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ARCHER2 Weekly Newsletter

By ARCHER2 Service on April 1, 2026

Tags: newsletters 

Intermediate Research Software Development

University of Manchester, 13 April 2026 13.30-17.00, 14 - 16 April 2026 09:30 - 17:00 (Rescheduled)

This course aims to teach a core set of established, intermediate-level software development skills and best practices for working as part of a team in a research environment using Python as an example programming language (see detailed Learning objectives below). The core set of skills we teach is not a comprehensive set of all-encompassing skills, but a selective set of tried-and-tested collaborative development skills that forms a firm foundation for continuing on your learning journey.

A typical learner for this course may be someone who is working in a research environment, needing to write some code, has gained basic software development skills either by self-learning or attending, e.g., a novice Software Carpentry Python course. They have been applying those skills in their domain of work by writing code for some time, e.g. half a year or more. However, their software development-related projects are now becoming larger and are involving more researchers and other stakeholders (e.g. users), for example:

Software is becoming more complex and more collaborative development effort is needed to keep the software running Software is going further than just the small group developing and/or using the code there are more users and an increasing need to add new features ‘Technical debt’ is increasing with demands to add new functionality while ensuring previous development efforts remain functional and maintainable

They now need intermediate software engineering skills to help them design more robust software code that goes beyond a few thrown-together proof-of-concept scripts, taking into consideration the lifecycle of software, writing software for stakeholders, team ethic and applying a process to understanding, designing, building, releasing, and maintaining software.

Full details and registration

Profiling and Optimisation Workshop

Online 14th - 15th April 2026 09:00 - 17:00

This 2-day advanced level on-line course will give attendees the skills needed to understand the system architecture of platforms such as ARCHER2 and the new Cirrus system, the programming environment and furthermore explains how application performance can be explored by means of profiling tools and which optimisation strategies are available. The course comprises lectures, examples and follow-along demos. It covers both CPU and GPU usage.

Full details and registration

Discrete element method simulations on national HPC facilities

Free webinar, Wednesday 15th April 2026 15:00 - 16:00

The discrete element method (DEM) is used to model particulate solids (granular materials) with particle sizes typically larger than 1 micron. These materials are highly diverse, including soils, pharmaceutical powders and many food ingredients. DEM models individual particles and their interactions over time, and is algorithmically similar to molecular dynamics.

The presenter has been running DEM simulations on national HPC facilities since 2012 (HECToR). He has principally used the Granular package of LAMMPS, adapting the source code as required. In this webinar, he will present examples of his and collaborators’ research in two areas which have been enabled by DEM on national HPC facilities: the simulation of triaxial tests to gain insights into sand behaviour, and current research on abrasion in particle systems.

The second part of the webinar will discuss broader trends in DEM and their effect on HPC usage. The desire to simulate larger systems and increase particle shape fidelity are both motivating the adoption of HPC.

DEM code developments are being undertaken to ensure that codes can efficiently run on GPUs, which will be essential to exploit the next generation of HPC systems.

The webinar will close with a summary of CCC-ParaSolS: an STFC-funded project to create a multi-disciplinary Collaborative Computational Community in particulate solids simulations for the UK. A code development project is being undertaken within CCC-ParaSolS to enable the MercuryDPM code to be run efficiently on GPUs. Since early 2025, CCC-ParaSolS has delivered bespoke training at network events to reduce the barriers to adopting open-source DEM codes and accessing HPC systems such as ARCHER2.

Full details and join link

Modern C++ for Computational Scientists

Online 15 - 17 April 2026 09:30 - 16:30

With the recent revisions to the C++ language and standard library, the ways it is now being used are quite different. Used well, these features enable the programmer to write elegant, reusable and portable code that runs efficiently on a variety of architectures.

However it is still a very large and complex tool. This course will cover a minimal set of features to allow an experienced non-C++ programmer to get to grips with language.

These include:

  • overloading
  • templates
  • containers
  • iterators
  • lambdas
  • standard algorithms

We will also briefly cover some important libraries for numerical computing.

Full details and registration

Message Passing programming with MPI

Imperial College London, Wednesday 22nd - Thursday 23rd Apil 10:00 - 17:00 (In Person); Friday 1st May 10:00 - 12:30 (online)

The world’s largest supercomputers are used almost exclusively to run applications which are parallelised using Message Passing. The course covers all the basic knowledge required to write parallel programs using this programming model, and is directly applicable to almost every parallel computer architecture.

Parallel programming by definition involves co-operation between processors to solve a common task. The programmer has to define the tasks that will be executed by the processors, and also how these tasks are to synchronise and exchange data with one another. In the message-passing model the tasks are separate processes that communicate and synchronise by explicitly sending each other messages. All these parallel operations are performed via calls to some message-passing interface that is entirely responsible for interfacing with the physical communication network linking the actual processors together. This course uses the de facto standard for message passing, the Message Passing Interface (MPI). It covers point-to-point communication, non-blocking operations, derived datatypes, virtual topologies, collective communication and general design issues.

Full details and registration

Workflows

Online, 27 - 28 April 2026 10:00 - 12:00

his short seminar provides an introduction to modern scientific workflows and hands-on practice with two workflow systems. Over two half-days (4 hours each), attendees will:

Day 1

Understand the role and purpose of scientific workflows, including how and why they are used to structure and automate complex data-processing pipelines. Modules include an introduction to workflow concepts and an extended practical session creating workflows with Common Workflow Language (CWL), including exercises in a Google Colab Jupyter Notebooks to install and run CWL workflows.

Day 2

Explore dispel4py, a Python-based streaming workflow framework. Participants will work through basic and advanced concepts, build simple examples, and complete hands-on exercises using dispel4py in Google Colab Jupyter Notebooks, including some real-use cases drawn from scientific applications.

Prerequisites

Attendees should be comfortable with basic Python programming concepts and familiar with using Jupyter notebooks or Google Colab; no prior experience in workflow languages is required.

Learning objectives

By the end of the course attendees will be able to describe workflow concepts and systems, write and run basic CWL workflows in a notebook environment, and develop and test simple dispel4py workflows for streaming data processing.

Full details and registration

CHARTED flexible funds open for applications

Webinar, Tuesday 14 April 2026, Online

CHARTED aims to make the training landscape easier to navigate for new and experienced digital Research Technical Professionals (dRTP), partly through funding community-driven activities and initiatives. We are now accepting applications for:

  • Fund 2: Community Activities (maximum award per activity £5,000)
  • Fund 4: Professional Development (maximum award per individual £5,000)

Deadline for both funds: Wednesday 15th April 2026.

If you’re not sure if this is for you or if you have questions about your application, join us for a webinar on Tuesday 14th April 2026 at 12:00 BST.

Please register here

Recently added known issues

The “Known Issues” page of the ARCHER2 Documentation https://docs.archer2.ac.uk/known-issues/ lists all current open known issues including a description of the issue, its symptoms and any work-arounds.

No recent issues

Upcoming ARCHER2 Training

Further details of upcoming training

We always welcome researchers wishing to present their work in a webinar - please contact the Service Desk if you would be interested in presenting your work.

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Recordings of past courses

Recordings of past virtual tutorials