Calendar - HPC-SIG

October – December 2025

12:00	Day 1 Start: Arrive, Network, Lunch
13:00	Welcome and Chair’s Business
13:30	Opening Session with Hartree Kate Royse: Director, Hartree Centre
14:00	Research data movement: operator perspectives James C. Womack, Bristol Centre for Supercomputing, University of Bristol
14:30	Refreshment break
15:00	Lightning talks (5 minutes each) Federated AI container platform: a feasibility study Frederic Brochu-Williams, University of Cambridge (online) Isambard 3 processes and case studies from the University of Exeter Jeremy Pike, University of Exeter Slurm Configuration for the Mary Coombs Cluster at the Hartree Centre Mark Fellows, Hartree Centre, STFC Configuring The Software Stack For MCC Ronald Collins, Hartree Centre, STFC
15:30	An Update on High Performance Computing at the University of Southampton Aaron Parsons, University of Southampton
15:55	Attaching enterprise class VMs to CLOS network leaf switches from a centralised cluster Jonathan Churchill, STFC RAL
16:20	Testing Virtualised MIG backed GPUs on our HPC Sam Gallop, Norwich Bioscience Institute (online)
16:45	Day 1 Close: Notices, Network, Socialise

Optional social evening

On 22nd October there is a option for meeting at The Waterside in Warrington from 6pm

Address: 1430 Park Boulevard, Centre Park Square, Warrington, Cheshire, WA1 1PR

Website: https://www.greeneking.co.uk/pubs/cheshire/waterside

Day 2: Thursday 23rd October Morning

09:00	Day 2 Start: Arrive, Network, Refreshments
09:30	Quantum-Centric Supercomputing at The Hartree Centre Dr Stefano Mensa – Advanced Computing and Emerging Technologies Lead, Hartree Centre
10:00	The History of Computing at Daresbury Laboratory Rob Allan, STFC Hartree Centre
10:20	Completely powering off a 38MW data centre – what could possibly go wrong… Paul Clark, EPCC
10:45	Assemble for Hartree Tours
11:00	Hartree Tours Tour 1: Campus Technology Hub (CTH) – Introduction to Incubation @ STFC Tour 2 : Hartree Centre Visualisation Demos Return for final session at 11:45
11:45	Federated Access Management for UK DRIs: Building a Community of Practice Gwen Dawes, University of Cambridge (online)
12:15	Chairs notices
13:30	Day 2 Close: Network, Lunch, Depart

Optional half-day workshop on the UKRI Federated AI Application Container Platform/Registry project

Day 2: Thursday 23rd October Afternoon

Draft Agenda (13:30-16:15)

13:30	Project Introduction & Work Packages Chris Edsall – University of Cambridge
14:00	Running AI Containers on Kubernetes – Demo Silvia Ramos – University College London
14:30	Case Study: Container portability from NVIDIA to Intel GPUs (on Dawn) Sara Veneziale – Imperial College London
15:00	Coffee & Breakouts: Participant-Sourced Questions on Work Packages Participants at tables draft ~3-4 questions from each table for the fishbowl panel
15:30	Fishbowl Panel
16:00	Closing Remarks & Next Steps

Tours

On Day 2 there will be a choice of two tours. Sign ups for these will be on Day 1.

Tour 1: Campus Technology Hub (CTH) – Introduction to Incubation @ STFC

Prototyping: How we can help to prototype your product using AM,VR-AR
Digital support: Visualise your product in VR/AR, use our 5G platform to test and visualise data connection
Facilities: Use the CTH space to work on your product and service with labs, electronic lab, CAD suite
Finance: Access to finance via STFC grant, INNOVATE UK grant and regional financial support
The Business Engagement Team is “your best BET” for growing your business.

Tour 2: Visualisation tour: Hartree Centre Visualisation Demos

The Hartree Centre visualisation team offers powerful visualisation capabilities aimed at transforming raw data into intuitive, interactive, and comprehensible forms. These demos showcase how immersive visualisation, VR/AR, and advanced computational techniques are used across multiple industries—from healthcare to design and beyond.

Hotels

We recommend hotels in Warrington if you would like to join us for the social on Wednesday evening at The Waterside.

Directions

By road: Daresbury Laboratory is 5 miles south west of Warrington and 5 miles east of Runcorn, immediately to the west of the A56 near the village of Daresbury. It is located 1 mile down the A56 from junction 11 of the M56 motorway, which connects to the national motorway network via the M6 (6 miles east).
By Air: Manchester and Liverpool international airports are both located within a thirty minute drive of Daresbury Laboratory. Taxis are available from outside the main arrivals hall at both airports. It is also possible to travel by train from both airports to stations in Warrington and Runcorn.
By train: There are frequent inter-city train services to both Runcorn and Warrington Bank Quay stations. There are also local services from Warrington Central. Details may be obtained from any British Rail enquiry office. Local enquiry offices are at Liverpool and Warrington.
By taxi: From the train station in Warrington it is about a 15 minute journey to the laboratory.
By bus: Three bus services run to the Daresbury laboratory campus. Timetables below are for guidance only, please check for any updates.
- 200 Runcorn Station – Murdishaw – Runcorn Employment Sites timetable – https://www3.halton.gov.uk/Pages/publictransport/pdf/BusTimetables/Timetable200.pdf
- X30 Warrington – Halton Lea – Chester via Daresbury – Beechwood – Sutton Weaver – Frodsham. – http://www.stfc.ac.uk/files/x30-arriva/
- 62A Warrington Bus Station -Chester Rd- Daresbury Expressway-Keckwick Lane turning at Sci-Tech, then as the 62 route to Widnes. – https://www3.halton.gov.uk/Pages/publictransport/pdf/BusTimetables/Timetable6262ANEW.pdf