Call for Student Cluster Teams at ISC 2016

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19786282008_acae70e2f3_nToday the HPC Advisory Council announced the return of the widely successful HPCAC-ISC Student Cluster Competition in next year’s ISC program of events. In a real-time competition, 11 teams of undergraduate students from around the world will build a small cluster of their own design on the ISC 2016 exhibit floor and race to demonstrate the greatest performance across a series of benchmarks and applications. It all concludes with a ceremony on the main conference keynote stage to award and recognize all student participants in front of thousands of HPC luminaries.

The HPC community has embraced the HPCAC-ISC Student Cluster Competition competitions as both a fun and compelling event to watch, and an important vehicle to engage students and get them interested in scientific and technical careers,” said Gilad Shainer, chairman of the HPC Advisory Council. “This is an excellent educational opportunity for students around the world to showcase their knowledge and skillsets and to engage with leading commercial vendors. We look forward to continuing our work with the ISC team to produce a very competitive and fun challenge for all involved.”

The overall winner of the fourth annual HPCAC-ISC Student Cluster Competition was the Tsinghua University team from China. The defending champion from the 2013 and 2014 competitions, Centre for High Performance Computing in South Africa, became the second place overall winner and University of Science and Technology of China captured third place overall. The highest LINPACK performance of 10.78TF was attained by the Jamia Millia Islamia team from India under the 3kW power envelop. The fan favorite prize was awarded to the hybrid team of Purdue University of USA and Universidad EAFIT of Colombia.

The HPCAC-ISC Student Cluster Competition is a great showcase for both the universities and their student teams,” said Dan Olds, principal analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. “Students who participate in these competitions find it jumpstarts their careers in technology and research. We’ve also seen universities use these events as a way to increase the breadth and depth of their HPC curriculums.”

Submissions are open now with detailed information and criteria on the HPC Advisory Council website, as well the ISC High Performance web site. Team preparation prior to the competition includes working with supervisors and vendor partners to design and build a winning cluster from commercially available components not exceeding power limit, and to learn the predetermined HPC applications.

The HPCAC-ISC Student Cluster Competition is a great showcase for both the universities and their student teams,” said Dan Olds, principal analyst at Gabriel Consulting Group. “Students who participate in these competitions find it jumpstarts their careers in technology and research. We’ve also seen universities use these events as a way to increase the breadth and depth of their HPC curriculums.”

Sponsor the HPCAC-ISC Student Cluster Competition and become an advocate for the future of HPC:

The HPC Advisory Council and ISC together offer high-tech enterprises, which utilize the power of HPC in their business, the opportunity to sponsor the SCC in a variety of ways. All sponsorship funds will flow directly into the competition, enabling the students to travel to Frankfurt and participate in the competition for four days in a comfortable environment. For more information, sponsorship and general questions please email scc@isc-events.com.

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