Outreach

At St Peter's primary school recently I had a go at teaching the P4 and 5s (8-10 year olds) about what computers really do, in particular sorting and searching algorithms.

As a follow-up to my recent post, the full set of podcasts from this year's MSc guest lecture series is now available, either from the School's podcast page, or via our iTunesU channel.

A visit to the museum is often filled with wonders about the past, other cultures, science and art. For five days in April, a visit to the National Museum of Scotland included an introduction to supercomputers. As part of the University of Edinburgh's programme of family events, EPCC staff and university students were there with a drop-in exhibit: "What Makes Supercomputers Super?". The exhibit had activities which the public, young and old, could interact with and gain insight into how supercomputers support the science being researched at the University of Edinburgh, building on the history displayed by the museum.

This month, Mario, Toni and I took a trip 'doon the water' to Rothesay Academy to introduce some of the concepts of supercomputing to first and second year pupils.

Rothesay is on the Isle of Bute and during the 19th century it was famous for its hydropathic establishments and treatments. Our team had been invited to visit the school as part of National Science and Engineering Week 2014, and we spent the day showing some of the demonstrations developed by EPCC for explaining the basics of supercomputing and its uses. 

On Monday 2 December, I took part in a panel on Software Engineering for the Professional Software Development course at the University of Glasgow's Computing Science department. Organised by Dr Tim Storer, a lecturer in Software Engineering, the panel was an opportunity for 3rd-year students of the computing science and software engineering programmes to quiz a varied group of software engineers.

If you have read any of my previous blogs, you will know that I have an interest in the lack of women working in the field of HPC and Physics. Last week I was lucky to be able to attend the third international Gender Summit in Washington DC, which aims to address, discuss and share ideas on how to improve the participation of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

The weekend of the 26th of October saw Eilidh, Fiona and myself attend the Manchester Science Festival (MSF)  at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI).

The library in Dalkeith was the setting for EPCC 's event at the Midlothian Science Festival, where we hoped to introduce and explain what supercomputers are and why they are needed.

In September, Our Dynamic Earth held a two-day event called 'Meet the Experts' for groups of secondary school pupils. EPCC was invited to attend, with Iain Bethune and myself volunteering to give short talks on what supercomputing is and why it is needed.