4 June 2020 - High Performance Computing Student Cluster Competition 2020: Team supported by the URZ represents Heidelberg University
A team of six Heidelberg students will compete for Heidelberg University at the ISC 2020 Student Cluster Competition. This year, the international supercomputing competition will take place online.
The ISC-HPC-AI Advisory Council (HPCAIAC) Student Cluster Competition is held annually as part of the ISC High Performance in Frankfurt am Main, one of the largest trade show and conference events for high performance computing (HPC). In this friendly supercomputing competition, several select student teams from all over the world compete against one another. Due to the corona situation, both the ISC and the Student Cluster Competition will be held digitally this year.
Computing against Coronavirus
From the 1st to the 24th of June 2020, fourteen international teams will face different HPC challenges in the online competition. In contrast to previous years, the teams will not have to acquire their own hardware with sponsor money and assemble it themselves. Instead, they will have access to the HPC infrastructure of the National Supercomputing Centre Singapore. “This is an exciting challenge for all of us,” explained Aksel Alpay, one of the URZ supporters of the SCC team. “The hardware basis is the same for all teams, so everything depends on good programming work and skillful handling of applications and benchmarks.”
The tasks to be mastered also reflect the current situation: in addition to the usual HPC benchmarks, students will be able to work with computing applications that researchers worldwide are currently using in their search for a COVID-19 cure.
Competing with URZ support
For several years now the URZ has coordinated the participation of a university student team in the competition. Two HPC experts of the computing centre, Dr. Sabine Richling and Aksel Alpay, provide intensive support and guidance to the students prior to and during the event. Last year, the Heidelberg team took the top position amongst all participants from the European Union.
Student participants for the coming year will be sought from autumn onwards. We will announce new information on our website and via the URZ twitter feed.