An enhanced online graphics processing unit facility for Early Career Researchers

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To identify current needs of ECRs and decide on the best way to use this funding allocation to further their research, a consultation was held between current and recent eligible EPSRC grant holding ECRs from schools across the science faculty. In consultation with other ECRs and Directors of Research within the Science faculty, they identified a need for a centrally managed high-power parallel GPU computing facility. This would align well with internal strategies for equipment within the EPSRC disciple relevant schools, and would add value to and complement the existing investment within the university.With this bottom up approach we are confident that the proposed purchase of a centrally managed high-end multimode GPU server will provide maximum benefit to ECRs cross-faculty and enable their endeavours in world class cross-discipline research. From the perspective of scientific research, including large-scale data analysis, modelling and visualisation, the most important practical reason for using GPUs is that they enable rapid model prototyping and evaluation. These procedures, if performed on GPUs, will significantly reduce the barrier to building complex models from large scientific datasets, and for seeding potential applications of this research. This resource will hence accelerate advances across the breadth of scientific challenges being pursued by ECRs at Kent.