HPC Advisory Council and the International Supercomputing Conference Announces Call for Submissions for HPCAC-ISC Student Cluster Challenge

Student Teams to Compete and Demonstrate the Incredible Capabilities of State-of-the-Art High-Performance Cluster Hardware and Software during ISC’12

HAMBURG, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ISC’11 – The HPC Advisory Council, a leading organization for high-performance computing research, outreach and education, and the International Supercomputing Conference, today announced the inclusion of the HPCAC-ISC Student Cluster Competition in next year’s ISC’12 program of events. In a real-time challenge, teams of undergraduate students will build a small cluster of their own design on the ISC’12 exhibit floor and race to demonstrate the greatest performance across a series of benchmarks and applications.

“This is an excellent educational opportunity for students to showcase their knowledge and skillsets and to engage with leading commercial vendors. We look forward to working with the ISC team to produce a very competitive and fun challenge for all involved.”

“The HPCAC-ISC Student Cluster Competition is designed to introduce the next generation of students to the international high-performance computing community,” said Gilad Shainer, chairman of the HPC Advisory Council. “This is an excellent educational opportunity for students to showcase their knowledge and skillsets and to engage with leading commercial vendors. We look forward to working with the ISC team to produce a very competitive and fun challenge for all involved.”

“The HPCAC-ISC Student Cluster Competition is an opportunity to showcase our brightest students’ expertise in a friendly, yet spirited competition,” said Dr. Hans Werner Meuer, ISC General Chair. “We look forward to working with the HPC Advisory Council and are excited to host this very engaging competition at next year’s ISC’12.”

Submissions will be open on September 2011 and detailed information will be available on the HPC Advisory Council website, as well the ISC’12 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. For more information, sponsorship and general questions please email [e-mail].

Visit the HPC Advisory Council at ISC’11 (June 20-22, 2011)

Visit the HPC Advisory Council at booth #831 to learn more about the organization’s worldwide HPC training, best practices, workshops and educational outreach programs. In addition, find out more about how you and your organization can join the growing list of companies and end-user organizations in the HPC Advisory Council.

Supporting Resources:

• Learn more about the HPCAC-ISC Student Cluster Challenge
• Follow the HPC Advisory Council on Twitter and Facebook

About ISC’11

Now in its 26th year, ISC is the world’s oldest and one of the most important conferences for the HPC community, offering a strong five-day technical program with a wide range of expert speakers and exhibits from leading research centers and vendors. A number of events complement the technical program, including Tutorials, Workshops, Top500 Announcement, Research Paper Sessions, Birds of a Feather (BoF) Sessions, Research Poster Session, Exhibitor and Start-up Forums and the popular "Hot Seat Sessions" featuring leaders from industry and research centers. The conference has experienced tremendous growth over the last few years, with an estimated 2,000 participants from around the world expected to convene in Hamburg, June 19 – 23.

ISC’11 is open to IT-decision makers, scientists, members of the HPC global community and other interested parties. The ISC exhibition allows analysts, decision-makers from the automotive, defense, aeronautical, gas & oil, banking and other industries; solution providers, data storage suppliers, distributors, hardware and software manufacturers, the media, scientists and universities to see and learn firsthand about new products, applications and technological advances in the supercomputing industry today.

About the HPC Advisory Council

The HPC Advisory Council’s mission is to bridge the gap between high-performance computing (HPC) use and its potential, bring the beneficial capabilities of HPC to new users for better research, education, innovation and product manufacturing, bring users the expertise needed to operate HPC systems, provide application designers with the tools needed to enable parallel computing, and to strengthen the qualification and integration of HPC system products. For more information about the HPC Advisory Council, please visit www.hpcadvisorycouncil.com.