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| Simulation and Modelling Centre | |
|---|---|
| Name | Simulation and Modelling Centre |
| Established | 2001 |
| Type | Research institute |
| Location | Cambridge |
| Director | Dr. A. Kumar |
| Affiliations | University of Cambridge; Imperial College London |
Simulation and Modelling Centre
The Simulation and Modelling Centre is a multidisciplinary research institute located in Cambridge that focuses on computational simulation, systems modelling, and virtual prototyping. It brings together researchers from the University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and ETH Zurich to work on projects linked to aerospace, automotive, healthcare, climate, and finance. The Centre hosts collaborations with NATO, European Commission, National Science Foundation, UK Research and Innovation and Siemens, and contributes to conferences such as NeurIPS, ICML, AAAI and SIGGRAPH.
The Centre conducts advanced simulation and modelling across fluid dynamics, structural mechanics, agent-based modelling, and data-driven simulation, integrating work by teams affiliated with the University of Oxford, Harvard University, California Institute of Technology, Princeton University and University of Tokyo. Its portfolio includes high-performance computing, reduced-order models, uncertainty quantification, Bayesian inference and multiscale coupling developed alongside researchers from CERN, NASA, ESA and Rolls-Royce. The Centre maintains testbeds for computational electromagnetics, thermofluidics, and human-in-the-loop systems used by collaborators such as Boeing, Airbus, General Electric, and Lockheed Martin.
Founded in 2001 by academics from University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and University of Manchester, the Centre was influenced by methodologies from Alan Turing, John von Neumann, and Claude Shannon and by initiatives at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. Early projects involved partnerships with BAE Systems, BP, and Shell and drew on techniques from numerical analysis pioneered at ETH Zurich and Princeton University. The Centre expanded in 2010 following grants from the European Research Council, Wellcome Trust, and the Royal Society and formed strategic links with MIT Lincoln Laboratory and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Laboratories include a High Performance Computing cluster with GPU farms from NVIDIA, quantum simulation testbeds referencing IBM Quantum and Google Quantum AI, wind-tunnel facilities modeled after those at University of Southampton, and hardware-in-the-loop rigs comparable to those at DLR and JAXA. Software toolchains integrate packages such as OpenFOAM, ANSYS, COMSOL, TensorFlow, PyTorch and MATLAB, and the Centre uses data platforms inspired by CERN’s data grid and the European Organization for Nuclear Research collaborations. Additive manufacturing workshops, motion-capture suites akin to those at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Oxford Brookes University, and cyber-physical systems labs enable joint work with BT, Ericsson, and Vodafone.
Research spans computational fluid dynamics for Rolls-Royce engines, structural optimisation for Airbus airframes, epidemiological modelling influenced by Imperial College London outputs, and climate projections referencing the Met Office Hadley Centre and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Projects address autonomous vehicle simulation using datasets from Waymo and Tesla, financial risk modelling in collaboration with Barclays and HSBC, and biomedical simulations linked to the Francis Crick Institute, Great Ormond Street Hospital, and Mayo Clinic. The Centre publishes in journals such as Nature, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, IEEE Transactions, and ACM Transactions and presents at venues including ICLR, ECCV, and ICASSP.
The Centre offers postgraduate programmes in partnership with University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, and University College London, supervises PhD candidates from Stanford University, Yale University, and Columbia University, and provides professional courses modelled on executive education at INSEAD and London Business School. Training modules cover numerical methods from Cambridge mathematicians, machine learning curricula influenced by Andrew Ng and Geoffrey Hinton, and domain-specific courses developed with Siemens, Thales, and BAE Systems. Outreach includes summer schools co-organised with CERN, workshops with the Alan Turing Institute, and online courses distributed via Coursera and edX.
Key partners include University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, ETH Zurich, NASA, ESA, European Commission, NATO, Siemens, Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Boeing, and the Wellcome Trust. The Centre participates in consortia with the Alan Turing Institute, UK Research and Innovation, European Research Council, National Institutes of Health, and National Science Foundation and engages in joint ventures with industrial partners such as BP, Shell, HSBC, and Barclays. It also contributes to standards committees at ISO, IEEE, and W3C and to policy forums hosted by the United Nations, OECD, and World Economic Forum.
Governance comprises an academic board with members from University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, MIT, and ETH Zurich, an industry advisory council including representatives from Airbus, Rolls-Royce, and Siemens, and oversight by funders such as the European Research Council, Wellcome Trust, UK Research and Innovation, National Science Foundation, and philanthropic foundations like the Kavli Foundation and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Funding streams combine competitive grants from Horizon Europe, UKRI, NIH, and ERC with industry contracts from Boeing, BAE Systems, and Google, and philanthropic gifts from the Rhodes Trust and Wellcome Trust.
Category:Research institutes Category:Computational modelling