The Centre (2003-2005)

The School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham

The Midlands e-Science Centre (MeSC) was one of first seven established Centres of Excellence to augment the existing national and regional e-Science Centres. The Midlands e-Science Centre ran from 2003-2005. It was then incorporated in the University's main IT Services.

The purpose of these Centres of Excellence, as envisioned by the e-Science Core Programme, was to:

Add and coordinate expertise in technologies and applications important to e-Science
Add experience and resources to the existing UK e-Science Grid
Add regional coverage to the existing UK e-Science Grid
Host Access Grid nodes for multi-site remote conferencing

The Midlands e-Science Centre of Excellence was a virtual centre with a base in the School of Computer Science, University of Birmingham, and involvement of a large number of departments from across the University of Birmingham. The Centre had links to e-Science activities at the University of Warwick and a partnership with the Universities of Coventry and Wolverhampton. It received support from the "first tier" e-Science Centres on the National UK Grid at Oxford and Daresbury.

The Centre focused on "Modelling and Analysis of Large Complex Systems" as its area of excellence. It pooled together wide-ranging expertise in data- and CPU-intensive techniques for computational modelling, enabling multi-disciplinary collaboration on a scale not previously realised in the region. Its uniquely distinguishing aspect was the focus on long-term research into developing effective algorithms and software technology (simulation, numerical computation and evolutionary computation methods) for the Grid and their application to complex problems leading to scientific advancement or industrial benefit. MeSC had four primary aims:

To provide accessibility and connectivity for the Grid for the Midlands region.
To create a focal point for the activity of computational modelling of very large complex systems and a source of relevant expertise for industry.
To enable long-term research into numerical algorithms and simulation techniques for the Grid.
To foster collaboration between different academic disciplines in science, engineering and industry.

The University

The University of Birmingham is host to a substantial body of researchers in science and engineering involved in computational modelling of large-scale systems. The Centre has associations with over 20 research groups from different schools in the University, totalling over 200 full-time staff and PhD students. Research activity features both long-term collaborations, as well as smaller scale projects within the UK, impacting academia and industry in the region. Work is funded by the research councils (EPSRC, PPARC, NERC, BBSRC) and EU to the total of 20M, as well as DTI and industry (e.g. Rolls Royce, Jaguar, QinetiQ, Marconi, AstraZeneca).