Hartree Centre on tour | SC25 Round up

Alongside over 16,500 attendees, the Hartree Centre explored the world’s largest international supercomputing conference, SC25, with our STFC colleagues from Scientific Computing and National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC).

We arrived in St. Louis ready to share our latest research and connect with the global HPC community at the Supercomputing Conference 2025 (SC25). The week kicked off with our scalable algorithms workshop (ScalAH’25), co-hosted for the 16th year by Vassil Alexandrov, our Chief Science Officer. Erik Draeger from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, shared:  

“ScalAH’25 continued its impressive track record of attracting top speakers to share the latest developments in heterogeneous computing, the impact of AI, and recent progress in quantum computing. It has become a can’t-miss event for me at Supercomputing each year.”  

Philippa Rubin, who co-hosted the workshop, reflected on the diverse range of topics covered: “We heard a brilliant set of talks across technologies including scalable AI, numerical methods, quantum computing, GPUs and FPGAs.” The workshop demonstrated how these varied approaches are converging to solve increasingly complex computational challenges across sectors from healthcare to climate science.

The road to quantum utility

Edoardo Altamura, one of our Quantum Software Engineers, presented our work on open-source software for classical and quantum-classical computing integration. He also participated in a panel discussing the future of quantum computing adoption and highlighted the collaborative efforts needed to make this transformative technology accessible. “SC is one of the largest tech events in the world, so it’s a unique launchpad for our HPC quantum integration infrastructure.” Workshops, such as these bring together academics, researchers and industry professionals to discuss solutions to common challenges across the quantum community. 

Building the HPC training community 

Our 12th ‘HPC Training and Education’ workshop at SC, co-hosted by Nia Alexandrova, our Training Manager and Nitin Sukhija from Slippery Rock University brought together global experts to discuss shared challenges in HPC training and their innovative solutions. The session created space for impactful discussions, demos and networking for people at any stage of their career. Nitin emphasised the collaborative spirit within the session: “We had presenters from four different continents focused on challenges in HPC education and training, including AI and HPC integration, discussing how we can solve these together.” 

The workshop underscored the growing importance of accessible training as technologies rapidly evolve. The Hartree Centre training courses focus on practical, industry-relevant training that helps organisations adopt emerging technologies with confidence.

Driving sustainable innovation 

We also shared how we are driving real-world impact by adapting existing models for exascale and HPC technologies for the automotive industry with our EV battery modelling Birds of a Feather session. Tim Powell, our Transport Sector Lead, brought together researchers and industry leaders for the session on simulating next-generation electric vehicle batteries. This session exemplified our commitment to addressing grand challenges like net-zero targets through computational innovation.  

One of the ways we are helping to drive the next generation of battery technology in the UK is by collaborating with The Faraday Institution. We’re working together to explore and accelerate battery innovation in the UK, supporting industry, boosting economic growth and helping the UK meet its net-zero goals.  

Connecting across the exhibition floor 

Throughout the week, our booth became a hub for conversations spanning exascale and quantum computing developments, EV battery modelling, SME access to advanced technology and training opportunities. We shared our booth space with STFC colleagues from Scientific Computing and NQCC, showcasing the breadth of capabilities across our organisation. Between our booth, workshops and sessions we strengthened our presence across the conference, feed into global conversations and gained valuable insight from the community’s emerging ideas and shared challenges.  

^{The STFC team at the booth at SC 2025.}

Looking ahead 

SC25 reinforced the Hartree Centre’s position at the forefront of HPC, AI and quantum computing innovation. From showcasing cutting-edge research to fostering international collaboration, the week demonstrated how we’re helping organisations explore and adopt emerging technologies that drive productivity, innovation and economic growth.  Stay connected with us by joining our newsletter or following us on Instagram and LinkedIn for updates on our work. 

See you next year in Chicago for SC26!