Isambard Day 2025 (ID25) marked a pivotal moment as the Isambard-AI Phase 1 and Isambard 3 supercomputers transitioned to full service, showcasing the UK’s growing leadership in high-performance computing (HPC) and AI.
Day 1: Insights and Innovations
ID25 kicked off with a warm welcome from Professor Simon McIntosh-Smith, Director at BriCS, setting the stage for the following 2 days. Pekka Lehtovuori from CSC kindly delivered a keynote on Finland's role in empowering Europe's HPC and AI ecosystem, offering valuable insights into their approach and the opportunities that lie within international collaboration.
Throughout the morning, sessions explored cutting-edge research leveraging Isambard systems. Highlights included Pontus Stenetorp’s presentation on BritLLM, a project dedicated to building open large language models tailored for British languages and use cases, and James Pope's discussion on bias in skin cancer image datasets, a crucial topic for AI fairness in healthcare.
Afternoon sessions continued to push the boundaries of supercomputing applications. Christopher D. Woodgate explored atomic-scale simulations of FeNi alloys while Shengyu Zhang showcased AI-driven drug discovery with Ligand-Transformer. The day concluded with a panel discussion featuring global experts debating the evolving role of supercomputing in the dynamic AI landscape, reinforcing the critical need for cross-border collaboration.
Day 2: Interactive and Hands-On Engagement
The second day provided a more interactive experience, with parallel sessions diving deep into specific HPC and AI applications. Thomas Schulthess' keynote introduced Alps, the sibling system of Isambard-AI, offering a glimpse into the next generation of European supercomputing.
Hands-on workshops allowed participants to engage directly with Isambard-AI via Jupyter notebooks. Other sessions covered vital topics such as GenAI in healthcare, digital twins of the universe, computational fluid dynamics, and GANs for plasma turbulence simulations.
Diversity in research applications was evident in the afternoon, with talks ranging from Juliette Unwin’s KidSat initiative mapping childhood poverty through satellite imagery to Greg Verghese's work on transparent AI in pathology. These presentations underscored the far-reaching impact of HPC beyond traditional scientific domains.
What's Next?
With Isambard-AI Phase 2 moving into full-scale operation in Summer 2025, ID25 highlighted the growing need for collaboration, accessibility, and innovation in UK supercomputing. The call for contributions encouraged researchers at all career stages to continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with AI and HPC.
With a strong emphasis on performance optimisation, AI-driven applications, and community-driven support, BriCS reaffirmed its commitment to advancing research and fostering a thriving HPC ecosystem. As we look toward ID26, the momentum from this year’s event will undoubtedly drive new breakthroughs and usher in the next era of computational excellence.
Thank You
A huge thank you to all our speakers, contributors, and attendees for making ID25 such a success. The insights, research, and discussions that took place have showcased what humans are capable of when assisted with these remarkable supercomputers. We appreciate your dedication and expertise and look forward to seeing you again at ID26!