Science 2 Industry and the Hartree Centre · As part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) within UK Research and Innovation, the Hartree Centre is underpinned by

Science 2 Industry and the Hartree Centre

Science 2 Industry and the Hartree Centre

WelcomeScience 2 Industry (S2I)in partnership with the Hartree Centre provides UK businesses with access to world-leading facilities and expertise in advanced digital technologies, including supercomputing, data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). We’re here to help you to identify and embed the right digital expertise and technologies that will boost business performance, reduce costs and maximise the productivity of people and processes.

As part of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) within UK Research and Innovation, the Hartree Centre is underpinned by over £170m of UK Government funding, resulting in access to world-leading scientific infrastructure and a considerable competitive advantage for our customers and collaborators.

We support business of all sizes and across many sectors, helping them to begin or progress on their digital journey. Depending on your needs, our flexible approach allows for both long-term Research and Development (R&D) collaborations, or short-term access to our advanced digital technologies and expertise.

We also support and build digital expertise within existing and future generations of the UK workforce by developing bespoke training for organisations and working closely with universities to provide hands-on educational opportunities.

Seizing the opportunity and harnessing the potential of Industry 4.0 technologies will require innovation and investment. Unleashing the UK’s potential is dependent on the speed at which businesses and research organisations can innovate and develop digital technologies to support key economic, social and environmental objectives.

The Hartree Centre is here to support that drive.

Our mission

To transform UK industry by accelerating the adoption of high performance computing, big data analytics and artificial intelligence technologies.

Get in touch to see how we could help to realise your digital ambitions.

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Who we areThe Hartree Centre is named after Douglas Rayner Hartree, a mathematician, physicist and champion of early electronic computer development. His passion for innovation and technological advancement is at the heart of what we do.

Our team is made up of chemists, physicists, mathematicians, software engineers, data scientists, technical architects, project managers and business development specialists - a community of experts, working to translate the latest computational advances into digital solutions that deliver an effective and sustainable economic impact for UK businesses.

We have access to a network of strategic industry partners including IBM, Atos, Siemens and more. We’re also home to the University of Liverpool’s Virtual Engineering Centre and one of only two locations to host an IBM Research team in the UK.

As a technology partner in the ERDF-funded LCR4.0 programme, we were recognised by the Financial Times as one of Europe’s 100 Digital Champions for helping SMEs in the Liverpool City Region to embrace and integrate Industry 4.0 technologies.

“ It may well be that the high-speed digital computer will have as great an influence on civilization as the advent of nuclear power.”Douglas Rayner Hartree

STFC Daresbury Laboratory

The Hartree Centre

Who we are

“ It may well be that the high-speed digital computer will have as great an influence on civilization as the advent of nuclear power.”Douglas Rayner Hartree

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What we do What we do Modelling & simulationThe scale of our supercomputers enables high fidelity modelling and simulation, from detailed engineering analysis to understanding chemical reactions at a molecular level. Our code coupling capabilities help expand upon existing models to capture complex multi-scale and multi-physics effects which means we can help your business to carry out iterative research and development processes within a supercomputer, running faster high-fidelity simulations to develop and test prototypes and reduce time to market.

Software development and optimisationWe are designing, testing and optimising software for the world’s most advanced microprocessors – laying the building blocks for tomorrow’s supercomputers. With applications ranging from weather and climate forecasting to modelling and optimising electric power trains for a carbon free future. We can modernise existing codes and deliver optimised software suitable for current and future computing architectures.

Data scienceWe can help turn your business data into insights to aid decision-making and solve challenges. From increasing accuracy, improving productivity and efficiency with big data analytics to curating, cleaning and integrating existing and live-streamed datasets to create value from your data, our team can help you understand and prepare your data for advanced analytics, visualisation or AI applications.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) applicationsWe’re enabling businesses to streamline processes and boost productivity by taking full advantage of AI applications. We can help you use deep learning techniques to automate quality control and inspection processes or explore autonomous vehicle technology. Our team can also work with you using natural language processing to create chatbots and intelligent advisors, or sentiment analysis and automatic summarisation to help identify relevant changes in fast-moving global regulations, such as customs, health and safety or data protection.

Digital product designWe can combine our data, physics, engineering and modelling capabilities with our visual computing facilities to help build “digital twins” of products, production lines and processes and use them to increase quality and efficiency. We can help you explore and understand detailed aerodynamics of a vehicle, an aircraft and even the wind flow around a building using our Virtual Wind Tunnel without the need for a physical prototype, offering an accessible way for you to bring your designs to life and saving time and money for your business.

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How we do it’Collaborative R&DWe work with clients on a commercial basis, or as a partner in a funded research project, to define a challenge within their business and build a team to deliver a bespoke digital solution that accelerates R&D, reduces costs and improves the productivity of people and processes.

Platform as a serviceWe provide the computing power to your own experts as they require it, to improve products and services on a pay-as-you-go basis for a competitive cost per core hour. Only pay for what you need.

Creating digital assets We design new industry-led software applications to solve sector-based challenges, which are then made available for industry and the research community to license.

Training and skillsWe offer hands-on training programmes, workshops and events at a variety of levels, from introductory to expert. If our existing events don’t suit your needs, we can work with you to design a bespoke course for your team. We also collaborate with UK universities on postgraduate training and support an MSc in Big Data and High Performance Computing at the University of Liverpool.

Funding opportunitiesWe can help you to apply for both STFC-based and external sources of funding to carry out collaborative projects with us, such as Bridging for Innovators (B4I), which offers businesses access to a suite of unique high-tech scientific facilities and knowledge to fast-track solutions to industrial challenges.

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Our Technologies

At the Hartree Centre, we host a range of high performance computing platforms and cutting edge facilities, including:

Scafell PikeA Bull Sequana X1000 supercomputer, helps key scientific areas including: molecular modelling and material science, life sciences, virtual engineering and simulation, and deep learning.

JADEA Bull Atos NVIDIA DGX1 Deep Learning supercomputer, has particular relevance for: GPU-enabled computing, DL-enabled HPC application development, and prototyping and algorithm development.

PantherAn IBM POWER8 with 512 POWER8 cores, and Paragon, an IBM POWER8 with NVLink and 656 POWER8 cores, can help businesses with a focus on: chemistry, life sciences, engineering and manufacturing, and enabling technologies.

DawsonAn IBM data analytics platform, supports a range of IBM and open source software with particular benefit for: transport planning, healthcare, financial modelling and blockchain.

Atos Quantum Learning Machine (QLM)The Atos Quantum Learning Machine is the UK’s first quantum computing simulation environment, enabling companies to develop algorithms and become more resilient to the evolving digital landscape.

Visual Computing FacilitiesOur range of visual computing facilities and event spaces are suitable for training, small-scale conferences, product demonstrations and more. Our immersive visualisation capabilities are well-suited to in-depth data analysis, modelling and simulation, while our VR/AR facilities could allow you to explore virtual product development and make design changes early on in your development process.

Our Technologies

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Hartree Centre in Action: Engineering and Manufacturing

Hartree Centre in Action: Engineering and ManufacturingOur systems and high performance software engineers can open up new possibilities for the engineering and manufacturing sector with high-fidelity modelling and simulation, offering detailed engineering analysis to help accelerate product development and reduce R&D costs. Our code coupling capabilities can expand on existing models to solve complex multi-scale and multi-physics problems, from fluid dynamics and turbulence to combustion modelling. Our team can help to modernise your code and deliver optimised software, accelerating innovation and future-proofing for next generation architectures. Our visual computing facilities can be used to develop and explore digital twins of products, production lines, processes and environments that aid decision-making. Using our data analytics and AI expertise can even help you to automate product inspection, improve understanding of the regulatory environment or drive efficiency improvements by generating insights from production data to optimising manufacturing processes.

Improving aerodynamic engineering in Formula One

“ This has provided opportunities to work with experts outside our normal field of experience and allowed us to undertake ‘bluesky’ research projects that would otherwise be too risky or expensive for an SME like us to undertake.”Robert Lewis, TotalSim

Improving aerodynamic engineering in Formula OneWe worked alongside TotalSim – an aerodynamics and CFD company – to understand vortex formation in Formula One cars and improve aerodynamic performance.

Many components on a modern Formula One car are designed by aerodynamicists to shed vortices. These vortices are used to control the air flow around the race car in order to maximise the downforce that can be generated. Understanding the dynamics of vortex structures is important as they have a direct impact on vehicle performance. TotalSim were looking to develop an algorithm that could extract, label and track vortices in vehicle simulation data to help identify the most promising design solutions more efficiently.

The Hartree Centre team used image processing techniques to identify significant

features and went on to develop a versatile algorithm capable of being applied to images from both simulations and virtual experiments as well as analysing large image sets and offering detailed insights into the formation of vortex structures, leading to better vehicle designs with enhanced aerodynamic efficiency.

“ This has provided opportunities to work with experts outside our normal field of experience and allowed us to undertake ‘bluesky’ research projects that would otherwise be too risky or expensive for an SME like us to undertake.”Robert Lewis, TotalSim

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“ This is an unprecedented opportunity to transform working practices in healthcare and enable doctors to spend less time on paperwork and more time with patients.”Iain Hennessey Alder Hey Children’s Hospital

Making a difference using AIThrough our collaboration with Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, we harnessed the power of artificial intelligence to personalise children’s healthcare by creating a chatbot to enhance the patient experience. Our team is also developing ways to further integrate AI into the hospital using IBM Watson. The ‘Ask Oli’ chatbot uses the hospital’s mascot elephant character to interact and answer questions in real time, reducing patient and relative concerns in a way that is both innovative and fun. This is helping Alder Hey to forge a path to more personalised treatment, enhance health outcomes, increase patient satisfaction and save money. From faster identification of clinical trends, to monitoring admission patterns to aid planning, the potential is limitless.

“ This is an unprecedented opportunity to transform working practices in healthcare and enable doctors to spend less time on paperwork and more time with patients.”Iain Hennessey Alder Hey Children’s Hospital

Hartree Centre in Action: Health and Life Sciences

Hartree Centre in Action: Health and Life SciencesFrom understanding how drugs interact at a molecular level to modelling patient flow through hospitals, our ability to analyse large datasets and apply AI technologies can open up new insights for your organisation to aid decision-making, streamline processes and maximise efficiencies. We can also assist in drug discovery by combining simulation and machine learning to generate detailed 2D and 3D visualisations of candidate compounds, accelerating lead optimisation and reducing R&D costs by streamlining prototyping and boosting the innovation cycle.

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Optimising drug discoveryThe cost of developing new, successful drugs is soaring, with huge implications for productivity. Our researchers worked with AstraZeneca to accelerate lead optimisation by providing insights on a new class of drugs with the potential to reduce costs and bridge that productivity gap. The team developed computational workflows that blend molecular dynamics - a technique that simulates the movements atoms and molecules on a supercomputer - with machine learning. This offered an insight into how chemical modifications influence shape and therefore permeability. This helped identify how to make a drug more permeable or easy to manufacture, saving costs and boosting productivity.

The project included a novel approach to making computational notebooks accessible on supercomputers, helping to democratise computational science, giving domain scientists easy access to high performance computational workflows and analytics.

“ We are excited to build upon this collaboration and work towards large scale benchmarking exercises and adoption of machine learning capabilities”Anders Hogner, AstraZeneca

“ We are excited to build upon this collaboration and work towards large scale benchmarking exercises and adoption of machine learning capabilities”Anders Hogner, AstraZeneca

Optimising drug discovery

Hartree Centre in Action: Chemistry and Materials

Hartree Centre in Action: Chemistry and MaterialsWe help industry to remain competitive using an integrated suite of our data analytics, modelling, and simulation capabilities to address business challenges in chemistry and materials problems with world-class scale and accuracy. Our track record in atomistic and mesoscale modelling can shed light on properties, functions, structures and geometries, with applications from drug discovery and packaging and coatings to energy and environmental infrastructure. We combine our domain specific expertise with an in-depth knowledge of the application of data-driven and AI technologies to transform chemical and materials product design and help industry move away from ad-hoc, labour-intensive and expensive approaches to more robust and adaptive computer-aided paradigms to boost efficiency in the development of new products.

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Hartree Centre in Action: Data Analytics

Hartree Centre in Action: Data AnalyticsWe can help you explore how data-driven technologies like advanced analytics, predictive modelling and AI applications can improve business productivity and strengthen your competitive advantage. Our ability to analyse and visualise large datasets fast using the strength of our supercomputing infrastructure, combined with a team of data science experts who can help you collate and clean your data, can enable you to draw valuable insights that enable smarter decision making, more efficient processes and significant cost-savings.

Using data science to pick the right healthcare appThere are thousands of healthcare apps on the market. Knowing which will be the safest and most effective for patients to monitor or manage their condition can be tricky. ORCHA advise governments, and health and social care organisations, on how to select the highest quality health apps that will have the greatest benefit for a patient and then encourage their take-up. But reviewing and categorising the apps is a time-consuming manual process.

Through the ERDF-funded LCR 4.0 programme, ORCHA worked with data scientists at the Hartree Centre to explore new data-driven techniques that could speed up their evaluation process and develop a more sustainable business model.

The Hartree Centre developed techniques and proof-of-concept tools that have enabled ORCHA to explore a more data-driven approach that will enable it to scale up

and offer even more insight in its app reviews. The project influenced the company’s future approach to data collection and analysis and speed up and enhanced the accuracy of the current health app evaluation service. This improved ORCHA’s ability to support patients, and the efficiency of healthcare professionals’ recommendations.

“ The Hartree Centre has proven the value of data science to our business and led to us expanding our team to create new jobs in data driven roles.”Liz Ashall-Payne, ORCHA

Using data science to pick the right healthcare appThere are thousands of healthcare apps on the market. Knowing which will be the safest and most effective for patients to monitor or manage their condition can be tricky. ORCHA advise governments, and health and social care organisations, on how to select the highest quality health apps that will have the greatest benefit for a patient and then encourage their take-up. But reviewing and categorising the apps is a time-consuming manual process.

Through the ERDF-funded LCR 4.0 programme, ORCHA worked with data scientists at the Hartree Centre to explore new data-driven techniques that could speed up their evaluation process and develop a more sustainable business model.

The Hartree Centre developed techniques and proof-of-concept tools that have enabled ORCHA to explore a more data-driven approach that will enable it to scale up

and offer even more insight in its app reviews. The project influenced the company’s future approach to data collection and analysis and speed up and enhanced the accuracy of the current health app evaluation service. This improved ORCHA’s ability to support patients, and the efficiency of healthcare professionals’ recommendations.

“ The Hartree Centre has proven the value of data science to our business and led to us expanding our team to create new jobs in data driven roles.”Liz Ashall-Payne, ORCHA

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The combined research strength of The Hartree Centre and the University of Birmingham opens

up a number of opportunities for partners across the West Midlands.

Whilst the University has experts across multiple disciplines, the heart of the partnership lies in the understanding of, and application of, data science and advanced machine learning.

The partnership is committed to helping people and industry adopt new data technologies, and supporting the

outstanding work being carried out at the University’s School of Computer Science, conducting world-leading research in fundamental and applied computer science, artificial intelligence, optimisation, computer security, medical imaging and robotics.

Transport - Aerospace • High Temperature Research

Centre (HTRC) – SIA2017. Based in Coventry, the HTRC is a collaboration between the University of Birmingham and Rolls-Royce, and provides production scale research and experimentation to deliver rapid high-quality product and process innovation. The HTRC focuses on the key design and manufacturing aspects of investment casting and is a self-contained investment casting foundry.

• Manufacturing Technology Centre (HVM Catapult) – SIA2017. Based in Coventry (and founded by the universities of Birmingham, Loughborough and Nottingham with TWI15), the MTC provides manufacturing system solutions in partnership with industry, academia and RTOs. The MTC is focused on three core technology areas: Assembly Systems; Component Manufacturing Systems; and Data Systems for Manufacturing.

Driving innovation with the University of Birmingham

By 2023, the big data industry will be worth an estimated $77 billion.

By 2023, the big data industry will be worth an estimated $77 billion.

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Transport – Rail• Birmingham Centre for Rail

Research and Education (BCRRE): the largest university-based centre for railway research, education and innovation in Europe, lead organisation of the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network, a £92M partnership between industry and academia and a strategic partner of HS2 of which Digital Rail Innovation Centre is delivering new digital innovation and advanced sensor technologies to the rail industry. BCRRE also provide the governance for the national Rail Alliance. The rail sector’s largest dedicated B2B networking organisation, the Rail Alliance is all about bringing customers, suppliers and supply chain opportunities together.

• The University of Birmingham Radar Group is the largest in the country, and has a proud history of working with defence and local automotive industries - with their distance-keeping radars, for example. The need for ever more sophisticated radar will grow as we require secure, safe and future-proofed application of radar technologies for autonomous vehicles (and urban aviation).

The West Midlands region is a beacon of opportunity in terms of its potential to grow and contribute to the national levelling-up agenda.

The West Midlands region is a beacon of opportunity in terms of its potential to grow and contribute to the national levelling-up agenda.

Data Driven Health and Life Sciences • The University of Birmingham and

University Hospitals Birmingham are the lead partners in two (of eight) Health Data Research UK Hubs: INSIGHT – The Health Data Research Hub for Eye Health, and PIONEER – The Health Data Research Hub for Acute Care. The University of Warwick lead the PathLAKE (Pathology image data Lake for Analytics, Knowledge and Education) national centre of excellence for the use of digital pathology and AI in pathology.

• Life Sciences Park – working in partnership with leading UK developers and science park operators, the University-owned 4ha site will attract over £200m of investment for new health and life sciences businesses to co-locate at the heart of the Birmingham Health Partners campus, enabling businesses to collaborate with the University and its NHS partners.

• Precision Health Technologies Accelerator – the proposed new health technologies accelerator and incubator based on the Birmingham Life Sciences Park will focus on the delivery of new medical diagnostics, advanced clinical trials, digital healthcare systems and working with early stage businesses to support innovation and rapid development, prototyping, testing and deployment of new healthcare technologies.

• Med-Tech CONNECT West Midlands, led by the Healthcare Technologies Institute, brings together a range of partners - local industry; civic leadership; multi-disciplinary academic and clinical expertise; the Manufacturing Technology Centre and medical technologies industry bodies; as well as patients and citizens – to tackle major challenges to the economic growth of the medical technologies sector within the West Midlands.

• Centre for Regulatory Science – partnering with national regulation-setting bodies in health and life sciences to de ne new frameworks for delivering regulation policy and advice and guidance to businesses, critical to the innovation pathway and to market acceptance.

Data Driven Health and Life Sciences

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Energy• Energy Research Accelerator (ERA):

The Energy Research Accelerator with an innovation campus in Tyseley (with over £240M investment) is the largest energy innovation activity in the UK. Together with MTC, Birmingham and ERA will lead the transformation of regional supply chains towards sustainable technologies of the future. Priorities include decarbonisation of heating and cooling (national policy

commission with the CBI) and new technologies to achieve sustainability in Li-ion battery manufacturing/recycling life cycle.

• Birmingham Energy Innovation Centre – new £20m energy innovation centre being constructed on the Tyseley Energy Innovation Park.

Emerging Sectors• UK National Centre for Nuclear Robotics,

University of Birmingham: Applying advanced AI methods and real-time sensing to guide and control robots for a number of industries (manufacturing, recycling, nuclear, food etc).

• National Buried Infrastructure Facility, University of Birmingham: West Midlands portal to the £138M UK Collaboratorium for Research on Infrastructure and Cities with a mission to underpin the renewal, sustainment and improvement of infrastructure and cities. This world-leading facility allows for testing of underground assets, aiming at reducing invasive utility inspection by 40%.

• UK National Quantum Technology Hub in Sensors and Timing, University of Birmingham: a collaborative program between industry and academia totalling £150M in activities aimed at game-changing sensor innovation for enhancing productivity in infrastructure and construction projects, enabling urban flight, advancing brain health in the ageing society and acquiring resilient position, navigation and timing information without satellite networks.

• The universities of Birmingham and Warwick are partners in the Alan Turing Institute, the UK National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. Discussions to establish a “TuringWM” hub to provide a focus for AI and Data Science in the West Midlands are at an early stage.

• STFC Regional Centre at the UoB (Science 2 Industry): STFC has established a regional centre at the University of Birmingham that strengthens STFC’s industrial engagement in the Midlands. Through the STFC Regional Centre, businesses can access the national facilities, including Diamond Light Source, Central Laser Facility, RAL Space, Accelerator Science and the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source. These facilities support the solving of complex technical challenges that cannot be solved by universities or other research organisations alone.

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Our regional centre, hosted by the University of Birmingham, really strengthens STFC’s industrial engagement in the Midlands. STFC’s world standing science and technology, along with expertise from our partners the University and MTC, provides an exciting one stop technical solutions offer to businesses across all sectors. We welcome technical challenges from large and small businesses to help overcome productivity issues.

Ric Allott Director of Business Development Science and Technology Facilities Council

For information about how we could help you, visit:

www.science2industry.co.ukOr email:[email protected]

For information about how we could help you, visit:

www.science2industry.co.ukOr email:[email protected]