Big Bang Fair 2023
19 June 2023
We're looking forward to meeting everybody at this year's Big Bang Fair in Birmingham!
The ARCHER2 National Supercomputing Service includes a public engagement programme that demonstrates to people across the UK the relevance and benefits of high performance computing (HPC). In particular we seek to convince young people that STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) careers are open to them.
The Big Bang Fair, one of the country's largest STEM education events, gives us an excellent opportunity to reach large numbers of schoolchildren over three hectic but fun days. Our activities are designed to draw in a wide audience while demonstrating core concepts in computing, and especially to appeal to those who may have little initial interest in the subject.
Our ever-popular model supercomputer Wee Archie will be available to give a hands-on practical demonstration of computer simulation by enabling visitors to design an aeroplane wing. Wee Archie's light display corresponds to the live action of its nodes, demonstrating parallelism in action. To complement this, we will also bring some hardware boards, taken from various supercomputing services hosted by EPCC.
Other activities include logic puzzles, which give insight into how to program problems and so bridge the gap between human mind and machine, and the ever-popular ball sorting activity, which is designed to demonstrate the fundamental concepts of parallelism and scaling in action.
Our stand (124, Hall 12) will be staffed by EPCC colleagues whose expertise includes quantum computing, data science, HPC, and astrophysics among others. If you have a question about supercomputing, or just want to have fun with some of our demos, come and say hello!