactors
STFC's Scientific Computing Department is leading research for the future of nuclear reactors.
Securing the UK's quantum future
The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is helping to secure the future of quantum in the UK thanks to its leading computational facilities.
Research Software Engineers – Challenges and Opportunities Ahead
The role of Research Software Engineers in science today has never been more important, and there are multiple activities going on to make sure they get the credit that they deserve.
New investment boosts UK infrastructure research
The UK's ability to respond to the impacts of climate change, increased energy demands, new roads, housing and other infrastructure growth in its towns and cities is boosted today with a £1.2 million investment.
Key role for Scientific Machine Learning in transforming nuclear power generation in the digital age
The Science and Technology and Facilities Council (STFC) will help develop the new digital technology required for nuclear power plant components in the future.
AI: the next big thing for accelerating material science experiments
Cross-departmental collaboration at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) leads to the development of a machine learning-based solution for super-fast analysis of results.
Green Finance: DAFNI part of a new £10M UK centre for climate and environmental risk for the financial industry
The Government has, today, announced a new UK Centre for Greening Finance and Investment (CGFI). It is being established to drive research and innovation in climate and environmental risk assessment within the financial services sector.
JASMIN tracks the impact of climate change on UK birds
For the Big Garden Birdwatch this January we’re showcasing some exciting research on bird populations and habitats conducted by our very own super data computer, JASMIN.
STFC very visible in the virtual world of Supercomputing (SC20)
All supercomputing conferences bring the community together, none more so than SC20, but things were a little bit different this year...
Computing Insight UK 2020: A Virtual Success
For the first time in its 30 year history, the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) Computing Insight UK (CIUK) conference has been held as a fully virtual conference.
Developing algorithms to solve real-world problems
Mathematical models are used to solve a whole host of problems, from being able to better predict changes in the economy to the design of new drugs to fight diseases. In each case, complex numerical models are designed to fit real-world observations.
CoSeC News Roundup December 2020
Engineering a successful proposal; publishing an important history, and a change of Chair
STFC welcomes exciting breakthrough in the fight against disease
At this week's CASP14 conference Google DeepMind announced a major breakthrough from its Artificial Intelligence programme, Alphafold2.
Focus on the role of computers in neutron science
A special issue of the Journal of Physics Communications which focuses on the impact of computers in neutron science is now published online.
Using tape robots to solve the data storage conundrum.
Science is advancing at an incredible rate. The amount of data being generated has followed suit. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is at the forefront of this advancement and growth. Ever wondered how all this data is stored?
Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) News Round-Up
Scientists in the CSE Division of the Scientific Computing Department work on a diverse range of projects:
EOSC - the glue holding projects together
The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is an exciting multi-partner project that aims to make it easier for scientists around the EU to collaborate.
Head in the clouds: predicting the weather with AI
Scientists from across STFC are collaborating on a project that uses artificial intelligence to improve weather forecasting.
SCD staff trial new methods for international collaboration
Collaborating across borders and minimising environmental impact.
RDA publishes COVID-19 Recommendations and Guidelines
Guidelines published by the Research Data Alliance (RDA) aim to drive rapid responses and informed decision-making during public health emergencies.
Quantum Computing takes a big step forward with the launch of a new Collaborative Computational Project.
CCP-QC aims to bring about close co-operation between other CCPs and the quantum computing community, rather than build a separate computational community for quantum computing.
Strange times, but science-and-engineering-as-usual continues……
For the last few months and for many to come the scientific spotlight is stuck on SARS-CoV-2 and while it's true many STFC staff are involved in tackling the virus, for others it's business as usual.
Researchers help efforts to fight Covid-19
The international research community has responded quickly to the outbreak of Covid-19, caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. STFC’s National Facilities are an active part of this community.
Introducing the small, yet powerful, PEARL system for AI and Machine Learning
Interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ‘deep learning’ has grown massively in recent years and with it has come new GPU technology development, increased compute power and data storage.
Supercomputing conferences in the UK and USA
November and December are the 'Supercomputing Conference' months and, true to form, the most recent conferences at the end of 2019 were very well attended and exceptionally busy.
Ada Lovelace Day 2019
This week the Scientific Computing Department (SCD) celebrated Ada Lovelace Day, an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths.
For the second year running, visiting student wins MRes prize at the Molecular Science and Engineering Symposium, Imperial College London.
This year Daniele Visco (supervised by STFC staff Dr. Vlad Sokhan, Dr. Tom Keal and Prof. Ilian Todorov) won 'Best Poster' for his multiscale study of ionic solvents.
Raising the profile of Research Software Engineers
A delegation of Scientific Computing Department (SCD) staff is once again taking an active role in the annual Research Software Engineers’ Conference, which starts today in Birmingham.
CECAM celebrates 50 years of computational science activities
This week marks the 50th anniversary of CECAM (Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire), which was formed to promote advanced computational research and its applications for important areas of science and technology.
Summer Coding School 2019
Each year STFC holds a 'Summer Coding School' during the summer holidays to encourage and enthuse youngsters to consider computational science, and computing generally, as a career.
Celebrating the Moon Landings of 1969 with (perhaps) the computer scientists of tomorrow
This month marks the 50th anniversary of when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz" Aldrin stepped onto the surface of the moon.
News in Brief - Summer 2019
Workshops, conferences and celebrations...
CEDA data used to create climate change graphics
TV weather presenters are using the freely available striped climate graphics, which have been developed from data made available by the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA), to highlight rising temperatures in countries across the globe.
EOSC pilot delivers the foundation for the European Open Science Cloud
The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) pilot project has now delivered its final contributions and recommendations, setting strong foundations for the implementation of EOSC in the coming months and years.
Greener energy, safer roads and improved flood protection
Protecting and improving the nation’s vital infrastructure – such as energy, transport and digital communications – is about to become easier, as the first successful results of a world-leading computing project are being showcased.
Could computers be the next tool to help tackle hospital superbugs?
Hospital superbugs such as MRSA or E.coli could soon be under attack from a new generation of drugs designed with the help of advanced computing technologies from STFC and IBM Research.
CCP-EM Spring Symposium more popular than ever in 2019.
Delegates and speakers from Europe, the UK, USA and Canada gathered earlier this month for the Collaborative Computational Project for Electron cryo-Microscopy (CCP-EM) Spring Symposium, held at Nottingham University.
Tape Robot provides data storage solutions for the next decade
What do you do when you need to increase the space available for storing vast amounts of data? One solution is to install a high-capacity automated tape library, or 'Tape Robot'.
National Apprenticeship Week 2019
This week (4-8 March) is National Apprenticeship Week, which we are pleased and proud to be supporting.
News in Brief - Spring 2019
SC18 in Dallas, CIUK 2018 in Manchester, UK Climate Prediction, Artificial Intelligence, Carbon Dioxide reduction, a new national research facility, and both team and individual achievements all feature in this bumper edition.
STFC Scientific Computing Department welcomes news of a new Centre for Doctoral Training in AI and Machine Learning.
We are pleased to hear the announcement today that UK Research and Innovation is funding a new Centre for Doctoral Training in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Advanced Computing.
Latest SCD Highlights report published
The latest Science Highlights report from the STFC Scientific Computing Department has been published. It includes a variety of research news.
STFC to speed up analysis of experimental data using AI technologies
Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning to sort data.