STFC DiRAC Project Office 2014-2017
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
It is now accepted that "computational science, the scientific investigation of physical processes through modelling and simulation on computers," is the third pillar of science, complementing and extending theory and experimentation" (International Review of Research using HPC in the UK, 2005).
The STFC DIRAC High Performance Computing Facility supports the simulation and modelling requirements of those communities that are represented by the Particle Physics Advisory Panel, Nuclear Physics Advisory Panel, Particle Astrophysics Advisory Panel, Astronomy Advisory Panel and the Solar System Science Advisory Panel.
Theoretical research in Particle Physics, Particle Astrophysics, Nuclear Physics, Astrophysics, Solar System and Planetary Science are world leading and DiRAC-enabled research has been published in high-impact refereed journals; 160 articles in 2010, 381 in 2011 and 2012 and over 250 papers produced in 2013 (see our publications list in our annual reports along with Science highlights at http://www.dirac.ac.uk/science.html ).
The STFC DIRAC High Performance Computing Facility supports the simulation and modelling requirements of those communities that are represented by the Particle Physics Advisory Panel, Nuclear Physics Advisory Panel, Particle Astrophysics Advisory Panel, Astronomy Advisory Panel and the Solar System Science Advisory Panel.
Theoretical research in Particle Physics, Particle Astrophysics, Nuclear Physics, Astrophysics, Solar System and Planetary Science are world leading and DiRAC-enabled research has been published in high-impact refereed journals; 160 articles in 2010, 381 in 2011 and 2012 and over 250 papers produced in 2013 (see our publications list in our annual reports along with Science highlights at http://www.dirac.ac.uk/science.html ).
Planned Impact
The high-performance computing applications supported by DiRAC typically involve new algorithms and implementations optimised for high energy efficiency which impose demands on computer architectures that the computing industry has found useful for hardware and system software design and testing.
DiRAC researchers have on-going collaborations with computing companies that maintain this strong connection between the scientific goals of the DiRAC Consortium and the development of new computing technologies that drive the commercial high-performance computing market, with economic benefits to the companies involved and more powerful computing capabilities available to other application areas including many that address socio-economic challenges.
The DiRAC Facility is designed to enable breakthrough science in the areas of lattice quantum chromodynamics, hadron physics, beyond the standard model physics, black hole Physics, whole system modelling of stars, solar systems, galaxies, the local universe and large scale structures; the early Universe and its evolution, cosmology and the nature of dark energy and dark matter, the formation and evolution of stars and planets and larger structures, and the chemistry of the Cosmos.
DiRAC researchers have on-going collaborations with computing companies that maintain this strong connection between the scientific goals of the DiRAC Consortium and the development of new computing technologies that drive the commercial high-performance computing market, with economic benefits to the companies involved and more powerful computing capabilities available to other application areas including many that address socio-economic challenges.
The DiRAC Facility is designed to enable breakthrough science in the areas of lattice quantum chromodynamics, hadron physics, beyond the standard model physics, black hole Physics, whole system modelling of stars, solar systems, galaxies, the local universe and large scale structures; the early Universe and its evolution, cosmology and the nature of dark energy and dark matter, the formation and evolution of stars and planets and larger structures, and the chemistry of the Cosmos.
Publications
Abbott R
(2020)
Direct C P violation and the ? I = 1 / 2 rule in K ? p p decay from the standard model
in Physical Review D
Achúcarro A
(2019)
Cosmological evolution of semilocal string networks.
in Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
Adamek J
(2020)
Numerical solutions to Einstein's equations in a shearing-dust universe: a code comparison
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Agudelo Rueda J
(2022)
Energy Transport during 3D Small-scale Reconnection Driven by Anisotropic Plasma Turbulence
in The Astrophysical Journal
Ali A
(2022)
Stellar winds and photoionization in a spiral arm
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Allanson O
(2020)
Particle-in-Cell Experiments Examine Electron Diffusion by Whistler-Mode Waves: 2. Quasi-Linear and Nonlinear Dynamics
in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Allanson O
(2019)
Particle-in-cell Experiments Examine Electron Diffusion by Whistler-mode Waves: 1. Benchmarking With a Cold Plasma
in Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Allton C
(2023)
Recent results from the FASTSUM Collaboration
Almaraz E
(2020)
Nonlinear structure formation in Bound Dark Energy
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Amarante J
(2020)
The Splash without a Merger
in The Astrophysical Journal
Amarantidis S
(2019)
The first supermassive black holes: indications from models for future observations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Amorisco N
(2022)
Halo concentration strengthens dark matter constraints in galaxy-galaxy strong lensing analyses
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Anderson S
(2022)
The secular growth of bars revealed by flat (peak + shoulders) density profiles
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Andrassy R
(2022)
Dynamics in a stellar convective layer and at its boundary: Comparison of five 3D hydrodynamics codes
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Antolin P
(2020)
Reconnection nanojets in the solar corona
in Nature Astronomy
Aoyama T
(2020)
The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon in the Standard Model
in Physics Reports
Appleby S
(2020)
The impact of quenching on galaxy profiles in the simba simulation
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Armijo J
(2022)
Making use of sub-resolution haloes in N -body simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Arnett W
(2019)
3D Simulations and MLT. I. Renzini's Critique
in The Astrophysical Journal
Arnold C
(2019)
The modified gravity light-cone simulation project - I. Statistics of matter and halo distributions
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Arnold C
(2022)
forge : the f ( R )-gravity cosmic emulator project - I. Introduction and matter power spectrum emulator
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Arnold C
(2019)
Realistic simulations of galaxy formation in f(R) modified gravity
in Nature Astronomy
Arthuis P
(2020)
Ab Initio Computation of Charge Densities for Sn and Xe Isotopes.
in Physical review letters
Astoul A
(2022)
The effects of non-linearities on tidal flows in the convective envelopes of rotating stars and planets in exoplanetary systems
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Attanasio F
(2022)
Equation of state from complex Langevin simulations
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Attanasio F
(2020)
Complex Langevin simulations and the QCD phase diagram: recent developments
in The European Physical Journal A
Aumann T
(2021)
Quenching of single-particle strength from direct reactions with stable and rare-isotope beams
in Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics
Aurrekoetxea J
(2020)
Coherent gravitational waveforms and memory from cosmic string loops
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Aurrekoetxea J
(2022)
Where is the ringdown: Reconstructing quasinormal modes from dispersive waves
in Physical Review D
Aurrekoetxea J
(2020)
The effects of potential shape on inhomogeneous inflation
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Aviles A
(2020)
Marked correlation functions in perturbation theory
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Baek G
(2020)
Radiative Transfer Modeling of EC 53: An Episodically Accreting Class I Young Stellar Object
in The Astrophysical Journal
Bahé Y
(2022)
The importance of black hole repositioning for galaxy formation simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ballabio G
(2023)
[O i ] 6300 Å emission as a probe of external photoevaporation of protoplanetary discs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bamber J
(2023)
Black hole merger simulations in wave dark matter environments
in Physical Review D
Baraffe I
(2022)
Local heating due to convective overshooting and the solar modelling problem
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Barausse E
(2020)
Prospects for fundamental physics with LISA
in General Relativity and Gravitation
Barber C
(2019)
Calibrated, cosmological hydrodynamical simulations with variable IMFs III: spatially resolved properties and evolution
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Barbieri C
(2019)
Lepton scattering from Ar 40 and Ti 48 in the quasielastic peak region
in Physical Review C
Barker A
(2019)
Angular momentum transport by the GSF instability: non-linear simulations at the equator
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Barrera-Hinojosa C
(2020)
GRAMSES: a new route to general relativistic N -body simulations in cosmology. Part II. Initial conditions
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Barrera-Hinojosa C
(2022)
Looking for a twist: probing the cosmological gravitomagnetic effect via weak lensing-kSZ cross-correlations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Barrera-Hinojosa C
(2020)
GRAMSES: a new route to general relativistic N -body simulations in cosmology. Part I. Methodology and code description
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Bastian N
(2020)
The globular cluster system mass-halo mass relation in the E-MOSAICS simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bate M
(2020)
Photoionizing feedback in spiral arm molecular clouds
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Battino U
(2019)
NuGrid stellar data set - III. Updated low-mass AGB models and s-process nucleosynthesis with metallicities Z= 0.01, Z = 0.02, and Z = 0.03
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Baugh C
(2022)
Modelling emission lines in star-forming galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Baugh C
(2019)
Galaxy formation in the Planck Millennium: the atomic hydrogen content of dark matter haloes
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Baugh C
(2020)
Sensitivity analysis of a galaxy formation model
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Description | We support all of PPAN science. The main highlights have been the modelling of the first Gravitaitonal Waves (the discovery of which won the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics), the accurate properties of the B quark, and the most detailed models of Galaxy formation bythe VIRGO consortium |
Exploitation Route | They have opened up new areasin Physics, particularly gravitational waves, calculating particle properties to be measured by the LHC and the use of baryonic physics in comsological models. Our advances in software and hardware design are applicable to all fields of study and commerce. a growing list of technology companies (ARM, Dell, HPE, IBM, Intel, Mellanox, Nvidia). We have appointed an Innovation Director (Dr. Jeremy Yates) and used the 2017/18 BEIS capital investment to kick-start new strategic industrial collaborations. DiRAC's innovation strategy is aligned with the UK Industrial Strategy white paper. In particular, our strategy aims to: 1. Enhance engagement with industry around the challenges of machine learning and data intensive science. 2. Enhance engagement with broader Industry, the Hartree Centre, and other sectors on the exploitation and use of new technologies and of DiRAC computational resources. 3. Expand innovation programmes with industry partner(s) at all sites, including both component-level and system-level co-design and optimisation. 4. Further expand our comprehensive, in-house HPC skills training portfolio by working with industry partners and the eight STFC Centres for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science , thereby enhancing HPC skills training across the UK and increasing the net out-flow of upskilled workers into the UK economy. 5. Expand engagement with industrial partners on software engineering work for particle physics, astronomy and general HPC codes. 6. Increase industrial income and explore potential options for innovative business models to support the recurrent costs of services. |
Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
URL | http://www.dirac.ac.uk |
Description | DiRAC has set up three Intel parallel computing centres which are being used to drive system design for heterogeneous architectures with SGI, writing maths libraries for intel and writing fine grained parallel task management libraries for intel. The work with SGI won an award at the SC15 for Best use of High Performance Data Analytics..• 4 EPSRC iCASE studentships co-funded by Intel/HP (Leicester), Intel/Cray (UCL), Intel/SGI (Cambridge), Intel/Lenovo (Durham); all in areas of advanced software design for new technologies. • DiRAC has secured 2 four-year PhD studentships with Mellanox/UCL and Lenovo/UCL in the areas of advanced cluster switch design and high volume and velocity machine learning, respectively. • DiRAC's Chief Technical Officer (CTO), Professor Peter Boyle, is the Co-Design leader for the Intel-Alan Turing Institute (ATI) Many Core Architecture Design team based in Edinburgh (one of only three teams worldwide). DiRAC's expertise provides the foundation upon which the ATI secured this unique international partnership with Intel's HPC architecture group, which has placed five hardware architects in Edinburgh, with Professor Boyle appointed both an Alan Turing Fellow and Co-Design Leader for the ATI. The two hardware architects hired by Intel to work with the ATI were two former DiRAC Research Software Engineers.• Support for STFC Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Data Intensive Science - DiRAC is a partner in five of the eight of the newly established STFC CDTs, and is actively engaged with them in developing industrial partnerships. DiRAC is also offering placements to CDT students interested in Research Software Engineering roles. • Innovate UK - DiRAC was invited to join an InnovateUK bid entitled "High Performance Cloud for Artificial Intelligence (HiPerCloud-AI)" with StackHPC, Concertim Infrastructure Management, VScaler and Intelligent Voice. The bid, submitted in response to the "Emerging and Enabling" call for proposals in November 2017, focussed on work aimed at the elimination of the disablingly large latency caused by Cloud Operating Systems when parallel codes are run on cloud-operated clusters. If successful, it will give the UK practical experience in building, deploying and running weakly and strongly parallel applications on cloud platforms.The £9M DiRAC-2.5x intervention alone generated more than £1.5M of inward investment in addition to significant vendor discounts. These investments include: • Installation of an ARM-based cluster at the University of Leicester as a co-design project to increase the value of ARM technology in HPC (value: approx. £1M); • Support for co-design work with Intel at Edinburgh (value: approx. £0.25M per annum); • Co-funding for DiRAC Technical Manager position at Edinburgh (value: £45k); • Co-funding for a DiRAC Research Software Engineer at Leicester (value: £45k); • Support for co-design projects in flash technologies to accelerate storage access (Cambridge/Dell), flash technologies to allow simulation check-pointing (Durham/Dell), Authentication, Authorisation & Accounting Infrastructure (Edinburgh/HPE), Hierarchical Storage Management (Leicester/HPE); • Support for skills training workshops for DiRAC users and technical support staff. |
First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
Impact Types | Economic |
Description | DiRAC 2.5x Project Office 2017-2020 |
Amount | £300,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2018 |
End | 03/2020 |
Title | Citation analysys and Impact |
Description | Use of IT to determineacademic impact of eInfrastructure |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Year Produced | 2017 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Understood emerging trends in DiRAC Science and helped decide the scale and type of IT investments and direct us to develop new technologies |
URL | http://www.dirac.ac.uk |
Description | AAAI for the UK NeI |
Organisation | Jisc |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | PI of RCUK pilot project for AAAI |
Collaborator Contribution | Software development and testing at 8 UK HEIs and ROs |
Impact | SAFE+ASSET AAAI service |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | DiRAC Intel Parallel Computing Centres |
Organisation | Intel Corporation |
Department | INTEL Research |
Country | United States |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | Organised dicussions which lead to the setting up of 3 INTEL Parallel Computing Centres, at Durham, Edinburgh and Cambridge. Co-ordinated bids and held pre-application discussions with INTEL and the three HEIs to ensure INTEL buy-in to the proposed projects |
Collaborator Contribution | Awards of £450k to fund 3 programmers for 2 years to i) build maths libraries for the KNL processor, (ii) build fine grain parallel job management libraries to mitigate the load balancing issue for weak balancing codes and (iii) develop heterogeneous architectures for data intensive problems |
Impact | multi-disciplinary In progress |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | STFC Centres for Doctoral Training in Data Intensive Science |
Organisation | University of Leicester |
Department | STFC DiRAC Complexity Cluster (HPC Facility Leicester) |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Support for STFC Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Data Intensive Science - DiRAC is a partner in five of the eight of the newly established STFC CDTs, and is actively engaged with them in developing industrial partnerships. DiRAC is also offering placements to CDT students interested in Research Software Engineering roles. |
Collaborator Contribution | Students to work on interesting technical problems for DiRAC |
Impact | This is the first year |
Start Year | 2017 |
Title | Collaboration with Atempo |
Description | Tape to Tape data transfter between DiRAC sites. |
Type Of Technology | Software |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Open Source License? | Yes |
Impact | Proof of COncept that data could be read from Tape stores remotely via a remote file system |
Description | Member of UKRI E-Infrastructure Expert Panel 2017-2019 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Created 7 white papers for UKRI which detailed a Roadmap for future e-Infrastructure funding in the UK |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019 |
Description | NeI Project Directors Group |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
Results and Impact | Reports on AAAI, Data E-Infrastructure, Using Cloud for Research The National NeI Survey 2014, 2015, 2016 Report on Gender in HPC BEIS e-Infrastructure Business Case Integration activities of the NeI |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015,2016,2017 |
URL | https://neipdg.ac.uk/ |