Dan Olds over at The Register writes that the field is set for eight student teams to battle it out in the SC11 Student Cluster Challenge.
The teams work around the clock from Monday evening until they turn in their datasets at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Final results are announced at the awards luncheon on Thursday, where the winning team will be crowned (there isn’t a crown). They will then bask in glory and adulation for the next 12 months, secure in the knowledge that they are truly the kings of the SCC11 hill. Hyperbole aside, there are some truly great aspects of this event. The motivation and enthusiasm of the students is wonderful to see. Many of them haven’t had much exposure to HPC or large systems before, and as you talk to them, they tell you how much they’ve learned and what they still need to discover. They are really getting a lot out of this experience.
Dan is also posting a series of pre-game profiles of each team. It’s great coverage of what should prove to be rousing sport! Read the Full Story.
So who’s the favorite? I’m betting on Taiwan’s NTHU to repeat. Why are they so strong? Check out this podcast, in which Professor Yeh-Ching Chung describes how his team from NTHU in Taiwan prepared themselves to win the SC10 Student Cluster Competition.
I can’t wait!