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Dawn Pioneers: Help shape the future of AI computing at Cambridge

The Dawn system will significantly expand Cambridge’s compute capabilities, supercharging AI and simulation research across the University. With five times the performance of Cambridge’s previous GPU system, it is designed to meet the needs of researchers who require high performance computing for AI, with implications for our ability to use AI for research across climate science, astronomy, healthcare, and more.

  • Closed on: 8 January 2024

Shaping the future of AI computing at Cambridge

The Dawn system will significantly expand Cambridge’s compute capabilities, supercharging AI and simulation research across the University. With five times the performance of Cambridge’s previous GPU system, it is designed to meet the needs of researchers who require high performance computing for AI, with implications for our ability to use AI for research across climate science, astronomy, healthcare, and more.

To translate this capability into tools and applications that deliver real-world benefits, the system needs to be accessible to a wide range of research users across the AI and simulation communities. We’re inviting a cohort of pioneer projects with High Performance Computing needs to have early access to the Dawn system and help shape how researchers interact with this powerful new resource.

Early access to transformative computing capabilities

We’re inviting researchers across the University of Cambridge to submit applications by 17:00 on 8 January 2024. Pioneer projects will receive:

  • Early access to the Dawn supercomputer * Research software engineering support * Input into the design of system interfaces and workflows * Access to the Accelerate Science Machine Learning Engineering Clinic

For further information, please read the FAQs below or join our Q&A session on 18 December from 16:00 – 17:00 (register at this link).

Submit your application

To submit your application, fill out the form below by 17:00 (UK) on 8 January 2024.

If you have questions about the initiative, check out our FAQs below or email support@hpc.cam.ac.uk

Submit paper

FAQ's

This new compute resource will support AI and simulation research across the UK and the University of Cambridge. To make sure researchers across the community can capitalise on the benefits Dawn offers, we will need well-designed interfaces and working processes that make the system easy to use and understand. We hope that working with this cohort of pioneer projects will help us tailor our ways of working to the needs of the AI and simulation communities.

Applications are open to any postgraduate student or member of staff at the University of Cambridge, working in any discipline, including natural, physical, social, medical, and computer sciences, arts, humanities, and engineering.

Dawn is being designed to support converged AI and simulation workloads. To help us understand different types of stakeholder needs, we’re looking to engage with a variety of pioneer projects in the AI and simulation communities. You might already have extensive experience of engaging with high performance computing facilities, or none at all. You might be working on simulations specifically, or broader applications of AI.

In addition to early access to the Dawn system, we’re offering pioneer participants support in the form of research software engineering advice, and access to services such as the Accelerate Science Machine Learning Engineering Clinic. This first cohort of projects will be able to access the Dawn system free of charge.

The Dawn system provides 256 Dell XE9640 servers nodes, each with 4 Intel Data Centre Max 1550 GPUs (128 GB HBM RAM per GPU). Each server has 2 Gen 5 XEONs, 1TB RAM and 4 HDR200 Infiniband links. The system uses Intel GPUs, so applications need to use oneAPI or standard AI libraries ported to Intel GPUs.

The Dawn system will be coming online in January 2024, and we anticipate working with projects to set them up with the service in the first half of 2024.

The application requires:

  1. Name 2. Department 3. Project title 4. Project summary (max. 1000 characters) 5. Summary of compute needs (max. 1500 characters) 6. Level of familiarity with high performance compute systems (max. 1000 characters) 7. Type of support needed (max. 1000 characters) 8. Readiness/timescale for deployment (max. 1000 characters)

To apply, please submit an application form at https://forms.gle/futP2GvjWmnKLaFS9 by 17:00 on Monday 8 January 2024.