A collaborative team of IU and Purdue students, named INpack, will showcase their supercomputer building skills in the Student Cluster Competition (SCC), November 14–16, in Dallas, Texas. This is the first time a joint IU/Purdue team has competed in the international SC22 conference’s Student Cluster Competition.
“This unique partnership of two large research universities brings a spotlight to Indiana,” said Beth Plale, executive director of the Pervasive Technology Institute (PTI) at IU. “We’re excited to support these students in the competition as part of PTI’s workforce development initiative. They are the next generation of HPC professionals.”
SCC attracts undergraduate teams from around the world and uses a friendly competition to introduce them to the rigors of high performance computing (HPC). This exciting competition, held on the SC22 exhibit floor, gives the team hands-on experience building a supercomputer cluster with a cloud component. They’ll learn what it takes to build and maintain a high performance system, getting real-world skills that will help them in an HPC career.
We’re a scrappy team that’s overcome the division
Lucas Snyder
“Because INpack is a joint IU and Purdue team, we have the unique opportunity of having twice as many experts and researchers available at our request, to teach us about these unique pieces of software and workflows that they use so we can learn more to prepare for the competition,” said Zachary Graber, INpack team member and IU senior.
The team name, INpack, has two meanings. It’s a combination of “IN” for “Indiana” and “pack” meaning “team.” It’s also a play on the Linpack benchmark, which is used to measure the performance of a supercomputer and will be the benchmark used in the competition.
“The INpack team has been dedicated to preparing for SCC,” said PTI Chief Operations Officer Winona Snapp-Childs, who co-advises the team and is a member of the steering committee. “We’re looking forward to seeing them succeed in the competition, and we invite everyone at SC22 to come out in support.” The IU SCC steering committee also includes Beth Plale, Martin Swany, Robert Henschel, and Yuo Luo.
The INpack team’s confidence in their performance is high. “We’re a scrappy team that’s overcome the division of being from rival schools in Indiana, so we’re not really scared of anyone or anything at SCC,” said Lucas Snyder, INpack team member and IU junior. “All of our team members are innovative thinkers and problem solvers, so we’re not afraid to learn on the fly or reach outside of our comfort zones if that means victory.”
Visit the Student Cluster Competition in booth #3757 at SC22.
Meet the team and learn more about the competition.
About the Pervasive Technology Institute at Indiana University
The Pervasive Technology Institute at IU is both engine and hub for use-inspired basic research and education in compute- and data-driven challenge areas. Drawing together teams of academic researchers, educators, and technical professionals, the projects shaped within its centers and labs go on to find immediate utility in science and engineering research and education in the state of Indiana and the nation. PTI was established in 1999 by a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment.
