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Case Study
Project-managing the procurement and commissioning of an HPC system for Swansea University
The ASTUTE 2020 (Advanced Sustainable Manufacturing Technologies) operation.
The Customer
The ASTUTE 2020 (Advanced Sustainable Manufacturing Technologies) operation supports industrial Research, Development and Innovation. It is led by Swansea University along with the universities of Cardiff, Aberystwyth and Wales Trinity Saint David.
The College of Engineering at Swansea tendered for a £0.5m system to enable the ASTUTE 2020 research team to achieve the best possible computational engineering solutions.
The Challenge
The college had little experience of procuring or installing a large HPC solution, and were working against a tight timescale to deliver within the financial year.
What did Red Oak Consulting do?
Red Oak’s job was to do everything possible to help the supplier and the customer to achieve a high-quality installation within the deadline.
We installed a Red Oak project manager to take the lead. We clearly understood the customer’s expectations and managed the supplier effectively, to ensure that they could meet the University’s timescale. We supported the university team in defining processes creating documentation.
Red Oak also ran the commissioning process, proactively resolving technical challenges and ensuring that the research team could fully exploit the technologies.
The system was delivered on time, and the Universities technical team well-briefed so that they were ready to support the HPC solution for the reseachers
Red Oak made the whole project go smoothly and they understood our expectations. The team was very friendly and approachable and showed a high level of professionalism. The Red Oak team put a lot of effort into the commissioning and it was hugely appreciated."
Senior Lecturer, College of Engineering
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