They enjoyed a short tour of our impressive machine room and heard about some of our work in creating new computational science software, helping to visualize complex scientific results, and developing the infrastructure that allows us to process huge amounts of data.
Their visit was part of a fact-finding trip to STFC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory which hosts and operates many of the UK's National Facilities. As well as the Scientific Computing Data Centre the group visited the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source - whose instruments give unique insights into the properties of matierials at the atomic scale; the Central Laser Facility - which houses a laser 10,000 times more powerful than the National Grid; and the Diamond Light Source - used in studies of anything from vaccines and viruses to jet engines.
