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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/N018869/1
Title: Accelerating Scientific Discovery with Accelerated Computing
Principal Investigator: Richmond, Dr P
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
N8 Research Partnership nVIDIA OCF
Transport Systems Catapult UCL University of Bradford
University of Edinburgh University of Oxford
Department: Computer Science
Organisation: University of Sheffield
Scheme: EPSRC Fellowship
Starts: 01 March 2016 Ends: 01 October 2021 Value (£): 721,298
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Bioinformatics Complexity Science
Transport Ops & Management
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Healthcare Transport Systems and Vehicles
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Panel DatePanel NameOutcome
15 Oct 2015 EPSRC RSE e-Infrastructure Meeting Announced
17 Nov 2015 EPSRC RSE e-Infrastructure Meeting (Interviews) Announced
Summary on Grant Application Form
My proposed Fellowship will revolutionise the use of High Performance Computing (HPC) within The University of Sheffield by changing perceptions of how people utilise software and are trained and supported in writing code which scales to increasingly large computer systems. I will provide leadership by demonstrating the effectiveness of specific research software engineer roles, and by growing a team of research software engineer at The University of Sheffield in order to accommodate our expanding programme of research computing. I will achieve this by: 1) developing the FLAME and FLAME GPU software to facilitate and demonstrate the impact of Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) computing on the areas of complex systems simulation; 2) vastly extending the remit of GPUComputing@Sheffield to provide advanced training and research consultancy, and to embed specific software engineering skills for high-performance data parallel computing (with GPUs and Xeon Phis) across EPSRC-remit research areas at The University of Sheffield.

My first activity will enable long-term support of the extensive use of FLAME and FLAME GPU for EPSRC, industry and EU-funded research projects. The computational science and engineering projects supported will include those as diverse as computational economics, bioinformatics and transport simulation. Additionally, my software will provide a platform for more fundamental computer science research into complexity science, graphics and visualisation, programming languages and compilers, and software engineering.

My second activity will champion GPU computing within The University of Sheffield (and beyond to its collaborators and industrial partners). It will demonstrate how a specific area of research software engineering can be embedded into The University of Sheffield, and act as a model for further improvement in areas such as research software and data storage. I will change the way people develop

and use research software by providing training to students and researchers who can then embed GPU software engineering skills across research domains. I will also aid researchers who work on computationally demanding research by providing software engineering consultancy in areas that can benefit from GPU acceleration, such as, mobile GPU computing for robotics, deep neural network simulation for machine learning (including speech, hearing and Natural language processing) and real time signal processing.

The impact of my Fellowship will vastly expand the scale and quality of research computing at The University of Sheffield, embed skills within students and researchers (with long-term and wide-reaching results) and ensure energy-efficient use of HPC. This will promote the understanding and wider use of GPU computing within research, as well as transitioning researchers to larger regional and national HPC facilities. Ultimately my research software engineer fellowship will facilitate the delivery of excellent science whilst promoting the unique and important role of the Research Software Engineer.
Key Findings
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Potential use in non-academic contexts
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Impacts
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Summary
Date Materialised
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Project URL:  
Further Information:  
Organisation Website: http://www.shef.ac.uk