**issue 41 dec 2000 PRINTER - EPCC - University of Edinburgh

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EDITORIAL EPCC in Scotland MAUREEN WILKINSON WELCOME to the Winter edition of EPCC News. In this issue we bring you up to date with the latest news on a few of the Scottish companies that are reaping the rewards of EPCC-provided solutions (see the articles on pages 3, 4 and 5). Small Scottish companies now make up over 50% of our commercial client base. This fact is important for two reasons. First, it illustrates the extent to which Scotland’s businesses now depend upon technology for their day-to-day operations. Second, it serves as a measure of the success of EPCC’s CALEDONIA project (see article on opposite page). EPCC News aims to provide a service for the high performance computing academic community and also to offer an informative read to others interested in state-of-the computing. This edition is the second of the new look EPCC News and we hope you appreciate the fresh approach. Comments and queries on EPCC’s commercial activities in Scotland should be sent to: enquiries@epcc.ed.ac.uk. Scottish Enterprise and EPCC – working together for Scottish business DR ARTHUR TREW In 1991, EPCC bid for funding from Scottish Enterprise to support industry work on our new CM-200 Connection Machine – at that time the most powerful computer in the UK. In 1992, the Scottish Enterprise Software Group agreed a funding package gated by clear business targets – and so began the relationship with one of our most long-term stakeholders. Over the years, EPCC and Scottish Enterprise have seen the market for high-end computing solutions change and with it the form of the partnership. But our constant focus has been to make a difference for industry and commerce, with, of course, a special focus on Scotland. In achieving this, our task has been eased by technological advances. No longer is it necessary to buy expensive, esoteric computers for many high-end problems – the improvement in networking functionality in MS Windows means that EPCC can often provide novel solutions within the context of standard PC networks. This, in turn, has broadened our client base, which now ranges from large, blue chip multinationals to small local companies. Today, Scottish Enterprise is helping EPCC fulfill its mission by providing seed-corn funding to enable Scottish SMEs evaluate the business benefits from novel computing. By improving their business processes we hope to increase the companies' competitiveness in the global marketplace and hence to grow the Scottish economy. So, is the plan working Yes! Over the last two years, EPCC has worked with many Scottish SMEs such as: Altamira Colour Ltd – an Ayrshire-based fabric manufacturer whose scheduling processes we helped improve; Weidlinger Associates Ltd – a recently-opened branch of a US engineering consultancy for whom EPCC produced new software for the design of medical ultrasound transducers; Integriti Ltd – an SME in Dingwall, which we are helping to develop a corrosion monitoring system. For the past two years, we have combined this project work with a marketing campaign part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. This project, known as CALEDONIA (see opposite page), is running a series of monthly seminars focused on a range of business sectors and we are visiting a wide variety of SMEs to investigate new challenges. We have already talked to over 500 companies and this is helping not only to raise awareness of the potential of novel computing solutions, but is enabling the range of seed-corn projects to be wider than ever before. Looking forward, EPCC is committed to remaining at the forefront of technological development and to transfer the benefits to industry. The current academic interest in Grid computing will, we believe, rapidly translate into business opportunities and so we are working with Scottish Enterprise to put together a new data exchange project to investigate the business-to-business opportunities. I believe that the last eight years have been beneficial to EPCC, Scottish Enterprise – and Scottish industry. I hope that our partnership will be as fruitful for the next eight and that this new data exchange project will be the first step towards a bright e-future. 2
MAUREEN WILKINSON Novel and high performance computing solutions could give you a competitive edge over your business rivals. That’s the message the CALEDONIA initiative has been delivering to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) throughout Lowland Scotland since its launch in 1998. Two years on and CALEDONIA is going strong. In fact, we’re busier than ever. Jointly funded by Scottish Enterprise and the European Regional Development Fund, CALEDONIA aims to create an awareness of the benefits of the novel use of high performance computing technology. It’s only in the past few years that such computing has become affordable by smaller organisations and it offers them significant opportunities to improve their competitive position. In the beginning, SMEs were rather nervous about CALEDONIA technologies – namely manufacturing planning software, clustering and machine vision. Now, thanks to our promotion of the business benefits of these technologies, SMEs have gained confidence and we’re now finding that we’re being inundated with requests to implement machine vision solutions! The key to the success of the initiative therefore has been making SMEs aware of the business benefits and opportunities presented by novel computing technology. This has been achieved through holding seminars (over 20 to date), demonstrator projects (over 5 to date and more about to begin – this includes CB Technology, as described on page 9) and the regular production of newsletters and information material. CALEDONIA is due to finish next year in 2001. We’re hopeful that the initiative will continue beyond this date as it is clear that Scottish SMEs have much to gain from using novel technologies and much to lose if they don’t. For more information about CALEDONIA, please contact Maureen Wilkinson, Caledonia Project Co-ordinator. Tel 0131 650 5027 or email m.wilkinson@epcc .ed.ac.uk Weidlinger II PAUL GRAHAM Carrying on from the successful project between Weidlinger Associates Ltd. and EPCC which concluded earlier this year, funding is currently being sought from Scottish Enterprise for a follow-on project. Weidlinger is a major US engineering consultancy with a European operation based in Fife. It offers a wide range of innovative services in the fields of structural and civil engineering, dynamics and applied mechanics. A crucial part of its business is based around its modelling software used in such areas as structural dynamics, survivability, explosive simulation and electromagnetic modelling. However, even with the performance gains offered by the pseudo-spectral method, it is still very computationally demanding. EPCC's role will be to look to implement new functionality within the software and to further improve its performance. The project is due to finish in October 2001. More detailed information on PZFlex can be found at Weidlinger's website: http://www.wai.com/ Like the first project, this one is concerned with the software package PZFlex. PZFlex is used for the finite-element modelling of piezoelectric devices and supports a broad range of modelling capabilities. It is used widely in industry and academia for tasks such as transducer modelling, sonar design and medical ultrasound modelling. This project is concerned mainly with a part of the software which utilises pseudo-spectral methods for modelling wave propagation through a heterogeneous medium. The pseudo-spectral method helps reduce memory requirements and computation time, and thus allows more accurate and complex models than those generated by more traditional methods. 3
Page 1: news The University of Edinburgh Is
Page 5 and 6: Looking closer at machine visionNEI
Page 7 and 8: Summer Scholarship Programme 2000 h
Page 9 and 10: EWOMP 2000 - the Second European Wo
Page 11 and 12: New starts at EPCC Lindsay Pottage,

**issue 41 dec 2000 PRINTER - EPCC - University of Edinburgh

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