Physical & Life Sciences Related Research Projects

A Virtual Research Environment framework for Cancer Imaging

This project is part of phase three of the VRE programme funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) which aims to provide a framework to allow researchers and clinicians involved in Cancer Imaging to share information, images and algorithms.

Advanced Dynamic Energy Pricing and Tariffs (ADEPT)

The aim of ADEPT is to find the most appropriate level of complexity of dynamic electricity tariffs, the impact on consumers and distribution network operators, and the trade-offs which offer quantifiable benefits to both. The measures tested will include both technical (what can be identified within the real-time data set) and the social (what is the most complicated real-time pricing tariff that a consumer will accept, in given conditions for controlling usage?).

ARTEMIS

ARTEMIS stands for Advanced Radio Transient Event Monitor and Identification System. It is a project that is based on a versatile CPU-GPU telescope backend for processing of time-series data in radio astronomy.

ASEArch

Algorithms and Software for Emerging Architectures (ASEArch) is a new EPSRC-funded Collaborative Computational Project (CCP). Its aim is to investigate the use of novel architectures such as NVIDIA GPUs, and Intel's Many Integrated Core (MIC) acclerators, and assist other application CCPs in adopting this technology, where appropriate.

Bio-Image Informatics

The focus of the project is on developing a suite of bio-image analysis and processing solutions to be utilized across the whole of University of Oxford, for research projects embracing the true breadth of the collaboration across experimental and theoretical physics, biochemistry, biology, engineering and computer science.

Cancer and Cardiac Imaging

The Cancer and Cardiac Imaging is a collaboration between University of Oxford and the Technical Computing Initiative of Microsoft Corporation.

ClimatePrediction.net

Performed the world’s first probabilistic £300K* forecast of anthropogenic climate change by distributing screen saver software to businesses and the general public which will perform pre-packaged models of a 100-year simulation 1950-2050.

Cluster of Research Infrastructures and Synergies in Physics (CRISP)

The purpose of this project is to create synergies and develop common solutions for an initial group of eleven ESFRI-PPs (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructure preparatory phase) projects in the field of Physics, Astronomy, and Analytical Facilities. Its ultimate aim is to supply the best service to the rapidly growing and largely diversified user community, and to ensure that the large investments made at the national and international levels result in significant progress in science. e-Research Centre participation is to represent the SKA project within the consortia, specifically with work on ICT infrastructure and DAQ systems.

Flamingo

Flamingo is a general-purpose auto-tuning framework for software optimisation. The software automates the process of finding optimal settings for program parameters, even reducing the number of tests needed. Flamingo began as a third year undergraduate project, and was then further developed with funding from an EPSRC vacation bursary.

High Performance Distributed Network Operation (HiPerDNO)

Future electricity distribution networks with mass deployment of network equipment sensors and instrumentation, millions of smart meters, small-scale embedded generation, and responsive load will generate vast amounts of data requiring near to real-time analysis. So-called cloud and grid computing will enable scalable data mining, feature extraction, and near to real-time state estimation. These and other HPC tools and techniques have been recently developed to cost-effectively solve large scale computational challenges in areas such as genomics, biomedicine, particle physics and other major scientific and engineering fields that require similarly scalable communications, computation and data analysis. Based on such recent success it is the aim of this proposal to develop a new generation of distribution network management systems that exploit novel near to real-time HPC solutions with inherent security and intelligent communications for smart distribution network operation and management. Cost effective scalable HPC solutions will be developed and initially demonstrated for realistic distribution network data traffic and management scenarios via off-line field trials involving several distribution network owners and operators.

Lowering the barriers to cancer imaging

This project aims to enhance the way cancer imaging research is conducted at Oxford University.

OP2

The OP2 project is developing an open-source framework for the execution of unstructured grid applications on clusters of GPUs or multi-core CPUs. Although OP2 is designed to look like a conventional library, the implementation uses source-source translation to generate the appropriate back-end code for the different target platforms. This project is part of a larger EPSRC-funded project on Multi-layered Abstractions for PDE's which is a collaboration with Imperial College.

OSKAR-1: Beamforming simulation for the SKA aperture array

The project aims to simulate the digital beamforming requirements for the mid-frequency aperture array of an SKA station.

ViBRANT

The Virtual Biodiversity Research and Access Network for Taxonomy A European Union FP7 funded project running December 2010 to 2013 that will support the development of virtual research communities involved in biodiversity science. Our goal is to provide a more integrated and effective framework for those managing biodiversity data on the Web.