HPC-AI Advisory Council and ISC Group Open Student Cluster 2022 Competition Submissions

Commencing a second decade of collaborations grooming STEM undergraduates with introductions to intensive mentoring and hands-on skills to develop next generation experts and domain proficiency in complex High Performance Computing (HPC) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) disciplines, the HPC-AI Advisory Council (HPCAIAC) and ISC Group today announced the opening of team proposal submissions for the 2022 ISC Student Cluster Competition (ISC SCC). The 11^th annual student contest will bring multiple student teams together to compete during the 37^th annual ISC High Performance Conference and Exhibition, Europe's oldest and premier HPC conference.

After two years hosting remote challenges, organizers plan to have both virtual along with an onsite competition that closely follows COVID-19 restrictions and protocols. Teams located within Europe will be able to join the onsite part of the competition, and the rest of teams will participate in the virtual part, utilizing several world leading supercomputers. Proposals are now being accepted through 12 November 2021 (12PM PST). Notification of team selections to challenge top performers from the regional challenges in South Africa, China and the UK, will be revealed in a live online broadcast 02 December 2021 (8AM PST/17:00 CET).

"The increasing demand for domain expertise underscores the importance of the benefits gained through competition," said Gilad Shainer, chairman of the HPC-AI Advisory Council. "Teams are applying academic learnings with expert mentoring and their own ingenuity to troubleshoot and solve very real-world problems. And they're already making a profound difference from contributions to COVID-related research to discovery of forgotten options and rewrite of one of the most widely used weather applications and numerous others. Their promise as professionals is limitless."

"The ISC competition and exclusive access to the conference's technical program and exhibit exposes teams to core disciplines and expertise while our unique conference programs allow students to explore voluntary and professional opportunities to build on their CVs and career paths," said Thomas Meuer, general co-chair of the High Performance conference. "Competitors have unfettered access to network with luminaries, experts and peers and to immerse in the community well ahead of competing contemporaries."

The annual championship's return to in-person participation also marks the return to novel, team designed state-of-the-art systems that must be capable of achieving both the highest performance across a series of standard HPC/AI benchmarks and challenges while adhering to the competition's strict power constraints. The intensive competition culminates during the conference's closing plenary with teams taking center stage for a live award ceremony where they are recognized and celebrated by an audience of thousands of HPC luminaries.

Visit the 2022 Student Cluster Competition website to submit entries and learn more about: collaborating with technology partners to design and build a competitive system from commercially available components; working with advisors and mentors to master the HPC applications, tools, techniques and tricks that are critical to a team's overall performance during the live competition and more.

About ISC Group

The ISC Group organizes ISC High Performance, the world's oldest and Europe's premier conference and networking event for the international HPC community. More: www.isc-hpc.com

About HPC-AI Advisory Council

Founded in 2008, The HPC-AI Advisory Council (HPCAIAC) is a community benefit organization with over 400 members committed to promoting HPC and AI through education and outreach. More: www.hpcadvisorycouncil.com