Skills development remains an important conversation across HPC and AI. As research computing grows in scale and complexity, the community needs people with the knowledge and experience to develop, operate and use these systems effectively.
But developing skills also means creating opportunities for people to discover the field in the first place.
Creating a Place to Start
This autumn, Alces Flight is taking Sustainable Reality on the road, working with university communities across the UK to give students an opportunity to explore High Performance Computing, AI and research computing.
For students encountering HPC for the first time, the field can appear highly specialised. Clusters, schedulers, CPUs, GPUs, Linux and research software all form part of the language of research computing, but understanding that language should not be a prerequisite for exploring where the technology is used or the opportunities around it.
HPC and AI support research across an enormous range of disciplines. Climate and healthcare, physics and engineering, materials and mathematics, and the humanities and social sciences increasingly rely on computing to tackle questions at greater scale or complexity. Behind that research are also people working across software, infrastructure, data, operations, sustainability and many other areas.
Exploring Research Computing in Practice
Sustainable Reality is designed to make that wider landscape easier to explore.
Through practical activities, discussion and interaction with people working in the field, students will explore how research computing supports different types of research and some of the choices involved in making these systems work.
Participants do not need previous experience with HPC, Linux or AI. The Roadshow is designed to welcome different levels of technical experience and different areas of interest.
Sustainable Reality Goes on the Road
The first event open for wider registration will take place at University College London on Saturday, 26 September, with students from universities across London invited to attend.
Sustainable Reality will also visit university communities in Cardiff, York and more this autumn. Each event will work with its host community, so opportunities to participate and registration arrangements will vary by location.
Throughout the tour, Alces Flight will share experiences from each stop and explore what we learn about introducing students to HPC and AI in different university communities.
London: Registration Now Open
For students in London, registration for Sustainable Reality at UCL is now open. UCL is excited to be working with STEP-UP to expand this opportunity to the London community.
Explore HPC and AI in practice and find out where research computing could take you.