July 2022 Newsletter

Bearly qualified team
The winning team for the BEAR Challenge 2022

Welcome to the BEAR Newsletter, bringing you the latest news from the BEAR team (Birmingham Environment for Academic Research), as well as other relevant computing and data-related news from both within the University of Birmingham and outside.

June was a busy month for events and it has been lovely to meet new (and old) people in person, including at the EPS & LES PERCAT Conference! Our BEAR Challenge was a great success with taught students getting to spend 3 days on a series of challenges introducing them to High Performance Computing and the careers in that area. Thanks to everyone who completed our recent survey, we are now analysing the results and will provide feedback in a future newsletter.

In this newsletter we cover:

  • IT Needs of Active Research Survey 2022
  • BEAR Challenge 2022
  • Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) blog post
  • BEAR Videos
  • Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
  • Case Study
  • In-Person and Virtual BEAR Drop-in Sessions

IT Needs of Active Research Survey 2022

Thank you to everyone who completed the IT Needs of Active Research Survey. Whilst we had a noticeably lower response than to previous surveys, we have still received valuable insights into our current provision, along with indications of future needs for computing support and training. The survey is currently being analysed and we will keep you updated on the findings. At the same time, we are also in discussion with the Research Computing Management Committee (RCMC) to get more perspectives on enhancements to BEAR.

BEAR Challenge 2022

We had a great time over 3 days of challenges, with plenty of food and a special visit to the data centre! Congratulations to the winners “Bearly Koalified“ and everyone who took part and contributed to the event. If you want to find out more, check out our summary blog post and an interview with the winning team. We also shared lots of updates on Twitter, you can see all of the posts in our Twitter Moment.

Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) blog post

We’ve been thinking about BEAR services from the point of view of a new PGR student. As you plan and start to collect data, what would you need to use for your research and how can BEAR help? Our blog post offers some suggestions.

BEAR Videos

We are planning to create videos explaining some BEAR services and how to use them, and we want your feedback. Is there anything you have got stuck on or would like to know more about? Fill in our short form (<1 min) and let us know!

Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

Our SIGs for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and ABAQUS are being rebooted! Both are intended to support the communities of users across campus using this software. If you have questions or want to connect with similar users and find out what they are doing, then check out our new Slack channels. 

Case Study

In this month's case study, we hear from Stanimir Tashev who has been making use of BEAR's storage and data processing power, specifically the BlueBEAR Portal to enable his research.

In-Person and Virtual BEAR Drop-in Sessions 

With the relaxation of Covid restrictions we are now holding both in-person and virtual drop-in sessions. The in-person sessions are being held once a month in a public, visible campus location, with additional virtual drop-in sessions via Zoom for those not on campus or who require specialist help, so that we can find a relevant member of the team. We’re taking a break over August, but new dates for September will be advertised soon!

Further details, including how to join the virtual sessions are available on our drop-in webpage. Upcoming dates are also listed below: 

  • Via Zoom – Tuesday 2nd August 11:00-12:00

Missed last month's newsletter?

Find June's newsletter here. Sign up to receive the newsletter direct to your inbox by joining our bear-updates mailing list here (UoB login required).

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