A review of ISC 2024

^{Image shows participants of the WHPC Poster Session at ISC 2024. Image courtesy: ISC HPC.}

Hamburg, Germany: 27°C heat, supercomputing talks, workshops, and vendors. These were the working conditions for the EPCC colleagues who attended ISC 2024, where we hosted a booth as well as organising and participating in sessions across the conference. 

Women in HPC poster session

I presented a poster during the Women in HPC (WHPC) poster session, which, for the first time, was part of the broader conference research poster session. It was great to have all the research showcased together, and there was a lot of traffic towards our section. 

My poster was on the topic of “Rust in HPC: a comparison to C and Fortran” and based on some work I have completed previously (see Technical Report linked below and the digital poster image at the bottom of the page). Rust is a modern programming language, and exploring its applicability to HPC and scientific software is important for both future research and future users of the systems that EPCC hosts. 

I was also invited to give a 90-second talk to showcase my research in a session with the seven other WHPC poster presenters. This was well attended, and I was delighted to be presented with the “Best Poster 2024” prize at the end of it. 

Following the lightning pitches, attendees had the opportunity to come and see the posters and ask questions of the authors. I had a lot of interesting discussions around the results I had found, how the work could be improved and taken forward, and where others could use Rust in their own work. There were many people who had “dabbled” in Rust (to use their phrasing!) and I enjoyed talking about our experiences, and where we all found it to be useful and tricky in parts. 

By participating in the WHPC poster session, I found myself in an incredibly supportive network. Each of us was offered a mentor to help with the poster and the lightning talk. During the online practice session it was lovely to virtually meet people before ISC, and to receive practical feedback on our posters and presentations. Everyone was enthusiastic, friendly, and so knowledgeable on their topics. I would absolutely recommend being part of WHPC, as a woman or as an ally, because they are doing some excellent work. 

ISC was my first international conference with EPCC, and I enjoyed the opportunity to go to interesting talks, participate in Birds of a Feather sessions, and meet a huge variety of people. I particularly enjoyed the discussions around AI safety, and how to have reproducible science that includes AI in the workflow. Also, by spending an afternoon in the EPCC booth, I got to show people our “Wee Archie” mini supercomputer, and talk about the work we do here. 

Links

"Emerging Technologies: Rust in HPC" Technical Report:
https://zenodo.org/records/7620406

Wee Archie:
https://www.archer2.ac.uk/community/outreach/materials/wee_archie

Women in HPC:
https://womeninhpc.org

Digital poster: