Happy Sithole

Congratulations on your selection as a 2024 HPCwire Person to Watch. We should note that you also achieved this honor in 2014. From your perspective, what has changed and what has stayed the same over the last ten years?

Thank you for the honor. In the past decade, several things have changed in the HPC landscape in South Africa and the continent at large. First, in 2015, South Africa got into Petascale systems with the deployment of Lengau, which is now about to retire in 2024, and be replaced by a system that will be 10 times faster. It has also been a great achievement for the continent, where the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Cyberinfrastructure Framework has been running for over a decade now and has managed to build HPC capacity in almost all the countries within the SADC region. South Africa also managed to integrate HPC together with broadband connectivity and data-intensive research to form a single entity, the National Integrated Cyberinfrastructure System (NICIS), which is the organization that I lead today.

HPC news is often US- and European-centric. Are there any recent HPC stories or news from the African continent that deserve more attention?

I believe the CHPC Annual National Meeting is the event that needs to be taken into consideration. It happens immediately after SC, taking place in late November or the beginning of December. The event has attracted many great speakers globally, but I’m not sure if many are aware of this event, even though it attracts close to 600 delegates every year. The last event was held in the largest game park in the continent, Kruger National Park. We invite the world to participate in this event, as it showcases the best of HPC achievements in the continent.

Of significance is the growth in adoption of HPC across the continent, where South Africa is no longer the only country with an HPC system. We are now seeing the emergence of other systems in the continent, in countries like Morocco, and South Africa’ has assisted in deploying systems in many other countries as well. At the forefront of most achievements is the big astronomy project, The Square Kilometer Array, which will drive the need for HPC across the continent. The precursor for this experiment, named the MeerKAT, is already producing interesting observations and is about to be integrated into a larger experiment, SKA-1, in a year or two. This will not only deliver exciting science, but will leapfrog the growth of HPC in the continent.

South Africa has also brought private cloud, based on OpenStack systems, to the suite of platforms it can offer to the research community. This platform has demonstrated itself to be an important addition to CHPC services. It was deployed in March 2020, just a few days before the country went into lockdown for COVID-19, and became the engine of the government’s approach to pandemic mitigation, as it provided data analytics services for the country.

Another area of significant growth in the country is the gradual uptake of quantum computing, with initiatives such as the South African Quantum Computing Technology Initiative (SAQuTi). Good progress has been achieved in starting to explore applications that can benefit from quantum computing platforms. Even though South Africa does not yet have its own quantum computer, we do have small quantum simulators to drive the applications porting to QC and have remote access to QC systems globally. Of course, the long-term plan is to develop a local system, which will be guided by the readiness of applications and workforce developments.

Many knowledgeable HPC practitioners often become managers supporting HPC procurement, usage, outreach, and education. As the Center Manager, how has your work balance changed over the last ten years?

It is definitely a balance between these three areas, and I agree that supporting them is what I do on an almost daily basis. I could also add diplomacy, because through the SADC Cyberinfrastructure and SKA Partner Countries programs, one must also look at regional development and work together with government leaders to drive this process.

However, in my case, over the past five years I have also had to shoulder the load of leading not only the HPC group, but also the National Research Network (SANReN) and Data Intensive Research Initiative of South Africa (DIRISA). These three entities are now called NICIS. I would say the headache is now three times as intense, although the joy of seeing the three entities delivering an integrated service to the researcher — accounting for moving the data, processing it, and long-term curation — is second to none.

I maintain my technical activities, ensuring that I stay close to technology developments in applications, especially in materials science. Whenever an opportunity arises, I will still have time to work on a paper or two. And this will remain my focus in a few years, once we have a fully developed system on the continent. For now, it is important to drive the acquisition and usage of systems and build a strong education program to develop future HPC practitioners.

As you look down the road at 2024 and beyond, what do you see as the most important HPC trends and ideas that can help you with the NICIS center’s mission?

The key thing is really the development of processor technologies, which has created more options — it is pleasing that we have more role players in this space, which creates better opportunities for acquisition and also problems that we can solve. For NICIS in particular, since it integrates compute, network, and data analytics, the growth in generative AI presents lots of opportunity to see these three entities delivering an integrated service.

OpenStack development is another key area for NICIS, as it brings the expertise from the three groups of network connectivity, data analytics, and processing. It will be important to develop new services for the research community with OpenStack deployments of HPC systems, and it will also help to federate systems around the region — you could look at regional cloud services and Global Open Science Clouds. As NICIS Computing is still growing, we should expect news of systems in the country throughout 2024, and this will be growing fast, as we are also looking to deploy SKA systems soon.

What inspired you to pursue a career in STEM, and what advice would you give to young people in Africa who wish to follow in your footsteps?

My first step after high school was medical school, where I only spent a few days until orientation and realized this was not my space. I studied biological science at high school, but did not immediately realize that it was not my passion. I had chosen medicine because I looked at the prospects of a fulfilling career, but did not realize that I was more of a person who liked to look at systems and analyze and make sense out of them. I thus enjoy being in my current field because my curiosity and love for numbers and systems is perfect for my chosen career.

As far as advice to the young, understand what you love most, but also spend time working on it and figuring out systems. There is no better replacement for putting in extra effort in everything that you do.

Outside of the professional sphere, what can you tell us about yourself – unique hobbies, favorite places, etc.? Is there anything about you your colleagues might be surprised to learn?

I think most colleagues know me, since I am sort of an open book. However, probably the love for soccer might be underestimated. I really enjoy watching a good game of soccer.