Winners of the Computing Insight UK supercomputing challenge 2025

A team of second-year undergraduate students from University of Birmingham beat 16 teams from institutions across the UK in the national supercomputing challenge at Computing Insight UK (CIUK2025), which took place in Manchester on 4 - 5 December 2025, in a series of online and in-person challenges.

Bringing together expertise from the Schools of Computer Science and Physics and Astronomy, the students demonstrated exceptional technical skill, innovation, and teamwork to tackle real-world computing problems that push the limits of performance and efficiency.

Supported by the Advanced Research Computing (ARC) team, their journey highlights the value of collaboration, communication, and hands-on experience in cutting-edge computing. Here, we sit down with members of the winning team, named the Beariables (named after the University's high-performance computing facility BlueBEAR), to hear about their experience:

Q: Congratulations on the win! This is the second distinction for the Beariables in 2025. Can you tell us a bit about the BEAR Challenge before we get into CIUK?

A: The BEAR Challenge is an annual competition that takes place as part of UoBXtra (the University’s free events and activities plan run across the summer term) to introduce students to advanced computing concepts and systems. It's open to all disciplines across the University, for anyone interested in an immersive experience in high-performance computing (HPC). It's like a jumping-off point for the national and international challenges with multidisciplinary appeal. Previous participants have included students from Psychology, Bioinformatics, and Physics; the Beariables are currently made of second-year students from Computer Science and Physics and Astronomy and came third in the 2025 challenge. This qualified us for the national HPC competition at Computing Insight UK (CIUK2025).

Q: So, considering you're not all on the same course, how did you meet and learn about these challenges, and what do you think has made you a successful team?

A: We heard about it in a couple of ways, through emails to the undergraduate mailing list, but also through word of mouth - through friends, and messages on our course group chats on WhatsApp looking for like-minded teammates.

For us, strong communication and delegation skills were key. We allocated tasks strategically, recognised opportunities to score points, and maintained clear communication throughout, but the main thing was that we were all passionate and wanted to do it!

Q: What were the challenges at CIUK?

A: The national qualifier consisted of three technical challenges: the UCL Challenge: Building a Python-based dashboard; the EPCC Challenge: Benchmarking supercomputers using HPL and HPCG algorithms; and the Durham Challenge: Explaining benchmarking results based on capacity and bandwidth. The final stage required setting up a cluster on a server - a demanding, hands-on task that tested both technical and problem-solving skills.

Q: Did your academic background help with?

A: Some team members had limited computing experience - two hadn't studied Computer Science at A-Level, but their Physics courses included Python modules, which provided a foundation. Their previous coding experience was in a scientific context, making this challenge a valuable learning opportunity, and the initial BEAR Challenge set us up to succeed.

Q: How did studying at Birmingham and having the support of the Advanced Research Computing team influence the team?

A: The ARC team provided essential training, mentorship, and access to facilities. Their support helped us understand complex systems and provided hands-on experience with servers and supercomputers - resources not typically covered in standard coursework.

Access to the ARC data centre was a major advantage, being able to visit, learn how systems operate, and gain practical insights from the ARC team. This exposure, combined with the University's emphasis on interdisciplinary learning, gave us the confidence to tackle unfamiliar areas.

Q: What are your takeaways from the experience?

A: Beyond the technical skills, it's been about teamwork, communication, and problem-solving, plus the career opportunities presented by networking with companies at the competition's conference. We'd definitely encourage others to take part. Recruitment for the challenges usually starts through course group chats and mailing lists.