A MIDLANDS CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE COMPUTING (HPC) SERVING REGIONAL INDUSTRY AND ACADEMIA - 'HPC MIDLANDS'

High performance computing (HPC) technology is used to provide solutions for challenging problems which require advanced computer power. It can perform simulations orders of magnitudes quicker than an individual Personal Computer, resulting in a reduction in the time taken from months to days or even minutes. There is an associated capability to be able to generate, move about, and analyse very large quantities of data exceptionally quickly.

High performance computing technology now pervades our everyday lives, for example from
financial transactions, the design of aircraft engines, through to animated film production. In the Engineering and Physical Sciences at Loughborough University and the University of Leicester, HPC has to date been specifically used to address global challenges including Energy, Manufacturing, Sustainability, Healthcare, Transport.

This proposal will create a new partnership in the Midlands between Loughborough University and the University of Leicester for the delivery of HPC through the formation of the HPC-Midlands Centre to researchers in Higher Education Institutes in the Midlands, and beyond, to support excellent scientific and engineering research. It will also grow its significant portfolio of industrially relevant research and enable industrial partners to access its world-class facilities to benefit the UK economy. There will also be a focus on smaller companies in the region to provide access for them to technologies which are currently beyond their reach, and therefore provide significant opportunities for innovation, growth and wealth creation.

There are a considerable number of beneficiaries from this initiative to create a Midlands Centre of Excellence for High Performance Computing (HPC) serving regional industry and academia. In the most general sense, the UK population and economy will benefit from access to the advances that state of the art computational technologies can offer, particularly with the respect to innovation and growth. However, there are also several examples of how developments in this sector have been able to enhance the quality of life, health and well-being. Examples of the widespread impact which High Performance Computing technologies can have from researchers working in collaboration with industrial partners within the proposed HPC-Midlands Centre include
- optimising building ventilation to maximise human comfort
- modelling the flow through offshore wind farms to maximise their potential
- the understanding of thin films used in photovoltaic devices to harness the sun's energy
- modelling the degradation of materials in nuclear and conventional power stations to mitigate against risk
- developing an understanding of solid-liquid interfaces to aid in drug delivery
- simulating combustion processes to both reduce harmful emissions and minimise the potential for accidents and
- modelling of aerodynamic flows to reduce noise associated with aircraft and road vehicles.

The main users and beneficiaries of this Centre outside the academic community will be industrial users, and specifically those who engage with the Centre as associate partners. The UK economy will benefit through enhancements to the research capability, efficiency, knowledge and skills of businesses and their employees, attracting R&D investments from global business, leading specifically to wealth creation and economic prosperity. There is also significant potential for companies, particularly small and medium sized enterprises, to transform the way that they use advanced computation, in some cases from a very low base to a sophisticated and highly valued tool in daily use during the design and development of advanced and innovative products. It is anticipated that access to HPC via this new regional centre will also lead to the creation and commercialisation of new processes, products and services.