First European SCAT Workshop
Daresbury Laboratory, 26-30 June 2006.
Daresbury Laboratory
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Daresbury Laboratory is one of three UK research labs, owned and operated by the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils (CCLRC). The three laboratories —Rutherford and Chilbolton are the other two— exist to support the research community by providing access to advanced facilities and an extensive scientific and technical expertise. CCLRC operates very large scale scientific facilities, which would be beyond what any one university could have access to. It is one of Europe's largest multidisciplinary research units, with 1750 staff supporting over 10 thousand scientists in university research groups.
Daresbury hosts SRS, the Synchrotron Radiation Source, a large mix of experimental facilities which deliver radiation with wavelengths extending from the infrared to hard X-rays. It is also the house of HPCx, the National High Performance Computing Service, a 12Tflop/s peak IBM p690+ cluster.
Daresbury Laboratory lies in the green and pleasant countryside of Cheshire, about a 40-minute drive west from Manchester, not far from the Welsh border. The claim to fame of the scattered houses that form Daresbury village is in being the birthplace of "Alice in Wonderland" author Lewis Carroll.
Conference Thematic Focus
HPCx at Daresbury Laboratory
The thematic focus of this meeting was Advanced Computational Research. Representatives from the partner institutions, and guests, discussed how to solve their scientific problems of interest in appropriate computational infrastructure, in particular, high-performance computers.
- The focus of this meeting is on computational modelling leading to scientific discovery.
- In the applications domain, the meeting's focus was on the scientific problems of interest to the partners of the SCAT project. Participants gave presentations on their research programmes and the computational challenges they face.
- In the technology domain, there were specialized lectures in the topics of cluster computing, parallel computing, debugging and profiling, performance tools, scientific libraries. There were talks given by selected vendors of high-performance computing equipment and services.
Conference Announcement Poster PDF:
Poster in A4 format announcing the meeting held 26-30 June 2006 in Daresbury Laboratory.
Daresbury church
Location
The meeting was held at the location of Daresbury Laboratory, near Daresbury village in Warrington.
Arriving by air, there are two nearby airports to Daresbury: Liverpool John Lennon Airport is about 40 minutes away by car; Manchester International Airport is 30 minutes away by car. You can find information about which carriers operate at these airports on the respective websites.
If arriving to any of the London airports, Warrington can be easily reached by rail. The two train stations which are closer to the conference hotel (see hotel information below) are Frodsham and Runcorn. Rail times and connections are checked using the National Rail enquiries website.
More instructions on getting there at the Daresbury Lab website >>
The organizing team selected an excellent hotel, located on beautiful countryside and with lovely views. Forest Hills Hotel has a heated indoor swimming pool, fully equipped gym, and wireless internet free of charge throughout the hotel. The hotel is easily reached by taxi from both Liverpool and Manchester airports. Daily commute to Daresbury Lab (12 km away) was arranged by hired coach service.
Conference hotel information PDF:
Information about Forest Hills Hotel, the amenities, cost and room booking options.
Daresbury, Cheshire
A village of great charm, Daresbury is a quiet spot of rural Cheshire, of which Lewis Carroll wrote:
An island farm; mid seas of corn
Swayed by the wandering breath of morn
The happy spot where I was born
Programme
The conference programme included scientific talks by the SCAT members, as well as presentations from selected vendors who had the opportunity to showcase their technology. One highlight of the programme was a distance seminar delivered via Access Grid, in which members of the team that developed the PETSc library presented a tutorial. The tutorial slides can be found in the PETSc website, under the navigation heading "Tutorials".
During this meeting, deliberations were held for the selection of the first round of SCAT grantees, who initiate their mobilities in September 2006. Moreover, plans for the first short course in parallel scientific computing, to be held in Chile in January 2007, were discussed.
Conference Programme PDF:
Daily programme of activities, and scientific presentations.
Download SCAT meeting template in PPT:
Template used for preparing PowerPoint presentations for the Daresbury meeting.
Conference Fees
Conference fees for SCAT members correspond to the 25% co-financing of the SCAT meeting allowance, according to the "General Rules" document. This document is available in the project's Blackboard site, and all members are required to inform themselves of its contents.
| SCAT members | €150 (4 days) €187.5 (5 days) |
| Academic, non-members | €200 |
| Industrial sponsors | €300 |
Industrial sponsors' fees help fund the production of the meeting, including coffee breaks and buffet lunches, and are provided by selected vendors who showcase their technology during a special session at the meeting.
