The University of Warwick forges supercomputing link with Bull

THE University of Warwick has entered into a partnership with global computing firm Bull which will sponsor two PhD students and support a master of engineering course in computer science.

The partnership brings together supercomputing expertise within both the department of computer science at Warwick and Bull, and will see the two partners collaborate on a range of high-performance computing research and education initiatives.

Initially Bull – whose UK headquarters is in Hemel Hempstead – will sponsor two PhD places within the department, each over a three-year period.

Bull will also provide support and sponsorship for a one-year master of engineering degree course in computer science. This will involve Bull running a regular technology-based project for students and a seminar series on emerging technologies in high-performance computing (HPC).

University of Warwick vice-chancellor and president Professor Nigel Thrift said: “High-performance computing is one of the vital infrastructure components of an advanced economy.

“Through this kind of forward-thinking partnership, the University of Warwick is consolidating is position as a hub of expertise in the area.”

Bull UK & Ireland CEO Andrew Carr said: “This agreement highlights Bull’s commitment to exploring new ways of working, partnering and investing to grow HPC opportunities and to continue the development of Bull itself as a high-performance organisation.

“We see it as an opportunity to develop a strong partnership with a Russell Group university and its academic network and leverage this for business development.

“Critically, also, it will allow us to start to have input into next generation HPC thinking and strategy.

“At the same time, the partnership will enable us to shape our own future as a high-performance organisation by tapping into much-needed HPC benchmarking capability and resources and identifying and potentially recruiting our future HPC professionals.”