Hartree Centre on Tour | ISC25 Round up

At ISC25, we explored the future of advanced computing, shared breakthroughs in quantum technologies, and joined vital conversations shaping HPC and training.

Events like ISC offer a rare, concentrated look at where HPC is headed through the eyes of researchers, industry leaders, and public sector organisations, giving a clear demonstration of the direction the field is going in. It provides the forum for discussion and reflection that confront the current challenges we face together as a community. This allows us to both share our knowledge and listen to others, fostering deeper understanding, mutual respect, and begin developing collaborative solutions that can move us forward.

The buzz around the conference hall when we arrived to set up our booth built up the anticipation and set the scene for what a fantastic event ISC25 was about to be. The exhibition hall was popping with colour and the energy from enthusiastic exhibitors eager to share their capabilities and impact energised the hall.

We met so many wonderful new faces at the booth, and reconnected with plenty of familiar ones. When holding discussions at the booth, we found a few recurring themes coming up from curious attendees, including:

• our current work in quantum computing
• how we support SMEs to adopt advanced digital technologies
• how to stay informed and involved with training opportunities

During the week, our Advanced Computing and Emerging Technologies Lead Stefano Mensa presented our most recent quantum computing advancements to our close collaborators, and hosted the 4th Quantum and Hybrid Quantum-Classical Computing Approaches workshop alongside our Chief Science Officer, Vassil Alexandrov.

We announced our collaborative work with IBM Quantum, Pasqal and Rensselar Polytechnic Institute in creating an open-source, vendor agnostic Slurm plugin that will allow accessible and efficient technology convergence between quantum computers and HPC.

The quantum workshop gained a lot of interest with expert guest speakers from companies such as Nvidia, IBM, Algorithmiq and EPCC, you could feel the excitement in the room, and the anticipation to learn. The conversation deeply explored the convergence of quantum computing with HPC – specifically thinking about the infrastructure, software and application, connecting the dots between these essential elements.

Speakers discussed the challenges they faced when developing capabilities for quantum computing and HPC convergence further, both from a technical and a community perspective, as ensuring the usability and compatibility with existing systems is vital.

Thinking ahead, the group speculated about the long-term implications of successful convergence, considering how this will propel the field of quantum computing forward, and how we, as a community, stay flexible and adaptable to further development and changes in the future.

“Converging quantum computing and HPC is a conceptually complicated problem, but we have demonstrated it can be practically simplified using the tools already available.”

Stefano Mensa, Advanced Computing and Emerging Technologies Lead

This week we also contributed to many conversations around HPC training, focusing on both demonstrating our own expertise, and providing different perspectives to large scale challenge discussions – such as the future of HPC training in Europe. Our Training Assurance Lead Rachel Williamson represented us in these discussions through a poster presentation and a Birds of a Feather (BoF) session.

The poster focused on the EXPLAIN workstream of the Hartree National Centre for Digital Innovation (HNCDI). This workstream focuses on the delivery of application-focused training designed to enable individuals, businesses and public sector organisations to take full advantage of advanced digital technologies. The poster sparked a lot of interest in the fully funded opportunities available at the Hartree Centre, raising awareness of our impact through training, with many attendees keen to learn more and share our offerings with their colleagues.

The following day we held the BoF session which evaluated the current landscape and anticipated the future needs of HPC training in Europe.

The interactive discussion highlighted gaps in the training landscape through the use of a survey with over 900 participants across Europe, focusing on the perspectives of academia, industry and the public sector’s experience with HPC training. As well as demonstrating the importance of offering well-curated, reliable learning resources, the BoF speakers highlighted clear areas for innovation to strengthen the HPC training landscape across Europe.

“There’s fantastic training out there, but people aren’t always aware of it. We need to build stronger connections throughout the European training landscape, not only to coordinate training efforts more effectively, but also to make sure the UK’s voice is heard in these kinds of discussions.”

Rachel Williamson, Training Assurance Lead

The ISC25 conference was an ideal forum for meeting and discussing potential future collaborations with other industry leaders. It also provided a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the cutting-edge developments from academia, industry and public sector organisations. We were especially excited to hear so many conversations around emerging technologies, something we continue to focus on and advance at the Hartree Centre. We look forward to building on these relationships and continuing the conversation at ISC26, see you there!

You can learn more about our work with emerging technologies like quantum computing here, and more about our training opportunities here.

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