ExaGEO - new doctoral program on exascale computing

Hi folks,

This might be of interest to a few of you, but note the short timeframe.

Lancaster University/CEEDS are co-leading with the University of Glasgow a new NERC funded Doctoral Program in Exascale computing for Earth, Environmental, and Sustainability Solutions.

The deadline is tight - proposals due for the initial round are due 10 December. If anyone is interested, let me know and I’ll pass on the relevant details.

There is a summary here.

And here is a bit more info:

Projects must fit within NERC’s remit and proposals are invited in three areas:

  1. Model development: focuses on the development and translation of models (e.g. geophysical, statistical, AI) to very large scale (e.g. GPU) architectures to reduce compute time and expand the temporal and spatial scale of problems that can be addressed. Includes the application of these models to deliver discovery science.
  2. Big-data analysis: focuses on analysis of big-data streams, e.g. from Earth observation satellites and observatories, through exascale platforms. These projects provide unprecedented opportunities for environmental change detection, attribution, understanding and forecasting at scale.
  3. Model & big-data coupling and uncertainty analysis: linking numerical model applications with observational big-data to deliver a step-change in understanding of the processes driving environmental change and the associated uncertainty including in near real-time.

Each proposal should contain two ‘teaser projects’ that the student will take in their first year. At the end of the first year the student will decide which one to take forward for the remainder of the PhD. There is flexibility in how these two teaser projects are related to and distinct from one another, but both teaser projects should have the same supervisory team and have the potential to be expanded into a full PhD thesis.

Projects should have:

  • A minimum of three supervisors and a maximum of five
  • One of these supervisors must be based at an institution other than where the student will be registered for their degree. This can be a consortium partner (i.e. Lancaster, Glasgow or Edinburgh) or an industry/CASE partner.
  • Supervisory teams should include a balance, where possible, of expertise, career stage and gender.

I’m a little unclear who would class as an industry/CASE partner (UKCEH can be one) or if international partners are possible, but if anyone is interested, we can find out. I’m sure there is scope for international partners to be involved in other ways if it’s of interest.

Cheers,
Sam