University of Surrey invests in high performance data platform

By Stephen Emerson

14 July 2022

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University of Surrey invests in data facility

The University of Surrey has invested in a new high performance data platform that enables quicker and more energy efficient computing experiments.

Surrey is one of the first universities in the UK to deploy the WEKA® Data Platform and has done so as part of its multi-million pound investment in a machine learning cluster for AI research. The facility will support the work of researchers in the Surrey Institute for People-Centred Artificial Intelligence, set up in 2021.

The WEKA Data Platform’s advanced software architecture provides high-data-throughput to all the machines in a cluster, enabling huge real-world data sets to be accessed and processed significantly faster than existing technologies.

Initial tests show that experiments can be run eight times faster with WEKA compared to local storage.

Crucially, as these AI experiments are power intensive, the WEKA Data Platform can also reduce the energy requirements per experiment, thereby helping to lower their environmental impact.

The University is building on this state-of-the-art research capability with further investment in the latest high-end graphical processing units which will reduce the time, power usage and cost of developing cutting-edge AI even further.

Professor Adrian Hilton, Founding Director of the Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI, said: “This investment in state-of-the-art AI research infrastructure at Surrey provides a world-class environment for our researchers and demonstrates the University’s commitment to leading People-Centred AI research and training.”

The University’s investment in deploying the WEKA Data Platform supports Surrey’s ‘Forward thinking. And doing’ strategy, one of the aims of which is to enhance and extend critical areas of research and innovation, such as people-centred AI, for the good of society. This will build on the University’s excellent REF (Research Excellence Framework) 2021 results which saw 41 per cent of our research rated as ‘world-leading’.

“The WEKA Data Platform was specifically architected from the ground up to meet the performance, scale and efficiency requirements of next generation workloads, where traditional data infrastructure approaches simply aren’t fit for purpose,” said Ryan Taylor, head of EMEA at WEKA.

“We are honoured that the University of Surrey has chosen WEKA to underpin its machine learning cluster, and we look forward to partnering with them to support the great work of the Surrey Institute for People-Centred Artificial Intelligence.”

By Stephen Emerson

Stephen Emerson is the Managing Editor of The Business Magazine and is responsible for the publication's print publications and online properties including the newly launched Biz News websites in Hampshire and Dorset.

Stephen has been a journalist for 20 years and has worked at local, regional and national publications and led a team which made The Scotsman website one of the fastest growing news sites in the UK with over eight million monthly users.

He has a keen interest in technology, property and corporate finance and telling the stories of the people behind the successful firms in these sectors.