Cluster Devils Compete at SC09

Date: 
11/12/2009 - 4:00pm

The Cluster Devils are part of an undergraduate outreach effort by the ASU Ira A. Fulton High Performance Computing Initiative. This six-member team prepares during the months leading up to the fall Student Cluster Competition in November, where universities from all over the world congregate to determine what school has the best compute cluster. This year the competition takes place in Portland, OR, during the week long Supercomputing SC09 conference.  

Sponsored by software and hardware vendors Microsoft and IBM, the team spent time in Redmond, WA at Microsoft headquarters and received all-star treatment to prepare for the competition. Having the best cluster means that it can process sophisticated science and engineering problems, deliver high performance running HPC benchmarks, and continue running during the roughly 48-hour marathon competition. This is all accomplished while staying under the 26 amp power budget. This year the team is led by senior aerospace engineering major, Benjamin Jimenez, and coached by Dr. Earl Duque, a mechanical and aerospace engineering professor from Northern Arizona University. The team is also composed of senior computer science majors, Richard Wellington and Michael Johanson, senior chemical engineering major, Tricia Hurd, junior computer systems major, Patrick Lu, and junior computer science major, Megan Kearl. The Cluster Devils hope to establish a long term relationship with Microsoft and IBM, and aspire to win this year's competition. Bringing ASU to the forefront of the HPC community is a top priority for senior, Benjamin Jimenez, and this effort will be a big push in that direction.

 

Cluster Devils' Website

ASU News on the Cluster Devils