DALLAS, Texas, Nov. 15, 2018 — the ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge announced the official launch of the new season at the 2018 International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC18). Undergraduates across the world can now register to participate in ASC19 at http://www.asc-events.org/ASC19/.

ASC19 is split into three main phases. The first phase is registration and team set up from November 15, 2018 to January 7, 2019. Undergraduates should register in group of five with one advisor. The second phase is preliminary contest to be held from January to March 2019. Each team shall submit an optimization proposal for supercomputing applications as required. The ASC committee will select the top 20 teams. The third stage is the finals to be held at Dalian University of Technology from April 21 to 25. Based on the hardware platform provided by ASC, each of the 20 teams will design and build a supercomputing cluster that optimizes designated applications under 3000W.

ASC Challenge is the world’s largest student supercomputing hackathon, drawing over 5,500 of university students to participate since being inaugurated 7 years ago. ASC18 saw more than 300 teams enter the competition, with the top 20 competing in the finals on the design and optimization of supercomputing systems for AI machine reading and comprehension, RELION, a critical application for the 2017 Nobel Prize-winning cryo-electron microscopy technology, CFL3D, NASA’s famous fluid mechanics software, and other cutting-edge science and engineering applications.

ASC is sponsored and organized by China and supported by Asian, European and American experts and institutions. The main objectives of ASC are to encourage exchange and training of young supercomputer talents from different countries, improve supercomputer applications and R&D capacity, boost the development of supercomputing, and promote technical and industrial innovation.