Hartree Centre Summer School on HPC for Engineering Simulation

Last few places remaining! 

I'm running a 1 week Summer School on HPC in Engineering Simulation (focused on solid mechanics) at the Hartree Centre from 27 June to 1 July 2016. The first day is an introduction to parallel computing for solid mechanics. We use ParaFEM to demonstrate the concepts as it is a free open source finite element platform tailored for use on HPC systems (solving up to 1 billion equations on tens of thousands of cores). The second day is about dealing with uncertainty in engineering systems and stochastic modelling. Dr Catherine Powell (Maths, Manchester) is lecturing on the theory and Dr David Arregui (Manchester) is giving a complete run through of his modifications to ParaFEM that enable it to be used with stochastic random fields. On the third day, we have an image-based meshing course that is being delivered by Dr Celia Butler at Simpleware and Dr Llion Evans (CCFE). This covers the basics of X-ray tomography and materials characterisation. On the fourth day, the topic is multiscale modelling, focusing on coupling cellular automata to finite elements, delivered by Dr Anton Shterenlikht (Bristol). The last half day covers current research and future prospects for engineering simulation, basically horizon scanning over the next 5, 10 and 15 years. 

Each day of the course is split into lectures on theory (2 hours), engineering case studies (1 hour) and hands-on computer sessions (3 hours). The HPC aspects of the course are light touch and there's no formal requirement to do programming. The course is not a hard-core HPC course, but a gentle introduction to the benefits of HPC in the context of engineering R&D. The key concepts are transferable to other software platforms. The case studies include recent research work in topics such as: thermo-mechanical Monte Carlo modelling of nuclear graphite; transient analysis of fusion reactor components; multiscale fracture and multiscale materials characterisation.

The course is a great opportunity for early career researchers (PhD/PDRA/Academic/RSE) to pick up new skills & broaden their horizons. I would be grateful if you could circulate this email to academic & industry contacts via your departmental mailing lists. The course fees are the same for academia and industry, £150 for the week (heavily subsidised by the Hartree Centre).

Details regarding registration can be found at http://hartree.stfc.ac.uk/SS16.