CS Students Compete in Cluster Challenge
10-31-2012
From November 10 through November 16, 2012, five Computer Science students will participate in the Student Cluster Competition at SC12 in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The competition featured small teams that compete to harness the incredible power of current-generation cluster hardware. In a real-time challenge, teams of six undergraduate and/or high school students build a small cluster of their own design on the SC exhibit floor and race to demonstrate the greatest sustained performance across a series of applications.
The Purdue Cluster Challenge team was chosen as one of the eight to compete, and they take on teams from China amd around the United States.
The CS majors on the team are seniors Cody Breedlove and Tyler Reid, juniors Andrew Huff and Ethan Madden, and sophomore Kurt Kroeger. They are joined by Nick Molo, a junior in Computer Engineering. Huff and Reid are each competing for the second year in a row.
The article "This Purdue team is super - at computing" by ITaP science and technology writer Greg Kline is reprinted below.
The Purdue Cluster Challenge team poses with the university's new Carter Cluster supercomputer, which ranks as one of the world's most powerful supercomputers for academic research. Kneeling from left are Cody Breedlove, Andrew Huff, Ethan Madden and Andy Howard. Standing from left are Patrick Finnegan, Kurt Kroeger, Nick Molo, Tyler Reid, Alex Younts and Stephen Harrell. (Purdue University photo/John Underwood)
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Whether it's developing new cancer treatments or tracking down the particles that make up the universe, not to mention powering Amazon or iTunes, Nick Molo knows high-performance computing is now an essential component.
So the Purdue junior in computer engineering figures experience on a team of students building and running their own supercomputer in an international competition can't help but enhance his prospects, even if it means keeping long hours this semester and a few sleepless nights.
Molo is part of the six-member Purdue team competing in the 2012 Cluster Challenge, the student competition at SC12, the world's largest supercomputing conference. The conference is Nov. 10-16 in Salt Lake City.
The Purdue team, one of just eight selected, will be competing against teams from China and around the United States. Purdue's entry is the only one from the Big Ten and the Midwest.