Ascending with HPC: Tech students and faculty shine at SC24 conference
The stars are aligning for HPC in Tennessee 鈥� especially at 麻豆果冻传媒, where students and faculty with a passion for high-performance computing are poised to shine.
鈥淲e couldn鈥檛 be better positioned to grow and prosper than we are right now,鈥� said Tony Skjellum, professor of computer science, noting not only Tech鈥檚 successful debut as an exhibitor at the SC24 international supercomputing conference but also its prime location amid the state鈥檚 ramping tech sector.
鈥淭ennessee is the center of the world for supercomputing, from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, home of the world鈥檚 fastest supercomputer, to Memphis, where Elon Musk and xAI are set to build the world鈥檚 fastest AI supercomputer,鈥� he said. 鈥淚n between, 麻豆果冻传媒 is advancing HPC research,
driving workforce development and building large-scale HPC and quantum resources at our forthcoming data center. Plus, our newly approved ASCEND (Advanced Scalable Computing, Extreme Networks and Data) center is in the works.鈥�
To spotlight its ascent in the HPC space, Tech was among nearly 500 exhibitors at SC24, which drew a record-breaking 18,100 attendees to Atlanta in November 2024 to explore the latest innovations in high-performance computing, networking, storage and analysis. More than 20 students, faculty and staff represented Tech at the event, with some showcasing the university鈥檚 achievements at its new 20x20-foot booth and others taking part in technical workshops, networking with industry professionals and presenting their research. The conference also provided an opportunity to connect with alumni, as well as strengthen Tech鈥檚 efforts to recruit, engage and retain students and faculty.
鈥淲e achieved more than 100 percent of our goals at SC24,鈥� Skjellum said. 鈥淲e built a lot of goodwill around the quality of our students, department and university, especially among local employers who didn鈥檛 realize they could tap into our talent. They know about us now.鈥�
And that presents new opportunities for everyone.
鈥淲e have follow-up meetings with organizations like Oak Ridge National Laboratory,鈥� Skjellum said. 鈥淧lus, we鈥檝e established collaborations with key technical partners, providing our students with valuable opportunities to engage directly in the profession.鈥�
These new connections are solidifying Tech鈥檚 position as a key player in computing 鈥� and, as if by cosmic design, the playing field is becoming increasingly bright in Tennessee.
鈥淲ith companies like Microsoft and AWS (Amazon Web Services) already established here and Oracle moving its world headquarters to Nashville, the demand for a skilled AI workforce is skyrocketing 鈥� and HPC makes AI go,鈥� Skjellum said.
麻豆果冻传媒 aims to build on its SC24 debut by increasing its technical presence at supercomputing conferences.
鈥淥ur investment has been in engaging with others to raise awareness about Tennessee Tech so that we鈥檙e attracting prospective students and faculty and ensuring employers recognize the value of our graduates,鈥� Skjellum said. 鈥淎t the same time, we鈥檙e putting our current students front and center in their discipline.鈥�
So they can shine like stars.
Summer of Speed: 麻豆果冻传媒 students sharpen
HPC skills through internships at national laboratories
A passion for high-performance computing took three 麻豆果冻传媒 doctoral students to national laboratories for a summer of experiential learning.
Nicole Avans completed an internship at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M., while Evelyn Namugwanya and Grace Nansamba elevated their HPC skill sets at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif.
What was the best part of your HPC internship?
鈥淚t was incredible to experience the culture of New Mexico while developing my confidence as a computer scientist and research software engineer,鈥� Avans said of her time at Sandia National Laboratories. 鈥淚 met a diverse group of interns and mentors from a variety of places and learned many things in and out of the professional sphere.鈥�
As a computer science intern 鈥� a position Avans is continuing remotely 鈥� she has been involved in research and assisting in the development of the KokkosComm library, a communication framework that optimizes data exchange and parallel processing in distributed computing environments.
鈥淚 established a series of performance benchmarks to help illuminate existing issues in this new library and areas for further optimization,鈥� she said.
At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Namugwanya and Nansamba were pleased to have made valuable connections with HPC professionals and peers.
鈥淭he entire lab experience was incredible,鈥� Namugwanya said. 鈥淲orking in person with collaborators, having hands-on access to advanced resources and meeting students from all over the world made the internship truly memorable.鈥�
Namugwanya鈥檚 internship provided an opportunity for her to work on the back-end development of a Caliper profiling tool, a performance analysis tool used in HPC environments.
鈥淢y team and I introduced a new concept of special region annotations within Caliper, which are essential for profiling HPC benchmarks in the Benchmark Suite,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his enhancement allows for advanced performance analysis and helps identify specific areas for optimization in HPC applications.鈥�
She said the work was an eye-opener: 鈥淐ontributing to such a sophisticated HPC tool changed my perspective on the details involved in HPC software and the importance of each component鈥檚 efficiency.鈥�
Nansamba, who also interned at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, enjoyed the structured work schedule and said lab employees were supportive to students.
鈥淚 worked on performance analysis of the Benchmark Suite for testing HPC systems,鈥� she said, referring to an open
collaborative repository for reproducible specifications of HPC benchmarks. 鈥淚t enables cross-site collaboration on benchmarking by providing a mechanism for sharing reproducible, working specifications.鈥�
Additional highlights for Nansamba included winning a best poster presentation award and making new friends.
What are some important things you learned?
Avans said she gained a better understanding of what it means to relocate for work while she was at Sandia National Laboratories: 鈥淚t was an immersive learning experience. I had never moved such a long distance, and it was valuable to see what benefits and drawbacks come with relocating for a career opportunity.鈥�
She also valued the numerous educational lectures and presentations.
鈥淭he focus was more on continuing education than on production-level software engineering,鈥� she said. 鈥淗owever, on the software engineering side, it was beneficial to become aware of some of my blind spots. I learned many new things about collaborative coding, such as intermediate and advanced use cases of Git and GitHub that are critical in most development careers.鈥�
Namugwanya said her biggest takeaway from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was understanding the critical role of detailed profiling and performance analysis in HPC.
鈥淏y implementing special region annotations in Caliper, I learned how precise instrumentation can reveal key insights into computational efficiency within HPC workloads,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 gained valuable skills in performance tuning, developed a deeper knowledge of data collection in parallel computing environments and gained hands-on experience with advanced profiling techniques. These skills will be valuable for future projects, especially those focused on optimizing complex HPC applications such as collective communication patterns.鈥�
Nansamba learned about the importance of team collaboration to achieve a common goal.
鈥淲e had weekly stand-up meetings to give updates about the work, and this was a motivation to finish tasks,鈥� she added. 鈥淢y team at the lab was pretty fun to work with.鈥�
Avans鈥� summer internship led to an opportunity to tour Fugaku, a supercomputer focused on energy efficiency at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan. She also presented her work at the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing.
What advice do you have for students seeking internships?
Evelyn Namugwanya: 鈥淓njoy the internship experience and stay open to learning. There鈥檚 something amazing about putting your academic knowledge into practice, and it鈥檚 incredibly fulfilling.鈥�
Grace Nansamba: 鈥淚t鈥檚 possible to get an internship. Inquire from professors whether they can recommend you. It paints a good picture of life after school. It鈥檚 exciting!鈥�
Nicole Avans: 鈥淐reating and maintaining connections with people in the field through
collaborative work and conference attendance will open many doors. If you aren鈥檛 involved
in any projects, I recommend speaking with your advisor about your desire to get involved.
There is almost always more work
to be done than people to do it.鈥�
Introducing PDC Concepts: 麻豆果冻传媒 part of multi-university project to modernize introductory CS courses with parallel and distributed computing
Parallel and distributed computing is now part of the package for students in introductory computer science courses at 麻豆果冻传媒 鈥� and it鈥檚 giving them a competitive edge in industry readiness.
鈥淓arly exposure to PDC prepares students with relevant skills in modern programming models, potentially reducing the industry training gap post-graduation,鈥� said senior lecturer April Crockett, who, along with department chair Gerald Gannod, Ph.D., are working with 11 other universities to develop exemplar courses that reflect contemporary computing models and practices.
The project, funded by a National Science Foundation CyberTraining grant under the 鈥淢odern Course Exemplars Infused with Parallel and Distributed Computing鈥� initiative,
introduces PDC concepts in CSC 1300 (Introduction to Problem Solving and Computer Programming) and 1310 (Data Structures and Algorithms). Through this integration, students cover aspects of data parallelism, distributed computing and event handling, with an emphasis on enhanced computational thinking beyond traditional sequential programming.
Gannod said PDC is closely related to high-performance computing, with HPC focusing on the use of supercomputers and clusters for computationally intensive tasks while PDC emphasizes the simultaneous use of multiple computing resources to complete a task, regardless of the presence of a supercomputer.
鈥淭he current technological landscape is highly driven by the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning,鈥� he said. 鈥淭o use these tools, future graduates will need to create solutions that effectively use distributed computing and data resources. Modernizing the introductory course is the first step toward preparing students to work in a world where HPC and PDC are commonplace.鈥�
To kick off the project, 麻豆果冻传媒 (using C++) and Knox College (using Java) started making changes in their introductory CS courses in the fall of 2023 and fully deployed them in the spring of 2025. Now, six other institutions 鈥� Casper College, Hawaii Pacific University, Montclair State University, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Southern Indiana and Webster University 鈥� are serving as a testing and evaluation team, deploying the updated courses in their CS programs and providing feedback. The University of Texas at San Antonio, University of Massachusetts, Louisiana State University and University of Maryland are also involved in the project.
Initial feedback from pilot surveys in 2023 indicated that students were better able to conceptualize parallelism and data distribution. Furthermore, stakeholder discussions highlighted that updated curricula with PDC-focused learning could improve student readiness for industry requirements in concurrent and distributed programming.
Crockett hopes the project will inspire similar updates across computer science programs, helping to reduce the transition time for graduates to become productive in the workforce.
鈥淥ur goal is that our project will be a catalyst for change in CS programs by providing exemplars that other institutions can adopt to modernize their introductory computing courses,鈥� she said. 鈥淏y creating adaptable, widely applicable course exemplars infused with PDC concepts, the project aims to establish a new standard for introductory CS education.鈥�