Digital Research and Upskilling

From your first command line to GPU programming at scale: courses, workshops and programmes across Durham's digital research infrastructure.

ARC

6 in-person ARC courses this term

DiRAC

18 Self paced online academy

MISCADA

MISCADA specialist streams

Durham offers a rich ecosystem of courses and professional development around its digital research infrastructure (DRI), from your first command line to GPU programming at scale. DRI/CPD training is delivered through research grants within IDAS, with our partners in Advanced Research Computing (ARC), DiRAC and the Department of Computer Science.

Run by Advanced Research Computing. Book through Inkpath; on first use you'll be asked to set up a profile. Every course needs at least half a day, so check you can attend the whole session.

Date	Course	Time	Room	Booking link
Tue 20 Oct 2026	Using the Hamilton Supercomputer	13:00–17:00	Mountjoy Centre MJC_2006	Book
Mon 2 Nov 2026	Version Control with Git and GitHub	09:00–12:30	TLC205	Book
Thu 12 Nov 2026	Using the Hamilton Supercomputer	09:00–13:00	TLC220	Book
Thu 12 Nov 2026	Python 1: Learning to program with Python	13:00–16:30	Mountjoy Centre MJC_2006	Book
Mon 23 Nov 2026	Python 2: Coding with Python	09:00–12:30	Mountjoy Centre MJC_2006	Book
Thu 10 Dec 2026	Using the Hamilton Supercomputer	13:00–17:00	Mountjoy Centre MJC_2006	Book

DiRAC Training Academy: free, online, self-paced

Foundation in BASH: navigate and work in Linux-based HPC environments from the command line.
Foundation in Git: track and safeguard your code, and collaborate with your team.
Foundation in Software Engineering: write clear, efficient, maintainable research code.
Foundation in Testing: testing, documentation and code review for reliable software.
Foundation in Scalability: the ideas behind parallel computing, and how to fix scaling issues.

data science AI, HPC, image, computer science, trainings

Running Jobs on HPC Systems: submit, monitor and manage jobs with Slurm.
High-Performance Computing Concepts: a refresher on core HPC terminology and performance analysis, developed by Durham (HAI-End project).
Directive Programming for HPC: shared-memory parallelism with OpenMP, and hybrid OpenMP + MPI.
Programming for Distributed Systems: develop, run and optimise MPI applications.

1st Step in GPU Programming: compare ways to port code to GPUs; built with NVIDIA and UCL.
MI300 Architecture: the AMD MI300 GPU and its programming models.
Directive-Based Programming for GPUs: offload workloads to GPUs with OpenMP; developed with AMD.
Language-Extension Programming for GPUs: finer performance control with HIP on AMD GPUs.

MACE: how researchers built an ML surrogate model for astrochemistry, and how to apply AI/ML in your own workflows.

Performance Analysis Workshop Series 2024: open-source tools for understanding your code's performance (Durham).
Debugging, Testing & Correctness 2023: modern debugging tools for HPC codes (Durham).
Optimising Applications for AMD MI300 GPUs: introductory training delivered with AMD.
Intel oneAPI and SYCL for GPU Programming: moving CPU codes onto diverse GPUs with Intel's toolkit.

Not sure where to start?

The command line: ARC's Unix shell course, or DiRAC Foundation in BASH.
Version control: ARC Git and GitHub, or DiRAC Foundation in Git.
Programming: ARC Python 1, then Python 2.
Using a supercomputer: ARC Using the Hamilton Supercomputer, then DiRAC Running Jobs on HPC Systems.
Going parallel: DiRAC Foundation in Scalability, then the OpenMP and MPI courses.
Accelerating with GPUs: 1st Step in GPU Programming, then OpenMP or HIP for GPUs.

For ARC's own recommended order, see the core learning pathway flowchart.

Workshops, hackathons and placements

Scientific Computing workshop series: annual workshops for RSEs, PDRAs and PhDs, run with experts from the field. Topics include C/C++ software development (each September), debugging and testing, GPU programming and performance analysis.
DiRAC Hackathons: three days in person working on your own code with your team, alongside vendor specialists (AMD, NVIDIA, Intel) and DiRAC research software engineers.
DiRAC Innovation Placements: students gain real-world industry experience through placements with DiRAC’s partner organisations.
Past DiRAC training: materials and recordings from earlier DiRAC events across many topics.