| EPSRC Reference: |
EP/V001493/1 |
| Title: |
Gen X: ExCALIBUR working group on Exascale continuum mechanics through code generation. |
| Principal Investigator: |
Ham, Dr DA |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Mathematics |
| Organisation: |
Imperial College London |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research - NR1 |
| Starts: |
01 April 2020 |
Ends: |
30 November 2021 |
Value (£): |
174,252
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
Continuous physical processes pervade every aspect of our society,
industry and the natural world. From the flow of air over an aircraft
to the propagation of mobile phone signals, to the behaviour of
chemical components at every point of the manufacturing processes,
continuum mechanics is at the heart of our industrial processes. In
medicine, the electrical behaviour of the heart and brain, the flow of
blood and other fluids through the body, and the detection of disorders
using all manner of scanners and detectors are all continuum mechanics
processes. In the natural world, detecting and understanding the
movement and composition of the Earth enable us to understand
earthquakes and to hunt for valuable minerals, while advanced
understanding of the complex interaction of fluids and electromagnetic
fields allows us to understand stars, the cosmos and our place in it.
In all of these cases and many more beside, the mathematical equations
describing phenomena are known, but solutions very rarely
exist. Science and engineering are essentially dependent on computer
simulation to understand any of these systems, and to design the
devices and processes which use them. Many of these phenomena are so
complex or have such a range of spatial scales that existing petascale
computer systems are a limit on scientific advance. In addition, there
is a need to go beyond mere simulation to simulate the uncertainty in
processes, find the optimal solution, or discover the multiple
possible outcomes of a system. The advent of exascale computing
presents the opportunity to address these limitations. However,
increasing computational scale, increasingly complex simulation
algorithms, and the vast quantities of data produced by exascale
computing will defeat not just existing simulation software, but also
existing ways of writing simulation software.
Gen X is a project to establish the requirements for exascale
simulation software for continuum mechanics, and to provide a concrete
way of achieving this capability within the next five years. The Gen X
approach is to move beyond just writing code to a system of specialist
simulation languages which enable scientists and engineers to specify
the problem they want to solve and the algorithms they want by writing
mathematics, the language of science. The actual code will be
automatically generated by specialist compilers rather than
hand-written. Rather than an algorithm developer writing a paper about
their new development and hoping that simulation scientists will find
the time to code it up for their specific problem, the algorithm will
be encoded in a domain specific language and implemented in its
compiler. The simulation scientist will then be able to access the
algorithm directly without recoding.
At exascale, writing all the simulation outputs to disk for later
analysis is impossible. Instead, simulation data must be processed,
analysed and visualised as the simulation is conducted, and only the
results stored for later use. Gen X will provide mathematical
languages for this process which will enable the scientist or engineer
to concisely specify the analysis to be performed, and to have
confidence that the resulting calculations will be both efficient and
correct.
By enabling scientists and engineers to work at a higher mathematical
level while also accessing more sophisticated algorithms and
hardware-specific implementations than previously possible, Gen X will
make simulation science both more capable and more productive. In this
manner, Gen X is essential to realising the potential of exascale
computing while also making the most efficient use of research
resources.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.imperial.ac.uk |