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NEW: The centre has been investigating the use of standard self-describing data formats for Astrophysical simulations and visualisation. Further details are available here.
A colloborative project between the Newcastle General Hospital and the centre has recently been chosen as the first winner of the Compusys HPC Grant Initiative Scheme. By performing Monte Carlo simulations with a computational cluster the project is seeking to better understand the treatment and application of radiotherapy for cancer patients. Further details are available here.
The Leicester e-Science Centre is one of seven Centres of Excellence which augment the existing National and Regional e-Science Centres in the UK, providing additional expertise in e-Science applications and further resources for the UK e-Science Grid. In common with other centres, Leicester will also host an AccessGrid node for multi-site remote conferencing.
The Leicester Centre is based in the University's Department of Physics
and Astronomy and will build on the Department's already highly regarded
expertise in astrophysical modelling, data archiving, high performance
computing and space research.
The establishment of the Centre has strong links to existing local initiatives:
- Leicester's major role in the AstroGrid project, the core of the UK
contribution to integrating the world's astronomical data resources into a
global Virtual Observatory;
- the Leicester-based UKAFF
supercomputer, used by astrophysicists nationwide for detailed modelling
of complex cosmic phenomena;
- Leicester's leading role in astronomical data archive services through
the LEDAS system which has been at the forefront of online data access in
the UK for more than ten years, and in astronomical data processing,
e.g. for international projects such as XMM-Newton, SWIFT & WASP;
- the National Space Centre
(NSC), a Millennium Commission funded flagship project located in Leicester
city, in which the University of Leicester is a founding partner. The NSC
consists of a visitor centre (with planetarium), expansion to the University
research facilities and the first Challenger Learning Centre outside North
America.
Although the Centre is rooted in the Department's astrophysics and space
research expertise, a key aspect is that it should act as a focus for a
much wider range of e-science activities, both at Leicester and regionally.
The Centre will provide e-science expertise to the local academic
community, enabling researchers to take full advantage of the new developments
emerging in the use of the Internet. Examples include collaborative enterprises
that require access to large data collections, large scale computing resources
and high performance visualisation, but can extend to a much wider range
of research activities and not restricted to the physical sciences. Centre
funding has also provided an AccessGrid node, an advanced remote
conferencing facility which is currently being installed in the Department of Physics
and Astronomy and will be available for general use.
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