{"643094":{"#nid":"643094","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Team Phoenix Takes Home a Top Ranking in Premier HPC Competition","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA group of undergraduate students from Georgia Tech, dubbed\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.gatech.edu\/gtsc20\/team-phoenix\/\u0022\u003ETeam Phoenix,\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;has claimed the third-highest overall score in the premier\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sc20.supercomputing.org\/2020\/11\/14\/scs-first-virtual-student-cluster-competition-concludes-with-teams-greatly-expanding-their-knowledge-of-running-hpc-workloads-in-the-cloud\/\u0022\u003Ehigh-performance computing (HPC) student competition\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;of 2020.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sc20.supercomputing.org\/program\/studentssc\/student-cluster-competition\/\u0022\u003EStudent Cluster Competition\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(SCC) is an immersive 72-hour HPC challenge held as part of the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sc20.supercomputing.org\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003ESupercomputing Conference Series (SC)\u003C\/a\u003E. SCC\u0026nbsp;presents undergraduate students with real-world scientific workloads, a series of benchmarks, and even a mystery challenge to overcome.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/641087\/high-performance-computing-all-everywhere\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E[Related News: High-Performance Computing for All, Everywhere]\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis achievement marks just the second time that a Georgia Tech team was accepted to the competition. Despite a Georgia Tech group not competing since 2017, this year\u0026rsquo;s challengers were prepped and ready to become the only team outside of China to place in the top three of 19 competing organizations.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;The success of Georgia Tech\u0026#39;s SC20 Student Cluster Competition team was a thrill to witness. We feel strongly about providing students with opportunities to experience HPC. Our strategic partners from industry and national labs tell us demand for HPC skills continues to rise and initiatives like the SCC help cultivate interest in HPC careers,\u0026rdquo; said Team Phoenix coach and\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cse.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Computational Science and Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(CSE) Research Technologist\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EWill Powell.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETeam Phoenix\u0026rsquo;s student competitors include computer science undergraduates\u003Cstrong\u003E\u0026nbsp;Sudhanshu Agarwal, Albert Chen, Aman Jain, Ali Kazmi, Nicole Prindle,\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;and\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EMarissa Sorkin.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;This team of six was selected from a Spring 2020\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.vip.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EVertically Integrated Project\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(VIP) course focused on using HPC systems and applications.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EVIP instructors\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003ERich Vuduc, Aaron Jezghani, Will Powell,\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;and\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EJeff Young\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;helped lead the group along with CSE graduate student\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EVijay Thakkar,\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;who served as the team mentor.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ESupported by the VIP program and the\u0026nbsp;leadership of the\u0026nbsp;five coaches, the students engaged in the long-term, large-scale project that took nearly a year of planning to achieve before the competition had even started.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EPart of this initial planning period was used to identify and recruit sponsorship for the team\u0026rsquo;s machine configuration. Vendor partner Penguin Computing answered the call by providing hardware support and sponsorship of Team Phoenix, while Intel and NVIDIA both shared expertise related to application optimization and HPC tools.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EDue to Covid-19, the competition was moved to the Microsoft Azure cloud to accommodate remote participation, becoming the first-ever Virtual Student Cluster Competition of the Supercomputing Conference series.\u0026nbsp;Undeterred by the change in format, the students exhibited mastery of both HPC and cloud skills while building\u0026nbsp;virtual clusters, learning scientific applications, and applying optimization techniques for chosen cloud configurations.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAs part of the competition\u0026rsquo;s new parameters, each team received an initial $3,200 debit balance for the use of cloud resources. Benchmark results were then compared to calculate standings followed by a $500 boost 12 hours before the competition\u0026rsquo;s end which presented new opportunities for teams looking to maximize their respective scores. In total, all 19 teams used a collective $61,300 of the $70,300 budget, demonstrating not only effective HPC skills but also effective managerial and budgeting skills as well.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Team Phoenix was supportive of one-another, competitive, clever, resourceful, and focused. It was a marvelous adventure. The end result is something all Yellow Jackets can be proud of and the team itself will never forget. We now have a reputation to defend and look forward to embarking on the adventure again in 2021,\u0026rdquo; said Powell.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWatch the team\u0026rsquo;s daily interviews at the link below.\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLl2dezBNo_BksHs_emoprAjYc-ZEbr-V_\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003Ehttps:\/\/youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLl2dezBNo_BksHs_emoprAjYc-ZEbr-V_\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech\u0027s undergraduate team places third in one of the world\u0027s top high performance computing competitions"}],"uid":"34540","created_gmt":"2021-01-19 20:16:27","changed_gmt":"2021-01-20 14:22:11","author":"Kristen Perez","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2021-01-19T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2021-01-19T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"643093":{"id":"643093","type":"image","title":"Team Phoenix ","body":null,"created":"1611087176","gmt_created":"2021-01-19 20:12:56","changed":"1611087176","gmt_changed":"2021-01-19 20:12:56","alt":"A screenshot of students on Microsoft Teams","file":{"fid":"244195","name":"EmVdZO8XcAIOCUg.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/EmVdZO8XcAIOCUg.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/EmVdZO8XcAIOCUg.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":379827,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/EmVdZO8XcAIOCUg.jpeg?itok=aiAS2Sub"}}},"media_ids":["643093"],"groups":[{"id":"624060","name":"Center for High Performance Computing (CHiPC)"},{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50877","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"3427","name":"High performance computing"},{"id":"702","name":"hpc"},{"id":"167322","name":"supercomputing"},{"id":"177314","name":"parallel computing"},{"id":"1071","name":"Undergraduates"},{"id":"186743","name":"VIP course"},{"id":"4305","name":"cse"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EKristen Perez\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECommunications Officer\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["kristen.perez@cc.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}