Perth was host to the 16th International HPC Summer School – the first time the program has come to the Southern Hemisphere.
The Hon Dr Parwinder Kaur MLC launched the event on behalf of Hon. Stephen Dawson MLC, WA Minister for Science and Innovation. We welcomed delegates and a very special keynote speaker, Professor Giuseppe Barca, a global leader in high-performance computing who uses exascale simulations to transform drug discovery and precision medicine.
Experts from across the globe were on hand to share their experiences and skills with the students. Mentors and staff – including Pawsey and National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) – were grouped with students and covered technical topics alongside communication, collaboration and career development.
Pathways and panels
Students had the choice between learning about parallel programming with OpenMP for CPUs or MPI, had sessions about workflow tools, numerical methods and more.
Experts shared their industry knowledge on panels such as HPC challenges in scientific work and the future of HPC.
Staff from Pawsey were also part of the mentor groups, guiding the students through technical and professional skills like resume building and what it’s like to move countries for an opportunity.
Pawsey Training and Education Manager Ludovic Capelli has attended the IHPCSS since 2018, starting as a student and returning in different capacities. Fast-forward to today, Ludovic and his team have brought together over 90 students, 30 staff and mentors across five continents to Perth – a first time in Australia for a lot of the attendees.
“I moved from being a student to being a half-student, half-staff,” Ludovic recalled. “And now as staff, actually organising this year, hosting the summer school in Perth.”
Ludovic’s work in securing the summer school in Perth, booking the VIP speakers and organising the Australian team was instrumental in getting the event at the level expected each year.
He said the reason the summer school succeeds so well is because everyone in the room shares a similar interest, and the willingness to learn is palpable.
“As a student, what’s nice is for that week you only have people, topics, talks about HPC made by experts in HPC who love HPC,” Ludovic said. “To an audience made of people studying HPC, wanting to use HPC.”
More than the compute
It was more than compute. The group learnt about how to network and its value, how to review their own resume, and what it’s like to live in a different country.
Ehime University’s Dave Arthur Robledo, one of this year’s mentors, said it feels different returning after attending the event as a student.
“Before I was like a student with the eagerness to learn, but now it’s the eagerness to share,” Dave said.
“I can share my experiences, my challenges tackling imposter syndrome.”
Indiana University’s Julie Wernert, one of the staff, said staff enjoy returning to the event because of the real benefit students get from the in-person interactions.
“I think that a lot of the students express that they really feel embraced when they come here,” Julie said. “So it’s a safe place to be vulnerable.”
“The people that work on this summer school do it as a labour of love,” she said. “People are really invested and really want to nurture the next generation.”
People first
Pawsey CEO Mark Stickells, who welcomed delegates on the first day, said he was really pleased to showcase Australia to many visitors, many of whom were visiting for the first time.
The Summer School also highlighted Western Australia’s growing reputation as a hub for science, technology and innovation, bringing together the strength of Australia’s research infrastructure, universities and research community.
“We really do spend a lot of time focusing on the compute, on the hardware and the power of the petaflop, but it’s honestly the power of the people that really inspires us to do what we do,” Mark said.
Mark Stickells welcomes delegates to the event.
Giuseppe Barca speaks to the crowd about his work.
Pawsey's Ludovic Capelli addresses the students.
Pawsey's Chris Harris teaching the 'Parallel Programming: MPI' session.
Pawsey's Fathima Haseen talks to students.
