Ulster and Queen’s awarded £2.1million for state-of-the-art high performance computing facility

Posted date: 25 Feb 2020

Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast have been awarded a major grant of £2.1million for a state-of-the-art computing facility, which will allow researchers to use high performance computing (HPC) technology to address some of society’s biggest challenges. Named “Kelvin-2”, the project has received the funding from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) via the Engineering and Physical Research Council (EPSRC).

The facility, which will be based at Queen’s University’s McClay library, will be used to accelerate research in six specialist areas which both institutions are experts in and are economically and socially important to the UK. These are neurotechnology and computational neuroscience, advanced chemistry, innovative drug delivery, precision medicine, metabolomics and hydrogen safety.

In neurotechnology and computational neuroscience, researchers will work on brain modelling and on AI for brain-computer interface based rehabilitation technologies. Research in heterogeneous catalysis will involve modelling chemical processes, which contribute to the production of items used in everyday life. There will also be a focus on innovative drug delivery for improving drug based therapies and for use in diagnostics, as well as on precision medicine where automated tools will be created to analyse data and identify indicators for health conditions.

The new facility will also help to advance research in food fingerprinting, including techniques for detecting chemical contaminants in food; and hydrogen deflagration to assist with developing accident prevention and mitigation for hydrogen tanks.

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GSP Admin