As a supercomputing expert, Tim has worked at the forefront of high-performance computing (HPC) and parallel computing for various institutes across the world. On joining TGAC in July 2014, Tim was eager to cultivate an ongoing partnership with the neighbouring UEA School of Computing Science.

In November 2014, Tim was invited as a guest lecturer to present on the topic of high-performance computing (HPC) at the UEA. He was keen to offer their talented students a taste of the opportunities available in the field of supercomputing, hopefully motivating some students to consider future careers in scientific computing. As a result, he recruited two Masters in Computer Science students, Jake Ruston and Jordan Woerner, to undertake their final year computing project in profiling and optimising some important bioinformatics codes for the large SGI UV2000 supercomputer at TGAC. As well as contributing to their final degree certification, the project allows the students to gain valuable practical experience in scientific computing and ‘big data’ using TGAC’s impressive HPC facilities – including the largest SGI UV supercomputer installation in Europe.

In his new position as Honorary Senior Lecturer, Tim will continue to give guest lectures at the UEA and intends to welcome many more computing science students to undertake novel and interesting HPC projects at TGAC in the near future.

“I’ve been very impressed with the calibre of computing students available at the UEA. It’s fantastic to know that I am in close proximity to a pool of talented students who can help me realise the exciting and cutting-edge HPC research that I want to conduct at TGAC. Both Jake and Jordan have adapted very quickly to the demands of working on a world-class supercomputing system and they are expanding their computing knowledge greatly by experiencing first-hand, technology that is years ahead of what they have been accustomed to on standard desktop computing systems.” commented Tim Stitt.

One of the students that Tim welcomed to TGAC is already establishing a reputation as a computing entrepreneur. Jake has recently developed a mobile phone app, the ‘Flush Toilet Finder’. The app uses mobile GPS coordinates and a worldwide database of 100,000 toilets to locate the nearest public lavatories. The app will be particularly useful for people with conditions such as Crohn’s and IBS, as well as being popular with tourists. Downloaded over 10,000 times within two weeks of launching, the app will become more comprehensive as users add their own information to the app for others to see.