With 83 per cent of Durham university research recognised as internationally excellent or world leading, the university has much to recommend it.
Hosting the Supercomputer
In 2020, the university will be hosting a new GBP 3.1 million supercomputer facility. Addressing challenges in subjects from artificial intelligence to advanced X-ray imaging.
Based in Durham, the NICE (Northern Intensive Computing Environment) supercomputer will be used by N8 research partnerships of leading universities in the North of England.
NICE will be co-located within the Science and Technology Facilities Council DiRAC Memory Intensive Supercomputer (COSMA), which will be used across physics, cosmology, astronomy and nuclear physics programmes.
NICE will have a greater understanding of data, by providing a platform where machine learning and simulations are combined, allowing better explanations of artificial intelligences. The supercomputer will help scientists to advance imaging techniques in order to produce the next generation of X-ray instruments.
Professor Colin Bain, Vice-Provost (Research), said, “Durham is already an international centre for supercomputer technology, hosting the COSMA supercomputer, which is at the forefront of research that is unravelling the mysteries of the universe.”
New Facilities
The university has invested GBP 40 million in building new facilities for mathematical and computer sciences. Work on the new state-of-the-art learning, teaching and study spaces has commenced, and will be ready for academic use for the academic year 2020/2021.
The departments aim to double their intake of undergraduates, and increase numbers of postgraduate research. The building will be designed to facilitate greater interactions between students and staff, creating more synergies between mathematical science and computer science.