Looking Back at SC18 and the Road Ahead to Exascale

In this special guest feature from Scientific Computing World, Robert Roe reports on new technology and 30 years of the US supercomputing conference at SC18 in Dallas. “From our volunteers to our exhibitors to our students and attendees – SC18 was inspirational,” said SC18 general chair Ralph McEldowney. “Whether it was in technical sessions or on the exhibit floor, SC18 inspired people with the best in research, technology, and information sharing.”

Video: China’s Tsinhua University Takes the Student Cluster Competition

In this video from CGTN, China’s Tsinghua University takes the Student Cluster Competition at the SC18 conference in Dallas. The win was the final step in a Triple Crown for the team, as they won similar competitions in Asia and Germany earlier this year. “With sponsorship from hardware and software vendor partners, student teams design and build small clusters, learn designated scientific applications, apply optimization techniques for their chosen architectures, and compete in a non-stop, 48-hour challenge at the SC conference to complete a real-world scientific workload, showing off their HPC knowledge for conference attendees and judges.”

Radio Free HPC Previews the SC18 Student Cluster Competition

In this podcast, Radio Free HPC Previews the SC18 Student Cluster Competition. “The Competition was developed in 2007 to provide an immersive high performance computing experience to undergraduate and high school students. With sponsorship from hardware and software vendor partners, student teams design and build small clusters, learn designated scientific applications, apply optimization techniques for their chosen architectures, and compete in a non-stop, 48-hour challenge at the SC conference to complete a real-world scientific workload, showing off their HPC knowledge for conference attendees and judges.”

GCS Sponsors Team deFAUlt at SC18 Student Cluster Competition

The Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS) is sponsoring the “deFAUlt” team from FAU at the Student Cluster Competition at SC18 in Dallas. “For the past two years, FAU teams were able to come out of these competitions winning the coveted high-performance LINPACK Benchmark challenge.”

Radio Free HPC Trip Report from ISC 2018

In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team offers up a Trip Report from ISC 2018 in Frankfurt. It was a whirlwind week for news with a new USA machine on the TOP500, but the other big news centered around the convergence of HPC & AI. This common theme was all over the show floor, with use cases on display in dozens of exhibits. 

Radio Free HPC Previews ISC Student Cluster Competition & Ancillary Events

In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team previews the ISC 2018 Student Cluster Competition. “Now in its seventh year, the Student Cluster Competition enables international STEM teams to take part in a real-time contest focused on advancing STEM disciplines and HPC skills development at ISC 2018 from June 25-27.”

Radio Free HPC Reviews the Results from the ASC 2018 Student Cluster Competition

In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team reviews the results of the ASC 2018 Student Cluster Competition.

“The ASC 2018 Student Supercomputer Challenge finalist were announced on March 20, 2018. The 20 finalists will design and build supercomputers up to 3,000 Watts, solve exceptionally difficult problems in AI reading comprehension, perform RELION optimization as a core application of the Nobel winning cryo-electron microscopy, and utilize CFL3D, HPL, and HPCG.”

BSC Adopts Supergeek Mascot to get kids into Supercomputing

Getting young people interested in STEM careers is a big concern for the HPC community. Maybe what we really need is a superhero. “A new mascot at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) has the mission to bring supercomputers closer to young people and stimulate their interest in science and technology.”

ASC18 Student Cluster Competition to include 230 Teams

The 2018 ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge (ASC18) will begin on January 16, 2018. First launched in 2012, the competition will feature a whopping 230 student teams looking to build the fastest possible cluster with a power cap of 3 Kilowatts. “The USA Student Cluster Competition is like a marathon, testing participants’ hard work and perseverance,” said OrionX partner Dan Olds, who has covered all three major supercomputing challenges. “Germany’s ISC is a sprint, testing innovation and adaptability. China’s ASC is a combination of both.”

Mont-Blanc to Sponsor UPC Team at ISC 2018 Student Cluster Competition

The Mont-Blanc Project will once again sponsor a team at the upcoming ISC 2018 Student Cluster Competition. The sponsored team from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya / Barcelona Tech (UPC) will compete for the fourth time at ISC 2018, which takes place June 24– 28 in Frankfurt, Germany. “I am always impressed by the technical prowess exhibited by these young teams: the way they are turning our lessons into applied knowledge, through live benchmarking and on the fly troubleshooting is a great process and it triggers a positive loop in all of us.”