When the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) wasn't busy nabbing top honors at the 2024 International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC24), its computing staff were doing their part to fuel career aspirations. During the conference in Atlanta last November, the folks from ORNL's computing wing offered up their wisdom to students itching to dive into the deep end of supercomputing, as per ORNL.
Leading off the conference was an HPC Crash Course courtesy of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), wielding the hefty clout of their exascale-class Frontier supercomputer. Offering insights into programming fundamentals, the course saw a gathering of 70 students who, led by ORNL staff, rolled up their sleeves to get some real action with both Frontier and Purdue University's Anvil supercomputer. As reported by ORNL's news release, "Crash courses are a great way to introduce Frontier and concepts in advanced computing to the next generation of scientific users and how they can use those concepts to benefit their science,” said a spokesperson from OLCF. The initiative was not just about the tech but also a beacon, pointing the way to careers at data centers like OLCF and beyond.
The gesture from ORNL's computing staff highlights a wider commitment by the Department of Energy's Office of Science to fuel the country's scientific endeavors. Basic research in the physical sciences has a stalwart supporter in DOE's Office of Science, pushing boundaries and tackling some of the heftiest challenges we face today. More details on their efforts can be found on the Office's website linked in their coverage of the event.
UT-Battelle, which manages ORNL for the DOE's Office of Science, sits at the helm of this unique intersection of scientific advancement and educational outreach. Careening toward a future where high-performance computing touches every facet of scientific inquiry, initiatives like the HPC Crash Course are pivotal, according to the same news release.
