The PRiME Programme at the University of Southampton is hosting a two-day international symposium this week (17-18 January 2018).

The UK’s Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) has made significant investment over the last 5 years in the area of “many-core computingâ€?. To celebrate and promote these research activities, PRiME has organised – and will feature in – the International Symposium Workshop on Many-Core Computing: Hardware and Software.

PRiME, is a five year £5.6m EPSRC funded research programme, which brings together Southampton, Imperial, Manchester and Newcastle universities with world-leading expertise in low power, highly-parallel, reconfigurable and dependable computing and verified software design. Working in collaboration with five companies and seven international visiting experts, PRiME is addressing the challenge of power consumption and reliability of future high-performance embedded systems utilising many-core processors.

Its Director, Professor Bashir Al-Hashimi (Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering at Southampton), says: “Energy efficient computing is at the heart of the digital world and PRiME, a strategically funded EPSRC project, has been researching and developing novel methods of significantly reducing energy consumption of computation. This by-invitation only international symposium brings together the leading researchers from academia and the industry from worldwide to share the latest research developments and debate the key future scientific challenges of high performance and energy efficient computing.â€?

Around 60 international experts from academia and industry will hear from 30 speakers and panellists. Participants have been invited from the UK and Northern Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, France, US and China as well as from companies including ARM, Microsoft and Intel.

The symposium will be followed by the final PRiME Advisory Board as it enters the last year of the project.

Ploughshare Innovations, the technology transfer office for the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD), has announced the appointment of Professor Penny Endersby as a new Non-executive Director to its board.

Professor Endersby holds a visiting professorship in Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton and is also a mentor for Future Worlds, the University’s on-campus startup incubator. She is currently the division head of Cyber and Information Systems Division at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), where she has significantly developed the Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio. Penny has a well-established career in the defence industry, starting in the field of armour and explosives before broadening to run Dstl’s Physical Sciences Department. She is also the Honorary Treasurer of Wiltshire Wildlife Trust.

Professor Endersby commented: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to serve as a Non-executive Director for Ploughshare. Having followed the fortunes of the company from its inception and worked for many years to encourage the generation of the IP, it will be fascinating to see the details of how it is taken forward. I look forward to a productive relationship and hearing about many more fascinating technological innovations.â€?

Ploughshare Innovations is the technology transfer organisation for the MOD. It turns ‘swords into ploughshares’ by enabling businesses to gain access to defence and security technology developed by leading government laboratories. Ploughshare ensures Government technology is put to good use and benefits the UK, society as a whole, and humanity by applying innovative technology to improve people’s lives

Piers White, Chairman of Ploughshare Innovations said: “We have worked hard to ensure we have the right balance of skills, experience and backgrounds to match the ambitions of the company. Penny brings considerable energy and experience and I am sure her contributions will help us refine and deliver our strategy.â€?