Abdallah Hasaballa named overall winner of the ARCHER2 Image Competition 2026
Posted: 21st October 2026
Research Associate Abdallah Hasaballa has been named the overall winner of the ARCHER2 Image Competition 2026 for his striking visualisation of the hidden fibre architecture of the human heart.
His image, ‘Blueprint of a Beat: The Heart’s Hidden Fibre Architecture’, was selected as both the winner of its category and the overall competition winner.
The winning image reveals the intricate structure that helps the heart beat efficiently. It presents a healthy control heart in two complementary ways: one half shows the three-dimensional geometry of the ventricles, while the other reveals the orientation of the cardiac muscle fibres that enable the heart to contract and pump blood.
These fibres follow a highly organised pattern, gradually rotating across the heart wall. Their orientation changes from approximately +60 degrees at the inner surface, represented in dark blue, to around −60 degrees at the outer surface, shown in dark red. This smooth transition in fibre direction is fundamental to the coordinated contraction and twisting motion that allows the heart to pump blood effectively.
Using large-scale computer simulations on ARCHER2, researchers can visualise this complex architecture in remarkable detail. These computational models provide a foundation for investigating how the heart functions in health and how its structure and behaviour may change in disease.
The work showcased in the image forms part of research being undertaken through the joint UKRI/EU SMASH-HCM project, which is developing hybrid digital twin solutions to support the stratification, management and clinical guidance of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).
Alongside the winning image, an additional entry connected with the project was also featured in the ARCHER2 competition. Both visualisations were generated using computational resources made available through the parallel SMASH-HPC Award, a UKRI Access Award for High Performance Computing facilities secured this year on ARCHER2.
ARCHER2 is the UK’s largest national supercomputing service, providing researchers with access to large-scale computing resources for computationally intensive research. Alfonso Bueno-Orovio is Principal Investigator of the SMASH-HPC Award.
The recognition highlights both the scientific work taking place within SMASH-HCM and the power of advanced computational modelling and visualisation to reveal complex aspects of cardiac structure and disease.
The SMASH-HCM project brings together expertise across disciplines to develop new approaches for understanding hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, with the aim of improving how patients are stratified and managed through personalised, digitally enabled solutions.
Find out more
View the full ARCHER2 Winners Gallery to see the entries from the 2026 competition: https://www.archer2.ac.uk/about/gallery/2026-image-comp/
More information about the SMASH-HCM project is available at www.smash-hcm.eu.