Student Cluster Competition

About Teams

A team is comprised of six undergraduate or high school students and one primary advisor.

Creating a Team

• College students must be enrolled at an educational institution but MUST NOT have been granted an undergraduate degree when the event starts.
• High school students are also eligible and encouraged to participate either as members on a college team or as members of a team made up entirely of high school students.
• A team may be composed of members from multiple educational institutions including combined high school and college students.

Student Rules and Guidelines

• Students must adhere to the SC19 Code of Conduct: http://sc19.supercomputing.org/attendees/code-of-conduct/
• As referenced in the SC19 Code of Conduct, students must adhere to the IEEE Code of Ethics and ACM Code of Conduct as well as all rules and guidelines in the conference’s Exhibitor Manual.
• All students must follow safety rules for the event. A safety briefing outlining the rules will be given before any activity is performed on the show floor. The safety rules are intended to prevent injury to students and to prevent damage to the facility and equipment.
• Students are limited to a maximum of twelve (12) hours per day per student in the contest area.
• Once the competition begins and until the competition ends, students should not seek or receive assistance from anyone who is not a student member of their own team, including from their team advisor.
• Each team member's efforts must focus on their team's performance, any efforts to undermine the performance of another team will be strongly penalized.
• Cheating of any kind will not be tolerated, and any cheating team is subject to disqualification.
• Teams should encourage their sponsoring institutions and vendor partners to provide their cluster hardware for practice and preparation, ideally for three (3) months (or more) prior to the event.
• Teams should encourage their sponsoring institutions and vendor partners to provide technical assistance to ensure that their cluster remains under the power budget for the competition.
• Teams should encourage vendor partners to provide training and interact closely with the team designing the cluster, thereby benefiting the team and the vendor partner.

Advisor Rules and Guidelines

• There is only one (1) primary advisor per team.
• The primary advisor will be the ONLY advisor eligible for conference provided resources such as housing, invitations to SCC events, jackets, etc.
• Advisors are required to be staff, faculty or graduate students of the team's educational institution(s) or sponsoring HPC center.
• During the event, which begins on Friday and ends the next Thursday (see typical schedule below), the primary advisor is responsible and accountable for the team at all times and must be available 24 hours a day.
• Advisors should not provide any assistance in the competition to any team once the competition starts until the competition ends.

Institution, Sponsoring HPC Center, and Vendor Guidelines

• Institutions and sponsoring HPC centers are encouraged to have vendor partners to help offset costs of the event and competition.
• Institutions, sponsoring HPC centers and/or their vendor partners must provide their team's cluster hardware and software meeting competition rules.
• Institutions, sponsoring HPC centers and/or their vendor partners must provide funding for shipping costs, freight and show-floor handling costs, the cost of team transportation (airfare and/or ground transportation) to and from the event, and any other expenses that are not explicitly listed which their team may incur.
• Vendor partners are encouraged to provide booth decorations (signage, swag and collateral material), and additional funding for team member's per diem.
• Institutions and vendor partners should provide their team's cluster hardware for practice and preparation, ideally for three (3) months or more prior to the competition.
• Vendor partners should provide technical assistance to their team to ensure that the proposed cluster remains under the power budget for the competition.
• Vendors are encouraged to provide training and interact closely with their teams in designing the cluster, which will benefit the team and the vendor.

SC19 Commitment to each SCC Team

• Rooms for the six team members (three rooms with two beds) plus one advisor (one room with one bed).
  • This is offered under the conditions of the Hotel Accommodation Rules below.
• Exhibitor and Technical Program Conference registrations for the six team members and one advisor.
• AAs the competition is a part of the Students@SC program, students get access to the Mentor Protégé program and the Student Job Fair.
• Some food will be provided at the conference
  • Snacks - fruit and drinks (coffee, sodas, water) -during breaks (10am, 3pm) Sun - Wed; and overnight snacks Sun - Tues.

Hotel Accommodation Rules

• Teams must stay at the SC19 designated hotel for the SCC program for room and tax to be covered.
• Accommodations include three (3) double-bed rooms for the six (6) student team members (only three (3) rooms with two (2) beds will be provided - no additional accommodations, such as a cot, will be provided).
• One (1) single-bed room will be provided for the primary advisor (this room cannot be changed to a double-bed room).
• Students will be placed in the same room as students of the same gender.
• If a team has an odd number of males and females, students may be paired with other teams.
  • Special housing circumstances may be accommodated. Accepted teams with special circumstances should contact the SCC chair as early as possible to discuss possible arrangements.
• The primary advisor is responsible for recommending room assignments.
• SC19 will make reservations at the hotel. Please do not contact the hotel directly.
• Dates for SC19 supported hotel accommodations are:
  • US Domestic Teams: Check in November 16, 2019; Check out November 22, 2019
  • International Teams: Check in November 15, 2019; Check out November 22, 2019
• Teams must stay at the SC19 designated hotel for the SCC program for room and tax to be covered.
• The hotel will require a credit card upon check-in to cover incidentals.
• SC19 will not cover any other charges to hotel rooms (incidentals) including but not limited to room service, movies, laundry, etc.

Presentation at the Conference

• A large LCD display will be provided. The display should be used to continually showcase application progress through the visualization output from the applications and other dynamic content the team chooses.
• The contest area is in the public area of the Conference and the intention is to attract visitors to the contest activities.
• Posters from each team will be displayed that describe the team's hardware, software and training methods for the competition.
• Teams will present on their team, hardware, software, and training methods in a public forum at the conference.

Typical Event Schedule

This is the typical chain of activities during the event. Each year is different and will have some changes. This is meant to give a feel for the event as a whole and the competition specifically. An agenda will be given to teams before they reach the show floor.

• Friday before the competition
  • International teams arrive
• Saturday
  • Domestic teams arrive in the morning
  • Safety briefing in early afternoon
  • Teams can start to set up their hardware after the safety briefing
• Sunday
  • Committee meets with teams in the morning
  • Teams continue to set up their hardware
• Monday
  • Committee meets with teams in the morning
  • Benchmark runs begin on Monday morning.
    • These runs are used to determine the "Highest Linpack" Award
  • Competition starts in the evening, typically coinciding with the opening of the exhibitor show floor
    • The competition will run for 48 hours straight and end on Wednesday at approximately the same time
• Tuesday
  • Committee meets with teams in the morning
  • Competition continues
  • Conference engagement (posters, presentations, Linpack Awarding, or other engagement may happen on this day)
• Wednesday
  • Committee meets with teams in the morning
  • Competition continues
  • Conference engagement (posters, presentations, Linpack Awarding, or other engagement may happen on this day)
  • Competition ends in the evening
• Thursday
  • Awards ceremony
  • Competition post-mortem discussion
  • Cluster tear down
• Friday
  • Teams return home