Student Cluster Competition

Michael Gilbert

• What's your major and what led you to pick it?
  My major is computer science. I initially chose this major out of a desire to learn web programming. However, as I've been going through the program, I've been drawn to every aspect of computer science and now see it as a valuable vehicle for solving today's hardest problems.
• In what other events like this have you competed? Was that as a team or individually? How did you do?
  This is the first computer-related team-based event I have had the privilege of being a part of.
• What training routine are you following to prepare for this year's SCC15 competition?
  Most of the things I have been working on involve getting comfortable with compiling all of the competition software with different options and types of compilers, and becoming familiar with the various errors and problems that can arise.
• What's your primary role on your current team and why did you get that assignment?
  Our team is focused on preparing each person for every aspect of the competition, so no one has been given specific roles.
• What's been your most challenging assignment in preparing for this competition? Do you think that assignment gave you an advantage in the competition?
  The most challenging part for me has been figuring out the point at which mpi programs stop scaling well. For example, does running a specific program over several nodes run faster than running on just one?
• What's been the easiest part of preparing for the competition so far? How about the most difficult?
  The easiest part is probably in compiling most of the programs with standard compiler options using GCC; it almost always go smoothly. On the other hand, the most difficult part has been compiling with the Intel compiler and figuring out which options will actually work. Most of the time there are several errors to sort through and figure out.
• What architectural details can you share that will put fear into the hearts of your competitors?
  Our cluster runs on wild Honey Badgers. We have a room full of them feeding all of their ferocity and cunning directly into our machines.
• What do you like about mysteries? How are your preparing for the mystery application?
  I like the thrill of being on the edge of your seat, so mysteries are great. My preparation involves sampling some of the different programs that researchers seem to use the most at my university.
• Why do you want to win? What are you willing to do to win?
  In my opinion, everyone in this competition is automatically a winner. There is so much to learn and experience that I don't think it is possible for anyone to lose. That being said, winning would definitely look good on my resume! As far as what I'm willing to do to win...pretty much not having a life until November 20th.
• What are you planning to do after the competition is over?
  After the competition, I'm planning to continue working in HPC at my university and learn as much as I can about supercomputing!

Brandon

• What's your major and what led you to pick it?
  My major is computer science. Most of the reason I picked this major was because I've always been interested in computers and what advances can be made due to computers, it's truly an interesting field!
• In what other events like this have you competed? Was that as a team or individually? How did you do?
  This is my first event of this type and I’m super excited to be a part of it!
• What training routine are you following to prepare for this year's SCC15 competition?
  Personally I try to make sure I keep up with all the different software and ensure that I understand how to run each and every package.
• What's your primary role on your current team and why did you get that assignment?
  Currently we’re trying to get everyone experience with the different applications so we all understand how to run them. Along the way we’ve been finding programs that people seem to understand and like more than others, mine would probably be Repast HPC.
• What's been your most challenging assignment in preparing for this competition? Do you think that assignment gave you an advantage in the competition?
  The most challenging assignment I’ve had is finding time to work on the software packages with work, school, I’m definitely on a full schedule! If I were to choose an application that I have had a hard time figuring out it would have to be WRF, for some reason it’s just taking a long time to understand how it all comes together and how the different dependencies work with it.
• What's been the easiest part of preparing for the competition so far? How about the most difficult?
  Personally for me preparing for the competition has been a lot of fun! We meet at least once a week and discuss our findings on that week’s software package in order to try to get everyone on the same page. The easiest thing is when you work together with other people that also want to work. The most difficult part has been getting the students at our three different universities to work together efficiently.
• What architectural details can you share that will put fear into the hearts of your competitors?
  We don’t have anything to share right now! The details are just too juicy!
• What do you like about mysteries? How are your preparing for the mystery application?
  I like that the mystery is a mystery to everyone, leaving us all on an equal battle ground. We’re making sure that we fully understand all the programs listed on the SC15 competition list as well as a few that are also commonly used in HPC.
• Why do you want to win? What are you willing to do to win?
  I’d like to win because I’ve never won anything like this before, it’s a challenge I don’t want to lose! I’ve had quite a few late nights working on software packages and I expect many, many more in the near future!
• What are you planning to do after the competition is over?
  I’m planning on expanding even more on this knowledge and continue following the HPC community.

Omri

• What's your major and what led you to pick it?
  I am a computer science major, with a minor in mathematics. I’ve enjoyed both using and programming computers for years – my first experience with a programming language was learning Ruby at Arizona State University during a youth program. It seemed natural to choose to study a subject that is interesting, useful, and most importantly, that I enjoy.
• In what other events like this have you competed? Was that as a team or individually? How did you do?
  I haven’t really participated in any computing competitions previously, and am excited at the opportunity given to me in the form of the 2015 Student Cluster Competition.
• What training routine are you following to prepare for this year's SCC15 competition?
  While waiting for the competition cluster provided by our sponsor to arrive, we’ve been meeting twice a week online to learn how to compile and run the various competition application suites. We’ve been rotating between each application each time so that each of us gets a general feel of how they work, and have now begun settling down to work on those that have been causing more issues.
• What's your primary role on your current team and why did you get that assignment?
  I’d say that I’ve been the person on the team to make sure that we’re actually running and compiling the programs correctly – I’ve had experience with the configuration of the cluster we’ve been using while waiting for the competition cluster, due to my job at ASU Research Computing. More recently, I was assigned to take a deeper look at the HPL benchmark.
• What's been your most challenging assignment in preparing for this competition? Do you think that assignment gave you an advantage in the competition?
  In contrast to the other teams, we’re made up of students from multiple Universities that are a couple hours away from each-other. This necessitates most of our interaction being online. This presents a unique set of challenges in comparison to our competitors.
• What's been the easiest part of preparing for the competition so far? How about the most difficult?
  The easiest part of the competition was signing up! While the competition is difficult, and our competitors are tough, I think that the Arizona Tri-University Team has the motivation to slug it out.
• What architectural details can you share that will put fear into the hearts of your competitors?
  We fuel our computing machines using the blood of our enemies! While we do not currently plan on using accelerators, our computing cluster will make up for the lack by using FDR InfiniBand, SSDs, and the latest Intel Xeon processors. Not all the applications are capable of using accelerators, so while they may greatly increase performance when running software such as the HPL benchmark, they are simply deadweight when running something such as HPC Repast.
• What do you like about mysteries? How are your preparing for the mystery application?
  Mysteries and secrets can be either good and bad, depending on your mentality. I think our team is capable of crossing any obstacle place in its path. We’ve also had a few guesses into the potential nature of the mystery application, and are studying what we think it may during downtime between working on other programs.
• Why do you want to win? What are you willing to do to win?
  I want to win because I believe we are capable of doing so – if we are capable of doing so, there’s no reason we shouldn’t strive to do so! However, I think that participating in the Student Cluster Competition itself is more important than simply winning. Win or lose, nothing can take away the knowledge and experience we’ve collectively gained.
• What are you planning to do after the competition is over?
  I plan on learning more about HPC and what routes are available to me in that realm during Supercomputing 2015. I still have some years at college left, and much more to learn!