Latest news with #UniversityOfBristol
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Nvidia and University of Bristol debut UK's fastest AI supercomputer in sovereign AI push
Nvidia (NVDA) and the University of Bristol debuted the UK's Isambard-AI supercomputer on Thursday, part of Nvidia's push into so-called sovereign AI, or AI supercomputers built for individual nations. The fastest supercomputer in the country and one of the most energy-efficient supercomputers globally, the Isambard-AI supercomputer combines 5,448 Nvidia Grace Hopper superchips through a series of liquid-cooled HPE server cabinets packed with 440 GPUs each. The system is meant to perform research on everything from materials science to drug discovery to large language models designed for UK-specific languages such as Welsh. Impressively, according to University of Bristol professor Simon McIntosh-Smith, the entire system came together in less than two years. Normally, it takes more than three years to complete similar projects, McIntosh-Smith, who also heads the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing (BriCS), told Yahoo Finance. Researchers and companies will need to apply for access to the Isambard-AI supercomputer via the UK government's Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology. Supercomputers, however, don't just run individual tasks at once. Depending on the time of day, such systems can run a host of different experiments at the same time, helping to improve overall efficiency While the Isambard-AI supercomputer is powerful as far as research computers go, it's relatively small compared to the massive datacenter-scale systems companies like Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Meta (META), and Microsoft (MSFT) currently run. Those warehouse-sized computers require gigawatts, or 1 billion watts, of electricity to power tens of thousands of GPUs. The Isambard-AI supercomputer, meanwhile, uses 5 megawatts, or 5 million watts. According to McIntosh-Smith, the team at BriCS chose to use a liquid cooling solution rather than traditional air cooling with fans to keep the Isambard-AI from overheating, because it allowed them to pack more GPUs into a smaller space while improving overall energy efficiency. The university is also working on a pilot program that will use the hot wastewater from the supercomputer to heat campus facilities and eventually nearby homes and businesses. While the University of Bristol officially flipped the switch on Isambard-AI on Thursday, McIntosh-Smith said some researchers have already been running experiments on a test version of the system. Those include work on vaccines for Alzheimer's disease and image recognition to help machines better identify skin cancer. The Isambard-AI supercomputer is just one example of Nvidia's push into sovereign AI, which represents a new revenue stream for the company beyond individual tech companies. In May, CEO Jensen Huang attended an event held in Saudi Arabia where President Trump announced that he would allow Nvidia to sell thousands of GPUs to companies within the country. The administration also set up a plan to sell hundreds of thousands of chips to the United Arab Emirates, but officials are holding off on moving forward with the deal over concerns China could gain access to the technology, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. And in June, Nvidia touted its expansion in Europe, announcing that companies across France, the UK, Germany, and Italy will build out or expand on their AI infrastructure. "Every industrial revolution begins with infrastructure. AI is the essential infrastructure of our time, just as electricity and the internet once were," Huang said in a statement at the time. "With bold leadership from Europe's governments and industries, AI will drive transformative innovation and prosperity for generations to come." The US still accounts for the majority of Nvidia's sales, making up $61.2 billion of the company's $130.4 billion in total revenue in its latest fiscal year. Taiwan and China made up $20.5 billion and $17.1 billion, respectively. Singapore saw $23.6 billion in sales, but Nvidia said the majority of those shipments are simply invoiced in the country and shipped elsewhere. Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@ Follow him on X/Twitter at @DanielHowley. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Nvidia and University of Bristol debut UK's fastest AI supercomputer in sovereign AI push
Nvidia (NVDA) and the University of Bristol debuted the UK's Isambard-AI supercomputer on Thursday, part of Nvidia's push into so-called sovereign AI, or AI supercomputers built for individual nations. The fastest supercomputer in the country and one of the most energy-efficient supercomputers globally, the Isambard-AI supercomputer combines 5,448 Nvidia Grace Hopper superchips through a series of liquid-cooled HPE server cabinets packed with 440 GPUs each. The system is meant to perform research on everything from materials science to drug discovery to large language models designed for UK-specific languages such as Welsh. Impressively, according to University of Bristol professor Simon McIntosh-Smith, the entire system came together in less than two years. Normally, it takes more than three years to complete similar projects, McIntosh-Smith, who also heads the Bristol Centre for Supercomputing (BriCS), told Yahoo Finance. Researchers and companies will need to apply for access to the Isambard-AI supercomputer via the UK government's Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology. Supercomputers, however, don't just run individual tasks at once. Depending on the time of day, such systems can run a host of different experiments at the same time, helping to improve overall efficiency While the Isambard-AI supercomputer is powerful as far as research computers go, it's relatively small compared to the massive datacenter-scale systems companies like Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Meta (META), and Microsoft (MSFT) currently run. Those warehouse-sized computers require gigawatts, or 1 billion watts, of electricity to power tens of thousands of GPUs. The Isambard-AI supercomputer, meanwhile, uses 5 megawatts, or 5 million watts. According to McIntosh-Smith, the team at BriCS chose to use a liquid cooling solution rather than traditional air cooling with fans to keep the Isambard-AI from overheating, because it allowed them to pack more GPUs into a smaller space while improving overall energy efficiency. The university is also working on a pilot program that will use the hot wastewater from the supercomputer to heat campus facilities and eventually nearby homes and businesses. While the University of Bristol officially flipped the switch on Isambard-AI on Thursday, McIntosh-Smith said some researchers have already been running experiments on a test version of the system. Those include work on vaccines for Alzheimer's disease and image recognition to help machines better identify skin cancer. The Isambard-AI supercomputer is just one example of Nvidia's push into sovereign AI, which represents a new revenue stream for the company beyond individual tech companies. In May, CEO Jensen Huang attended an event held in Saudi Arabia where President Trump announced that he would allow Nvidia to sell thousands of GPUs to companies within the country. The administration also set up a plan to sell hundreds of thousands of chips to the United Arab Emirates, but officials are holding off on moving forward with the deal over concerns China could gain access to the technology, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. And in June, Nvidia touted its expansion in Europe, announcing that companies across France, the UK, Germany, and Italy will build out or expand on their AI infrastructure. "Every industrial revolution begins with infrastructure. AI is the essential infrastructure of our time, just as electricity and the internet once were," Huang said in a statement at the time. "With bold leadership from Europe's governments and industries, AI will drive transformative innovation and prosperity for generations to come." The US still accounts for the majority of Nvidia's sales, making up $61.2 billion of the company's $130.4 billion in total revenue in its latest fiscal year. Taiwan and China made up $20.5 billion and $17.1 billion, respectively. Singapore saw $23.6 billion in sales, but Nvidia said the majority of those shipments are simply invoiced in the country and shipped elsewhere. Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@ Follow him on X/Twitter at @DanielHowley. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
BBC News
15-07-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Man overcomes injuries to fulfil dream of becoming a doctor
A man who has overcome his life-changing injuries to become a doctor has said it is "never to late to follow your dreams".Paul Edwards, 32, graduated as a doctor from the University of Bristol in July - a milestone that almost never came after he was left with catastrophic injuries when he was knocked off his motorbike at the age meant he had to delay his A-levels and halted his university ambitions by more than a 16 years and, despite living with debilitating pain, Paul has graduated in front of his proud parents Charlie and Denise and girlfriend Aesha. It was not just his injuries that Mr Edwards said he needed to overcome. He grew up in Lawrence Weston in Bristol where only about 15% of students at his secondary achieved five GCSEs, with an even lower progression rate to higher education. He set his sights on studying medicine at the University of Bristol and - prior to the crash - and was accepted on to the now obsolete government Gifted and Talented programme, which sought to help talented students from disadvantaged as he was completing his A-levels in October 2009, his life changed forever when a car overran a junction and collided with his motorbike. He suffered catastrophic injuries: both thighs were broken, his neck and back fractured in several places, a lacerated liver, head trauma, and multiple other spending years in recovery, undergoing multiple surgeries and battling constant pain, he tried several times to complete his A-levels, but he was too unwell. His situation was made worse by a "dangerously" high amount of painkillers which was considered best practice more than a decade opium drugs meant he struggled to stay awake and on several times his mother called 999 because his breathing had deteriorated to dangerously low 2014, five years after the crash, Mr Edwards had what he calls his "sink or swim" moment. With the support of his GP, he weaned himself off opioid said: "I remember my GP saying, 'you can either stay on these drugs and be stuck here, or come off them and find out what life might still offer you'." 'Debilitating pain' After enrolling in an Access to Higher Education course at City of Bristol College, he completed the equivalent of three A-levels in nine September 2020, more than a decade after the crash, Mr Edwards was accepted to study medicine at his "endless and debilitating" pain, he's found ways to live with said: "I use over-the counter painkillers to treat the pain and I do lots of activity including endurance running and triathlons. I know I'll be in pain anyway, but I would rather be active and in pain, than sedentary and still in pain."At university, he said the Disability Support Team has done so much to help him."I want to let people know that anything is possible if you are determined enough. It's never too late, and Bristol is a great place to be," he said."It's an incredible feeling to finally finish my course."He now hopes to train to be anaesthetist and support other people with their pain.
BBC News
07-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
UWE Professor pushing for more diversity within academia
It was during a trip to a US conference when Emmanuel Adukwu first realised he could be an academic, despite having studied for a masters in the UK. The professor of microbiology at the University of the West of England (UWE) said during his studies "there was nobody that looked like me" teaching."I actually had a 'eureka' moment after going to a conference in the US. That was the first time I saw a gentleman presenting that was an associate professor that was black".UWE and University of Bristol both have a target of making academic staffing more diverse by 2030, aiming for 20%. Universities UK said: "We are working to create more diverse and inclusive environments" for staff and students. The Higher Education Statistics Agency says the number of people from black, Asian or ethnic backgrounds working in academia in the UK has increased over the past 20 years but still remains much lower, in particular the number of black academics - representing just 3.8% of the to BBC Bristol, Prof Adukwu said: "One of the things I think we've really missed for a very long time is we're trying to address under representation in schools, at universities. "We're forgetting the fact that people come out from the community. So we need to have those conversations beyond the walls of the academy with the community."University of Bristol is currently analysing data from its Breaking Barriers project, which it describes as "a survey designed to expose areas of racial injustices in national funding award practices".
BBC News
02-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
University of Bristol jobs at risk amid lower student numbers
University staff who teach language and communication skills to international students say their jobs are at risk under "devastating" new redundancy 45 members of University of Bristol's Centre for Academic Language and Development (Cald) staff are being threatened with compulsory redundancy. A university spokesperson said the cuts were in response to a declining number of students, to which they must "adjust staffing levels and resources accordingly".They added "ongoing talks" were in progress with colleagues at the University and College Union (UCU) to help "mitigate any impact on our students". Staff within the department help both international and home students at the university to develop their academic language, literacy and communication skills. The university runs courses and programmes for students at all levels and from a wide variety of backgrounds, whether or not English is their first language. The UCU argues there is "no sound operational or financial rationale" for the cuts to the added the compulsory redundancy scheme relied on projected, not actual, student numbers for the next academic year. 'Changing demand' A University of Bristol spokesperson said: "We continue to have a pipeline of applicants for this programme, but at lower numbers than several years ago. "This is no reflection on the quality of the education provided by the team but for the International Foundation Programme (IFP) to remain sustainable, we need to respond to changing demand." The union's regional official Nick Varney said: "These job cuts would not only be devastating for the staff involved, but will leave the remaining staff over-stretched and damage students' academic experience."Taking compulsory redundancies off the table, and focusing on viable alternatives, would end this dispute."He called upon Vice-Chancellor Evelyn Welch to reverse the "unfair, ill-thought out and financially unjustifiable plans" or face potential strike open letter against the cuts to university management has gained more than 900 signatures.
