EPCC and Doors Open Day 2023

The Bayes Building

The Bayes Building, home to EPCC, is one of the University’s more recent constructions and was named one of the winners of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) national architecture awards in 2021. On the Sunday we had a booth set up to showcase the work of EPCC to visitors to the Bayes.

^{Image shows our Doors Open Day stand in the Playfair Library.}

Playfair Library

At the other extreme, we had a booth at the Playfair Library on the Saturday, together with many of our colleagues from across the University. Designed by the prominent Scottish architect William Playfair in 1827, the highlight is its stunning neoclassical barrel-vaulted ceiling. This elegant building was used as a working library from the 1820s all the way through to the 1960s when the library was moved to George Square.

It was within this grand setting that we set up a booth to explain the work of EPCC to interested visitors. The Doors Open Day event was busy, with a broad mix of visitors of all ages and backgrounds. We spoke to people with a general interest in the research undertaken by the University, to potential students, and to families looking for engagement activities. Our aim was to explain the value of high performance computing and data science to society and the economy, and to demonstrate some of the activities we undertake at EPCC.

Our display of postcards showcasing the science carried out on ARCHER2, the UK’s National HPC system, was complemented by a hardware demonstration. We also had a hands-on engagement activity to demonstrate the concepts of sorting algorithms and how parallelism can be introduced into these algorithms. 

With over 600 people visiting it was a successful day and we look forward to similar events in the future.