JADE: Joint Academic Data science Endeavour - 2
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Oxford
Department Name: Engineering Science
Abstract
This proposal brings together 19 universities, including 12 out of 16 newly established UKRI CDTs in Artificial Intelligence. Led by the University of Oxford, with support from the Alan Turing Institute (Turing), Bath, Bristol, Cambridge, Exeter, Imperial, KCL, Leeds, Loughborough, Newcastle, QMUL, Sheffield, Southampton, Surrey, Sussex, UCL, Warwick and York, our proposal aims to build on the success of the JADE Tier 2 facility.
The current JADE facility represents a unique national resource providing state of the art GPU computing facilities to world leading experts in the areas of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) and molecular dynamics (MD) research.
In addition to providing a leading compute resource, the JADE facility has also provided a nucleus around which a national consortium of AI researchers has formed, making it the de facto national compute facility for AI research. By providing a much-needed shared resource to these communities, JADE has also delivered an outstanding level of world leading science, evidenced in the twenty two pages of preliminary case studies submitted to EPSRC on 11/09/18. JADE2 will build upon these successes by providing increased computational capabilities to these communities and delivering a stronger, more robust service to address the lessons learned from the initial service.
The architecture for JADE2 will be a similar to that of JADE, based on NVIDIA's DGX platform. JADE is formed from 22x DGX1V nodes. JADE2 will be over twice the size of JADE and employ the more cost effective DGX1 Max Q platform. Differences between Max Q and the premium DGX1V are centred on on a slightly reduced bandwidth to GPU memory and lower peak compute performance.
Tests of relevant codes on these platforms show that, for AI/ML and Molecular Dynamics, Max Q achieves at least 3/4 performance, using 2/3 the power for 1/2 of the price.
The system will be run as a national facility, providing free access to all academic users through a lightweight Resource Allocation Panel (RAP). HECBioSim will run the RAP for MD users, ATI will run the corresponding RAP for AI/ML users.
The current JADE facility represents a unique national resource providing state of the art GPU computing facilities to world leading experts in the areas of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) and molecular dynamics (MD) research.
In addition to providing a leading compute resource, the JADE facility has also provided a nucleus around which a national consortium of AI researchers has formed, making it the de facto national compute facility for AI research. By providing a much-needed shared resource to these communities, JADE has also delivered an outstanding level of world leading science, evidenced in the twenty two pages of preliminary case studies submitted to EPSRC on 11/09/18. JADE2 will build upon these successes by providing increased computational capabilities to these communities and delivering a stronger, more robust service to address the lessons learned from the initial service.
The architecture for JADE2 will be a similar to that of JADE, based on NVIDIA's DGX platform. JADE is formed from 22x DGX1V nodes. JADE2 will be over twice the size of JADE and employ the more cost effective DGX1 Max Q platform. Differences between Max Q and the premium DGX1V are centred on on a slightly reduced bandwidth to GPU memory and lower peak compute performance.
Tests of relevant codes on these platforms show that, for AI/ML and Molecular Dynamics, Max Q achieves at least 3/4 performance, using 2/3 the power for 1/2 of the price.
The system will be run as a national facility, providing free access to all academic users through a lightweight Resource Allocation Panel (RAP). HECBioSim will run the RAP for MD users, ATI will run the corresponding RAP for AI/ML users.
Planned Impact
Artificial Intelligence will revolutionise the way mankind lives. From step changes in medicine to self-driving cars to our employment and roles in society. AI will touch every part of our existence.
The British government has made "Artificial Intelligence and data" one of its four grand challenges. Stating that "Creating an economy that harnesses artificial intelligence and big data is one of the great opportunities of our age".
To support this, nearly £1 billion of investment has been made available to promote the adoption and use of AI in the UK.
An aspect of the government's industrial strategy is to deliver on the independent AI review, 'Growing the AI industry in the UK', (2017), led by Professor Dame Wendy Hall and Jerome Pesenti . It sets out proposals to 1) improve the institutions that support AI in the UK, 2) to build a skilled workforce, and 3) to stimulate access to data. This proposal underpins delivery of these three points.
JADE2 will allow institutions working in AI to produce more research, of better quality, with reduced time to discovery. JADE2 will provide a valuable computing resource for 3/4 of the new UKRI AI CDTs, an overall investment of over £200M in training the next generation of
experts in AI. JADE2 will, through its user community and their networks, stimulate access to data. Through the diverse collection of JADE consortium members, JADE2 will delivers AI advances across a wide range of different sectors, financial services, manufacturing, retail, the public sector, energy and healthcare.
The British government has made "Artificial Intelligence and data" one of its four grand challenges. Stating that "Creating an economy that harnesses artificial intelligence and big data is one of the great opportunities of our age".
To support this, nearly £1 billion of investment has been made available to promote the adoption and use of AI in the UK.
An aspect of the government's industrial strategy is to deliver on the independent AI review, 'Growing the AI industry in the UK', (2017), led by Professor Dame Wendy Hall and Jerome Pesenti . It sets out proposals to 1) improve the institutions that support AI in the UK, 2) to build a skilled workforce, and 3) to stimulate access to data. This proposal underpins delivery of these three points.
JADE2 will allow institutions working in AI to produce more research, of better quality, with reduced time to discovery. JADE2 will provide a valuable computing resource for 3/4 of the new UKRI AI CDTs, an overall investment of over £200M in training the next generation of
experts in AI. JADE2 will, through its user community and their networks, stimulate access to data. Through the diverse collection of JADE consortium members, JADE2 will delivers AI advances across a wide range of different sectors, financial services, manufacturing, retail, the public sector, energy and healthcare.
