Author Archives: Stem Trek

By Eugene de Beste, Systems and Cloud Developer/Administrator with the South African National Bioinformatics Institute, a part of the University of the Western Cape

My journey with systems and HPC administration starts with the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) of South Africa and their Student Cluster Challenge (SCC). I was involved in the third-ever challenge of this kind in South Africa and went on to represent South Africa with my team at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) SCC in 2014, placing first. This proved to be a monumental part of solidifying my desire to continue in this field. As such, I joined my research unit as an HPC and Cloud systems developer from 2017. It is quite fitting then that the CHPC, along with STEM-Trek, would help me find my way to Supercomputing 2019 in Denver.

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By Henry Simfukwe, HPC Systems Administrator at ZAMREN

The seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, the late Kofi Annan, once said “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.” SC19 for me brings to life these words, as it sharpens one’s knowledge about high-performance computing (HPC), provides information, educates on the best practices and new technologies, and fosters new relationships with like-minded professionals from around the world.

My first experience with HPC came when I Joined the Zambian Research and Education Network (ZAMREN) in 2017 as a Systems Administrator. My duties involve managing and providing support to Linux and Windows Servers, managing the HPC systems and ensuring that all ZAMREN services have a 99.9% up time. Additionally, I am involved in managing Eduroam for the Zambian Federation, and facilitate workshops on Network Monitoring and Campus Network Design.

When I received …

By: Professor Marcus Bond, Southeast Missouri State University

I never expected to have a 1st SC.  As a chemistry faculty member and crystallographer, I have been active in computing my entire career.  But my involvement in high-performance computing (HPC) is more recent.  Several years ago it seemed like a good idea to install a small cluster in our department in order to promote computational science.  At the time, I was completely unaware of the larger supercomputing community.  It was only at the urging of Jim Paugh of Advanced Clustering Technologies (our vendor) that I attended the 2015 Oklahoma Supercomputing Symposium.  It was a very new and confusing experience for me, so many new terms and acronyms—SC, XSEDE—that seemed of casual acquaintance to the other attendees. 

Bond & Students

With my background …

By: Anton S. Limbo, HPC System Administrator, University of Namibia

Attending SC19 was an amazing opportunity for me. I also attended SC17, ironically in the same place, Colorado’s Mile-High City. This time around I came all geared-up with a game plan for the tutorials, workshops and birds-of-a-feather (BoF) sessions that will be most relevant to our relatively new high-performance computing (HPC) site and to further my HPC knowledge.

About me

I work for the University of Namibia (UNAM) where I lecture on the topic of Systems Administration. Recently, the university received refurbished HPC racks from South Africa’s Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) and I am the system administrator of those racks. Being new to the HPC field and given the lack of expertise in the field in Namibia, it was challenging to get the hardware into production. However, with continued support from STEM-Trek, SC and CHPC, SADC HPC ecosystems …

By: Rosanne Els, Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Kwa Zulu-Natal, South Africa

Having had the opportunity to attend SC17, I was delighted when I received the news that I had also been selected to receive an SC19 registration waiver, with tutorials and workshops included (thank you SC19 General Chair Michela Taufer).

I quickly set about booking flights and sorting out all the logistical things to make the trip a reality. At the time, I was in the final stages of supervising several Honours and Postgraduate projects, marking tests, finalizing class marks and setting examinations. Though feeling overstretched, I knew, having had the experience in 2017, that all the additional time in getting the logistics worked out would be worthwhile in the end. There seemed to be a hurdle at almost every step of the way, but I remained focused on the goal…getting to SC19. 

I …

By Michael Jeszenka (Georgia Tech)

​I’m back home after attending SC19 in Denver this last week. What an experience it was! I’m writing this with everything still fresh in my mind so hopefully, I won’t forget anything too important.

What is SC19?

SC is the biggest annual conference in Super Computing / High Performance Computing, and the 19 merely means this year’s edition. The terms Super Computing and High Performance Computing are inter-changeable and often simply referred to as HPC.

What is a super computer?

Super computers are exactly what they sound like! They are computers that are super, or bigger than computers you are probably using unless you currently work in HPC. I’ll borrow Wikipedia’s definition:

A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second …

by Vitalina Baptista, HPC Systems Administrator at MoRENet (Mozambique Research and Education Network)

It all started with an email I received from Bryan Jonhston at the Centre for High Performance Computing in South Africa (CHPC). He shared the STEM-Trek call for participation (which provides support to attend SC19 for those who are selected, and the competition is steep!). I was not going to apply; there were many factors to my disadvantage, including the financial one.

Two weeks before the deadline, Bryan again insisted that I submit my application.

So I applied. But I confess I didn’t have much hope of being selected.

But when I least expected it, I received a positive response from STEM-Trek’s Elizabeth Leake. At that time, there was no guarantee of support, but she asked me to wait while she searched for more funding. My hopes arose, once again.

STEM-Trek distributed registration waivers that were donated …

Badisa Mosesane (University of Botswana) recently completed a three-month (plus two weeks) cyberinfrastructure professional internship at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). While he was there, he learned about the Blue Waters supercomputer, the XSEDE project, the NCSA Industry program, and much, much more!

Here’s his report.

In July, Badisa had the opportunity to attend the Practice & Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC19) conference in Chicago. Badisa presented an update about the DRONES4GOOD project during STEM-Trek’s AI4GOOD@PEARC19 workshop.

Badisa Mosesane presenting an update of the DRONES4GOOD project during the AI4GOOD@PEARC19 workshop

Badisa’s NCSA internship was supported by the National Science Foundation. Gap funds were provided by Cray Computing via STEM-Trek Nonprofit.

We appreciate the care with which this opportunity was …

Join STEM-Trek in Denver, Colorado-US November 16-22 for SC19, the international conference on high-performance computing, networking, storage and analysis!

A limited number of registration waivers (conference plus two-day tutorial registrations donated by the conference), and possibly travel support, funds pending, will be available for eligible candidates who apply before September 12.

Eligibility

Cybersecurity professionals, HPC systems administrators, educators, researchers, tech project managers, and network engineers who are responsible for supporting and securing research computing systems and data at colleges and universities in resource-constrained regions are welcome to apply. In the U.S., those meeting the above criteria who work at institutions in EPSCoR states and territories are eligible. We are especially eager to receive applications from women and others from demographics that are under-represented in STEM academics and careers. Applicants must be at least age 21 by November 1, 2019, and work at least 50 percent of the time in …

Join STEM-Trek in the Windy City for the Practice & Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC19) conference, July 28-August 1, 2019! We’re hosting a workshop on Monday, July 29, that will enlighten participants about applications for artificial intelligence (AI) that are used for social good. Biomedical advances, economic empowerment strategies, agricultural innovation and quality of life improvements for citizens in underserved regions will be emphasized. 

Hands-on training sessions will acquaint participants with a variety of useful AI skills, and our security panel will foster thoughtful discussion about related privacy, ethics and compliance challenges associated with inter-institutional and international research.

You may also enjoy the “Stop Chasing Unicorns in the Global Gig Economy” panel discussion on Wednesday, July 31 from 11:05 a.m. to 12:35 p.m. in the agency A-B room at the Hyatt. Join Moderator Elizabeth Leake (STEM-Trek & University of Iowa), with panelists Ben Rogers (University of …