Supercomputing students bring home third prize
18 July 2018
Editor's Choice
News
The South African supercomputing team that participated in the International Student Cluster Competition in Frankfurt, Germany, took third place behind China’s Tsinghua University and Nanyang Technological University of Singapore.
The team of six, made up of undergraduate computer science and engineering students from the Universities of the Witwatersrand and Limpopo, was one of 12 teams from around the world that participated in the prestigious challenge from 25 to 27 June 2018.
The students showcased computing systems of their own design, adhering to strict power constraints and seeking to achieve the highest performance across a series of standard high-performance computing benchmarks and applications. South Africa has been participating in the international competition since 2013 and won it in 2013, 2014 and 2016, coming second in 2015 and 2017. It is one of the few teams that consists entirely of undergraduate students, and that sends different students each year.
Before participating, the members of the team received extensive training from the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC), an initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
The CHPC’s Director, Dr Happy Sithole, said that the placing was “a significant achievement for South Africa,” and that the CHPC hopes to increase the number of students who received exposure of this kind in the field of high-performance computing. “In the past six years we have had 36 students performing well on the world stage,” he said.
The South African team was chosen from 10 participating teams at a national student cluster supercomputing competition held in December last year. Team selection for the national competition takes place at the CHPC’s Winter School, which is designed to impart critical knowledge for building a cluster. This includes using Linux systems, the basic software stack of a cluster, and considerations that should be taken into account when choosing hardware. Team selection concludes with an assignment that requires each team to build a prototype cluster in the cloud.
After all their hard work, this year’s team – Meir Rosendorff, Joshua Bruton, Kimessha Paupamah, Katleho Mokoena, Nathan Michlo and Njabulo Sithole – said that they planned to hire bicycles and cycle around Frankfurt “doing touristy things”.
For more information contact Nox Moyake, CHPC, [email protected]
Further reading:
High performance SDR design considerations
RFiber Solutions
Editor's Choice DSP, Micros & Memory
As the spectrum gets increasingly crowded, and adversaries more capable, the task of examining wide bands and making sense of it all, while not missing anything, gets harder.
Read more...
Microtronix revives defunct cell phone plant
Microtronix Manufacturing
Editor's Choice Manufacturing / Production Technology, Hardware & Services
In a significant move for South Africa’s struggling electronics manufacturing sector, local technology firm Microtronix has breathed new life into a formerly defunct cell phone manufacturing facility.
Read more...
How smart components drive sustainable industrial efficiency
TRX Electronics
Editor's Choice Manufacturing / Production Technology, Hardware & Services
Manufacturing industries across South Africa face mounting pressure to reduce operational costs whilst meeting increasingly stringent environmental regulations, and the path to achieving these goals lies in embracing advanced electronic components that enable smarter, more efficient industrial operations.
Read more...
From the editor's desk: Fostering a love for engineering through DIY projects
Technews Publishing
Editor's Choice
Many students are turning away from these perceived ‘hard’ STEM subjects, moving instead toward soft sciences and fields that seem less intimidating or more immediately rewarding.
Read more...
Satellite IoT through non-terrestrial networks
Future Electronics
Editor's Choice Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
Non-terrestrial networks fill cellular coverage gaps in remote areas by extending terrestrial networks and are not subject to disruptions from natural disasters or sabotage.
Read more...
Enhance SiC device efficiency using merged-pin Schottky diodes
NuVision Electronics
Editor's Choice Power Electronics / Power Management
Silicon carbide (SiC) has advantages over silicon (Si) that make it particularly suitable for Schottky diodes in applications such as fast battery chargers, photovoltaic (PV) battery converters, and traction inverters.
Read more...
What is Wi-Fi HaLow and why choose it for IoT?
iCorp Technologies
Editor's Choice Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
Wi-Fi HaLow introduces a low power connectivity option that, in contrast to other Wi-Fi options, offers greater range of approximately 1 km, which opens up a raft of IoT use cases.
Read more...
Simple battery charger ICs for any chemistry
Altron Arrow
Editor's Choice Power Electronics / Power Management
The LTC4162 is a highly integrated, high voltage multi-chemistry synchronous monolithic step-down battery charger and PowerPath manager with onboard telemetry functions and optional maximum power point tracking.
Read more...
From the editor's desk: Is the current AI really what we want?
Technews Publishing
Editor's Choice
The companies that develop LLMs need to change direction and concentrate on freeing up our time, not so that we can have more time to do the tasks we don’t want to do in the first place, but rather to allow us more time to do what we love.
Read more...
When it comes to long-term reliability of RF amplifier ICs, focus first on die junction temperature
Altron Arrow
Editor's Choice Telecoms, Datacoms, Wireless, IoT
When considering the long-term reliability of integrated circuits, a common misconception is that high package or die thermal resistance is problematic. However, high or low thermal resistance, by itself, tells an incomplete story.
Read more...
printer friendly version