Calendar

Oct
21
Wed
HPC-SIG Belfast Meeting @ Queen's University Belfast
Oct 21 @ 12:00 PM – Oct 22 @ 1:00 PM

Get your ticket now!

Key Deadlines

  • Call for contributions: Wednesday 9th September 2026
  • Registration for in-person attendance: Tuesday 6th October 2026
  • Registration for online participation: Friday 17th October 2026

Call for Contributions

Please submit your contributions by 9th September: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/e/dpwQt13PE5

Venue Information and Accessibility

Location: Riddel Hall Conference Room, Riddel Hall Block 2, Queen’s University Belfast, 185 Stranmillis Road, Belfast, BT9 5EE

Accessibility: https://www.accessable.co.uk/queen-s-university-belfast/access-guides/riddel-hall-conference-room-1

 

Programme

Day 1: Wednesday 21st October Afternoon

12:00

Day 1 Start: Arrival, Networking and Lunch

13:00

Welcome and Chair’s Business

13:20

Welcome from Queens Belfast University
Host welcome and site talk

13:50 Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) talk
Jean Christophe (JC) Desplat
14:30 Privileged Access Plumbing: GitOps-Driven JIT Privileged Access with Microsoft Entra, Boundary, and Vault
Brian Maher, University College London

15:00

Coffee Break

15:30

Federating Everything, Everywhere All at Once
Gregory Warren, University of Leicester

16:00

Jisc update
Christopher Walker

16:30

Deployment, testing and early access to Zenith cluster in Cambridge
Kacper Kornet and Deepak Aggarwal, University of Cambridge

17:00

Day 1 Close: Notices, Socialise

Optional social evening

We will be organising an optional social gathering in the evening, further details to follow. 

Address: White’s Tavern/ Deer’s Head – Cathedral Quarter in Belfast

Easy walking from nearby City Centre hotels

Website: TBC

Day 2: Thursday 22nd October Morning

09:00

Day 2 Start: Arrival, Networking and Coffee

09:15

WHPC talk (Ireland Chapter)

09:45

Protecting specialist engineering time while improving the researcher
experience
Chris Holland, University of Leeds

10:15

Update on UKRI DRI Roadmap
Richard Gunn/Luke Davis

10:45

Coffee Break

11:15

Have we lost control of GPU computing?
Tom King, Queen Mary University of London

11:30

SCALE-UP – Scaling support for HPC careers: Placements, Champions, and
Training Clusters
Michael Bearpark, Imperial College London

12:00

Panel discussion
Developing a sustainability-focused culture around HPC deployment and use
Jeremy Cohen, Imperial College London

12:30

Notices and closing Remarks

12:35

Lunch and Close

Hotels

  • Tara Lodge
    • 5–7 minutes’ walk to Queen’s University.
    • Spacious, modern rooms with excellent breakfast.
    • Quiet residential street just off Botanic Avenue, but close to restaurants, cafés and
    the Botanic Gardens.
    • Great if you want comfort and a peaceful stay.
  • Holiday Inn Express Belfast City – Queen’s Quarter
    • 2–5 minutes’ walk to QUB
    • Breakfast included, small gym
  • The Malone Hotel
    • 10-minute walk from Queen’s.
    • Stylish Victorian hotel on Malone Road.
    • Larger rooms, good restaurant and bar.
    • A good choice if you prefer a more traditional hotel with extra facilities.
  • House Hotel
    • 2–3 minutes’ walk from Queen’s University.
    • Excellent location for cafés, restaurants, Botanic Gardens and the Ulster Museum.
    • Popular restaurant and cocktail bar downstairs with the famous cherry blossom
    décor

City Centre

  • Holiday Inn Belfast City Centre by IHG
    • 12 min walk from QUB
    • Around 10–15 minutes’ walk to City Hall.
    • Modern business hotel with restaurant and bar , fitness room
    • Well suited to conference delegates arriving by train (5 minutes from Grand Central
    Station).
  • Premier Inn Belfast City Cathedral Quarter
    • 14 min walk from QUB
    • Close to great restaurant and bars
    • Around 8 minutes’ walk to City Hall.
    • Restaurant and bar

Things to see around the conference:
• Botanic Avenue restaurants and bars: 5 min walk
• Botanic Gardens: 10 mins walk
• Belfast city centre: 5 mins by taxi, 15–20 mins walk
• Duke of York/Cathedral Quarter: 10 mins by taxi or 25–30 mins walk
• Belfast Castle: 15 mins by taxi
• Friars Graveyard Tour: 2 mins walk
• Black Taxi ride: from city, 10 mins by taxi, 15 min walk
• Titanic Museum: 10 mins by taxi, 15-20 min walk
• Crown Bar: 5 mins by taxi, 15 min walk

Parking

Further details to follow

Transport

Flights
Belfast International Airport
Cab – 30 mins to city centre – £30-£50
Airport Express – 35/40 mins £11 return
George Best Airport, city
Cab – 15 mins to QUB and city centre – approx. £15
Airport Express – 10 mins £4 return

Nov
15
Sun
SC26
Nov 15 – Nov 20 all-day