Meet Dr Anne Reinarz from our Department of Computer Science

Tell us a bit about yourself and your research interests?

I research at the interface of three main areas: Application science (mechanical engineering, astrophysics and seismology), numerical methods development (fast solvers, high performance computing) and uncertainty quantification. I have published 18 peer-reviewed papers in computer science, engineering and mathematics journals.

When did you join us and what is your role at Durham University?

I joined Durham in 2020 as an Assistant Professor in Computer Science. I am a member of the Scientific Computing group and I currently serve as the Deputy Director of the MSc in Scientific Computing and Data Analysis (MISCADA) program and will take over as director in the coming academic year.

What are the projects/research you are currently working on?

Recently I have been working on the community software project UM-Bridge (the UQ and Model Bridge) that aims to lower the entry bar to uncertainty quantification (UQ) at HPC scale.

What is interesting about your projects/research?

UQ problems present numerous interesting challenges, both in terms of the mathematics involved and the technical aspects of solving them. Even very simple UQ algorithms can easily require excessive computational effort since every uncertain parameter or observation essentially contributes to the problem's dimensionality.

What is the scientific and societal relevance of your research?

Uncertain data can arise in many fields of science and engineering and quantifying that uncertainty is becoming increasingly important. For example, it has long been good practice to accompany measured values with a standard deviation representing their accuracy. The importance of capturing these uncertainties cannot be overstated, since overlooking an unlikely yet dangerous scenario could easily have fatal consequences in real-world applications such as seismic risk assessment.

What are your plans for future research/study?

We are currently looking into improving the performance and scalability of UM-Bridge on classical HPC systems and in the cloud. We are also looking into new to us applications, such as modelling landslides.

Any interesting hobbies/passion outside of work?

I enjoy hiking, yoga, traveling and board games.