The Benchmark Beasts in Hamburg!
Team “Medals” Using Materials Simulation Software in Their Second International Student Cluster Competition
The Benchmark Beasts, PSC’s student cluster competition team, made a third place showing in the 2025 International Student Cluster Competition. The team placed in the bronze slot using OpenMX, a software package for simulating tiny amounts of materials. The competition took place in June, as part of the ISC High Performance 2025 conference and exhibition in Hamburg, Germany.
“Once again, it has been a true delight to oversee our team’s involvement in this student competition,” said Valerie Rossi, PSC manager of education and student programming and the team’s coach. “I am grateful to the students for their commitment to learning and hard work and am beyond grateful to many folks at PSC who served as mentors.”
Competitions like these are vital for introducing students, our future workforce to high performance computing and networking with folks at other HPC centers across the world.
ISC was the interns’ second international competition. At the first, culminating in a 48-hour marathon contest in November 2024 at the SC24 conference in Atlanta, the Beasts’ performance earned them the right to represent the U.S. in Hamburg.
“Mentoring Yun and Caden in the cluster competition using the OpenMX code was a rewarding experience, especially since it was held at the international level,” said Niraj Nepal, PSC senior computational scientist and the team’s technical mentor. “It was the first time participating in such a competition for me, the students, and PSC. The experience we gained will be invaluable for future opportunities.”
The interns, supported by PSC, were funded by Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. The AMD corporation also contributed funds to support the team.