Interested in finding out more about High Performance Computing?

Following a successful expansion of team numbers in 2023 (see blog post), Advanced Research Computing are once again running the popular BEAR Challenge at the University of Birmingham, to allow undergraduate and taught Masters students to experience using a High Performance Computing (HPC) system. We're looking for teams of 5 students to take part in a series of challenges held over three days, which will see you getting dedicated access to resource within Baskerville, the University's Tier 2, national supercomputer with 208 GPU’s.

We’ll start the Challenge off with a crash course in how to use Baskerville, followed by several challenges to complete, with each member of the highest scoring team at the end of the three days winning a prize. The challenges will include data science and artificial intelligence tasks using Baskerville’s state of the art GPU’s. We want to challenge you and for you to learn about High Performance Computing (HPC) systems and techniques!

The challenges will be run in conjunction with industry experts from some of the leading technology companies in the HPC field, plus several members of Birmingham’s Advanced Research Computing team. We will also have talks on careers in HPC from leaders in the field.

So, if you are interested in finding out more about High Performance Computing and the career possibilities available, then the BEAR Challenge is for you!

Who is it for?

Each team should be made up of 5 students from the University of Birmingham, you should be an undergraduate or Masters student at the University.

If you are not able to assemble a team of 5, get in touch with us (bearinfo@contacts.bham.ac.uk) and we will try to connect you with other individuals looking to form a team.

Student team members should have a good working knowledge of coding using a programming language plus at least one member of your team should have experience using a Linux command line.

To register, you will need to know the name, email address, year and course of each team member, please use the University of Birmingham email address as we will need to verify and register the username for use on the HPC systems. We also ask you to complete a short paragraph (between 100-150 words), describing why you would like to take part in the Challenge, which we will use to prioritise teams if the Challenge is oversubscribed.

When is it taking place?

BEAR Challenge is taking place over the three consecutive days of Monday 24th to Wednesday 26th June. Lunch will be provided each day.

Where is it taking place?

We're running the BEAR Challenge on campus, we'll be providing more details on location once teams are registered.

What does my team need?

Each team will need a team leader who will be responsible for registering their team. Each team member should bring their own laptop to be able to connect remotely to Baskerville to complete the challenges.

If you have any questions about the Challenge, please contact bearinfo@contacts.bham.ac.uk

The deadline for registration is midnight on Friday 31st May, so make sure you sign up by then!

BEAR Challenge 2024