Accelerating Scientific Discovery with Accelerated Computing

My proposed Fellowship will revolutionise the use of High Performance Computing (HPC) within The University of Sheffield by changing perceptions of how people utilise software and are trained and supported in writing code which scales to increasingly large computer systems. I will provide leadership by demonstrating the effectiveness of specific research software engineer roles, and by growing a team of research software engineer at The University of Sheffield in order to accommodate our expanding programme of research computing. I will achieve this by: 1) developing the FLAME and FLAME GPU software to facilitate and demonstrate the impact of Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) computing on the areas of complex systems simulation; 2) vastly extending the remit of GPUComputing@Sheffield to provide advanced training and research consultancy, and to embed specific software engineering skills for high-performance data parallel computing (with GPUs and Xeon Phis) across EPSRC-remit research areas at The University of Sheffield.

My first activity will enable long-term support of the extensive use of FLAME and FLAME GPU for EPSRC, industry and EU-funded research projects. The computational science and engineering projects supported will include those as diverse as computational economics, bioinformatics and transport simulation. Additionally, my software will provide a platform for more fundamental computer science research into complexity science, graphics and visualisation, programming languages and compilers, and software engineering.

My second activity will champion GPU computing within The University of Sheffield (and beyond to its collaborators and industrial partners). It will demonstrate how a specific area of research software engineering can be embedded into The University of Sheffield, and act as a model for further improvement in areas such as research software and data storage. I will change the way people develop

and use research software by providing training to students and researchers who can then embed GPU software engineering skills across research domains. I will also aid researchers who work on computationally demanding research by providing software engineering consultancy in areas that can benefit from GPU acceleration, such as, mobile GPU computing for robotics, deep neural network simulation for machine learning (including speech, hearing and Natural language processing) and real time signal processing.

The impact of my Fellowship will vastly expand the scale and quality of research computing at The University of Sheffield, embed skills within students and researchers (with long-term and wide-reaching results) and ensure energy-efficient use of HPC. This will promote the understanding and wider use of GPU computing within research, as well as transitioning researchers to larger regional and national HPC facilities. Ultimately my research software engineer fellowship will facilitate the delivery of excellent science whilst promoting the unique and important role of the Research Software Engineer.

The UK government's Eight Great Technologies report [1] shows that the UK has the potential to demonstrate international leadership in High Performance Computing (HPC) through the development of efficient software solutions. My fellowship proposal aims to directly address the shortfall in expertise related to accelerated computing (computing which utilises dedicated co-processors to achieve increased computational performance within a tighter energy window). It will deliver via two complementary activities which are: 1) to facilitate the transition of researchers studying complex systems to HPC; 2) to deliver dedicated training and build a community for accelerated computing. My approach addresses precisely EPSRC's strategic goals to; shape capability (by developing high-quality, wide-reaching software), develop leaders (by providing bespoke training and software consultancy) and deliver impact (through meaningful industrial engagement).

The direct industrial beneficiaries of my fellowship are my project partners who have shown full commitment to the proposed programme of work. In particular, NVIDIA and Intel have a vested interest in increasing understanding of the value of their accelerated hardware because it will increase product sales and stimulate further research development. The Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) and Accelerated Computing Research Centre (ACRC) also have a vested interest in the delivery of ground-breaking and commercially useful complex systems software. The TSC remit is to provide transport simulation at national scales (with integrated modelling of transport mechanisms). This is highly dependent on the availability of novel and customised high-quality software. The TSC reports that industrial demand for products that can deliver improved simulation scale and flexibility (especially if achieved utilising accelerated computing with reduced energy implications) is high, and is not currently met by any provider. More broadly, industry partners are actively seeking to understand more about how accelerated computing can improve their products and service delivery, and thus gain a competitive advantage over their competitors (for example; DNV.GL, Google, Facebook, Baidu and Tesla Motors).

My thoughtfully developed programme of training, and my ability to lead a community that will support accelerated computing, will breed a critical mass of RSE which will add value in both academic and industry environments. Indeed, the demand for accelerated computing experts is high, yet there is no current agenda to provide this elsewhere.

[1] D. Willet, "Eight Great Technologies, Technical Report," Policy Exchange, 2013.