The Road to SoHPC

After graduating my bachelors in Mechanical Engineering, the quest for finding the better possible version of myself began. I always had a passion for understanding the physics of objects around me. Fortunately, I found a job where I was able to participate in the building and simulation for a plethora of automotive assemblies, using conventional front-end tools, tested and validated under various criteria. Though fascinated in the beginning, I started to realize that it is more fun working on the back-end intricacies like solving a complex problem numerically and bringing out a visual appeal from the computed data.

My Master’s program in Computational Materials Science provided that opportunity by introducing me to multi-scale material modeling and computational mathematics through which I was able to gain insights on how to approach the art of problem-solving. In recent months, the field of machine learning was brought to my notice while browsing through the contents of material informatics. Also, it stipulated my level of curiousness to explore, how differently it works from typical simulations, where the equations governing pertinent phenomena are solved generally by conventional methods.

Fortunately, I found myself in a position to work as an intern in the PRACE Summer of HPC programme. I strongly feel that this opportunity can uplift my knowledge and confidence levels before starting my Master thesis and bridge the inter-space between my technical expertise and my shortcomings. My project is on the hybrid scaling of Convolutional Neural Networks, using High-Performance Computing.

St. Margaret’s Well, Edinburgh

The better start than I’d have probably asked for was the training week in Edinburgh. The lectures were on point, followed by a chance to run the code on ARCHER, the UK national Supercomputer. Along with classes on MPI and its applications, it was a fun-filled week. The spontaneous afternoon beach plan, the mid-week trek, restaurant hunts, mid-night walks, friends, hills, castles, a trip that will go down memory lane.

From the land of Bagpipes and convivial people, we took a cup of kindness and left to our destined sites. In my case, it is Amsterdam (Trust me! I’m not on a vacation). Until the end of August, I will be accessing Cartesius, the Dutch National Supercomputer at SURFsara, to run my simulations. In the coming posts, I will write more about my project. Until then, Goodbye from Amsterdam!