28 University Teams from Around the World Advance to the Finals of the ASC20-21 Student Supercomputer Challenge

January 27, 2021

BEIJING, Jan. 27, 2021 — The preliminary results for the 2020-2021 ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge (ASC20-21) have now been released. After two months of intense competition, 28 teams from over 300 participating universities from around the world have stood out and advanced to the finals. Beihang University, Jinan University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Universidad EAFIT, University of Warsaw, and Ural Federal University are just some of the finalists.

Because the COVID-19 pandemic is still rampant in many countries around the world, the ASC20-21 Student Supercomputer Challenge finals will be organized to include both on-site and virtual participations. The Top21 teams from the Chinese mainland will join the finals on-site, and the Top7 teams outside of Chinese mainland will remotely participate in the finals virtually.

Among the teams advancing to the ASC20-21 finals are three champions from the prior Student Cluster Competitions: Tsinghua University – champion of SC19 & SC20, University of Science and Technology of China – champion of ISC20, and National Tsing Hua University – champion of ASC19. It will be the first time in the history of the student supercomputing competition that three world champions will directly compete, which has created massive interest and enthusiasm for this round of the ASC20-21 finals.

There is also much excitement about the debuting teams from Monash University, Hunan University and Lanzhou University for making their first ASC finals appearance this year. Five teams, including the team of Peking University, are repeat finalists after advancing to their first finals at ASC19. This ASC20-21 final is full of traditional powerhouses and remarkable new contenders, which will make the competition intense till the last moments, when various awards will be presented including the Champion, Silver Prize, Highest LINPACK, and e Prize.

The ASC20-21 preliminaries included computational tasks from ACS20 like quantum computing simulation and language examination, but also included a new cutting-edge task in astronomy — searching for pulsars. Many of the participating teams performed very well in the preliminaries and demonstrated an outstanding ability to learn and innovate freely.

The pulsar search task required teams to use the open-source software PRESTO to search for potential pulsars based on the observational data from the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), also known as “China Sky Eye”. The research of pulsars is so valuable because it can help solve major physics conundrums, such as gravitational wave detection and spacecraft navigation. The Universidad EAFIT team optimized the software compilation parameters, used a variety of Python tools for algorithm hotspot analysis, and adopted a multi-process solution to parallelize the entire search process.

The Language Exam task required all participating teams to train AI models on an English Cloze Test dataset, striving to achieve the highest “test scores”. The dataset covers multiple levels of English language tests used in China. The team of the Chinese University of Hong Kong carefully analyzed the intention and objectives of this task. Using a large amount of research literature, they ran experiments to compare the performance of different models, incorporated pre & post processing algorithms, and selected the best model. This boosted them to reach their remarkably high score.

The quantum computing simulation task required each participating team to use the QuEST (Quantum Exact Simulation Toolkit) running on a computer cluster to simulate 30 qubits in two cases: quantum random circuits (random.c), and quantum fast Fourier transform circuits (GHZ_QFT.c). Quantum simulations provides a reliable platform for studying quantum algorithms, which are particularly important because quantum computers are not practically available yet in the industry. National Tsing Hua University made considerable effort in finding the algorithm’s hotspots and provided a detailed performance analysis of QuEST. They tried several methods for the GPU version of QuEST and made crucial optimizations to achieve much better performance of the toolkit. In addition, they delivered a detailed plan to further optimize QuEST in the future.

The selection process for both on-site and virtual participation has presented a tough challenge for the Evaluation Committee. After a long and careful evaluation, the ASC20-21 Student Supercomputer Challenge Committee selected the following teams to qualify for the ASC20-21 Finals:

 

Finalist On-site Participation

Beihang University

Jinan University

Qinghai University

Zhejiang University

Taiyuan University of Technology

Sun Yat-sen University

National University of Defense Technology

Peking University

Shandong University

Fuzhou University

Shanxi University

Southern University of Science and Technology

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Huazhong University of Science & Technology

Hunan University

Tsinghua University

Lanzhou University

Southeast University

Shanghai Jiaotong University

University of Science and Technology of China

Northwestern Polytechnical University

 

Finalist Virtual Participation

National Tsing Hua University

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Universidad EAFIT

Kasetsart University

University of Warsaw

Monash University

Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N.Yeltsin

 

Note: The finalists are listed by competition ranking.

 

About ASC

The ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge is the world’s largest student supercomputer competition, sponsored and organized by Asia Supercomputer Community and supported by Asian, European, and American experts and institutions. The main objectives of ASC are to encourage exchange and training of young supercomputing talent from different countries, improve supercomputing applications and R&D capacity, boost the development of supercomputing, and promote technical and industrial innovation. The first ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge was held in 2012 and since has attracted nearly 10,000 undergraduates from all over the world. Learn more ASC at https://www.asc-events.org/.


Source: ASC

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from its predecessors, including the red-hot H100 and A100 GPUs. Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. While Nvidia may not spring to mind when thinking of the quant Read more…

2024 Winter Classic: Meet the HPE Mentors

March 18, 2024

The latest installment of the 2024 Winter Classic Studio Update Show features our interview with the HPE mentor team who introduced our student teams to the joys (and potential sorrows) of the HPL (LINPACK) and accompany Read more…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the field was normalized for boys in 1969 when the Apollo 11 missi Read more…

Apple Buys DarwinAI Deepening its AI Push According to Report

March 14, 2024

Apple has purchased Canadian AI startup DarwinAI according to a Bloomberg report today. Apparently the deal was done early this year but still hasn’t been publicly announced according to the report. Apple is preparing Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimization algorithms to iteratively refine their parameters until Read more…

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. Wh Read more…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the fi Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimizat Read more…

PASQAL Issues Roadmap to 10,000 Qubits in 2026 and Fault Tolerance in 2028

March 13, 2024

Paris-based PASQAL, a developer of neutral atom-based quantum computers, yesterday issued a roadmap for delivering systems with 10,000 physical qubits in 2026 a Read more…

India Is an AI Powerhouse Waiting to Happen, but Challenges Await

March 12, 2024

The Indian government is pushing full speed ahead to make the country an attractive technology base, especially in the hot fields of AI and semiconductors, but Read more…

Charles Tahan Exits National Quantum Coordination Office

March 12, 2024

(March 1, 2024) My first official day at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was June 15, 2020, during the depths of the COVID-19 loc Read more…

AI Bias In the Spotlight On International Women’s Day

March 11, 2024

What impact does AI bias have on women and girls? What can people do to increase female participation in the AI field? These are some of the questions the tech Read more…

Alibaba Shuts Down its Quantum Computing Effort

November 30, 2023

In case you missed it, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has shut down its quantum computing research effort. It’s not entirely clear what drove the change. Read more…

Nvidia H100: Are 550,000 GPUs Enough for This Year?

August 17, 2023

The GPU Squeeze continues to place a premium on Nvidia H100 GPUs. In a recent Financial Times article, Nvidia reports that it expects to ship 550,000 of its lat Read more…

Analyst Panel Says Take the Quantum Computing Plunge Now…

November 27, 2023

Should you start exploring quantum computing? Yes, said a panel of analysts convened at Tabor Communications HPC and AI on Wall Street conference earlier this y Read more…

DoD Takes a Long View of Quantum Computing

December 19, 2023

Given the large sums tied to expensive weapon systems – think $100-million-plus per F-35 fighter – it’s easy to forget the U.S. Department of Defense is a Read more…

Shutterstock 1285747942

AMD’s Horsepower-packed MI300X GPU Beats Nvidia’s Upcoming H200

December 7, 2023

AMD and Nvidia are locked in an AI performance battle – much like the gaming GPU performance clash the companies have waged for decades. AMD has claimed it Read more…

Synopsys Eats Ansys: Does HPC Get Indigestion?

February 8, 2024

Recently, it was announced that Synopsys is buying HPC tool developer Ansys. Started in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1970 as Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. (SASI) by John Swanson (and eventually renamed), Ansys serves the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering)/multiphysics engineering simulation market. Read more…

Intel’s Server and PC Chip Development Will Blur After 2025

January 15, 2024

Intel's dealing with much more than chip rivals breathing down its neck; it is simultaneously integrating a bevy of new technologies such as chiplets, artificia Read more…

Baidu Exits Quantum, Closely Following Alibaba’s Earlier Move

January 5, 2024

Reuters reported this week that Baidu, China’s giant e-commerce and services provider, is exiting the quantum computing development arena. Reuters reported � Read more…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

Choosing the Right GPU for LLM Inference and Training

December 11, 2023

Accelerating the training and inference processes of deep learning models is crucial for unleashing their true potential and NVIDIA GPUs have emerged as a game- Read more…

Training of 1-Trillion Parameter Scientific AI Begins

November 13, 2023

A US national lab has started training a massive AI brain that could ultimately become the must-have computing resource for scientific researchers. Argonne N Read more…

Shutterstock 1179408610

Google Addresses the Mysteries of Its Hypercomputer 

December 28, 2023

When Google launched its Hypercomputer earlier this month (December 2023), the first reaction was, "Say what?" It turns out that the Hypercomputer is Google's t Read more…

Comparing NVIDIA A100 and NVIDIA L40S: Which GPU is Ideal for AI and Graphics-Intensive Workloads?

October 30, 2023

With long lead times for the NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs, many organizations are looking at the new NVIDIA L40S GPU, which it’s a new GPU optimized for AI and g Read more…

AMD MI3000A

How AMD May Get Across the CUDA Moat

October 5, 2023

When discussing GenAI, the term "GPU" almost always enters the conversation and the topic often moves toward performance and access. Interestingly, the word "GPU" is assumed to mean "Nvidia" products. (As an aside, the popular Nvidia hardware used in GenAI are not technically... Read more…

Shutterstock 1606064203

Meta’s Zuckerberg Puts Its AI Future in the Hands of 600,000 GPUs

January 25, 2024

In under two minutes, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, laid out the company's AI plans, which included a plan to build an artificial intelligence system with the eq Read more…

Google Introduces ‘Hypercomputer’ to Its AI Infrastructure

December 11, 2023

Google ran out of monikers to describe its new AI system released on December 7. Supercomputer perhaps wasn't an apt description, so it settled on Hypercomputer Read more…

China Is All In on a RISC-V Future

January 8, 2024

The state of RISC-V in China was discussed in a recent report released by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report, entitled "E Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire