SA students head to Germany for supercomputing competition

The students came first at a national competition which took place during the annual Centre for High-Performance Computing (CHPC) conference in Pretoria last week. They were part of ten teams, consisting of four undergraduate students from universities across the country, who battled it out to demonstrate their cluster building and high-performance computing skills.

The winning team

• Rosendorff Meir (Wits)
• Bruton Joshua (Wits)
• Paupamah Kimessha (Wits)
• Mokoena Katleho (Wits)
• Sithole Njabulo (University of Limpopo)
• Michlo Nathan (Wits)
• Giga Biters    and Evans    Sharon (Wits)
• Gekko Bulbulia Zubair (Wits)

In a real-time challenge, the students build small high-performance computing clusters on the exhibition floor, using hardware provided by CHPC and its industrial partners, and race to demonstrate the best performance across a series of benchmarks and applications.

The CHPC is one of three primary pillars of the national cyberinfrastructure intervention initiated by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and managed by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Speaking at the competition the Department of Science and Technology’s Director-General, Dr Phil Mjwara, said that the department was committed to investing in science, engineering and innovation including the establishment and support institutes such as the CHPC.

“This kind of government assistance fosters the creation and dissemination of knowledge of innovation and has a strong influence on the long-term competitiveness of the country,” said Dr Mjwara.

CHPC Director, Dr Happy Sithole said the objective was to create awareness of high-performance computing and the great impact it has on the country.