Virtually Tinkering with HPC… It’s hard.

I really would have liked to write this post while I was enjoying the cool morning mist in Edinburgh. But here I am, at my home in Izmir, Turkey; suffering from a heat stroke.

I am a computer engineering student in here in my hometown’s university IZTECH. I’m trying my hand at every subject of CS that I can. I played with web development, machine learning; and then I learnt about the opportunity to actually spend my summer working in a whole new area, in a whole new country. Needless to say I was overjoyed. A work opportunity that actually requires you to travel, to learn a new technology, to go over your boundaries in every way possible.

Then a pandemic occurred and my expectations were flipped on their head. Yeah, great. I thought I was going to miss the most exciting summer I was ever going to have. And I was right! I would be, if it weren’t for soHPC going online. Surely, it can’t compare to changing a whole continent… But it really is the most amazing opportunity. I have access to a cluster, miles away from here, and I can actually make changes on it. It really blows my mind how all I need is my computer and a connection.

So, how hard it’s been? I have the greatest mentors and colleagues over at EPCC and I’m working with Fulhame (project 2006, if you would like to check it out). But it’s really hard to feel like you’re doing something worthwhile for your project when you can’t see the results, can’t interact with the involved people. I’m testing a new set of instructions and… They work. But it doesn’t feel solid to me.

Enough of the morbid whining though. I really am grateful for such an experience, creating beautiful memories and unforgettable bounds with new people. I will soon be writing a whole new post about Fulhame (and clusters in general), and maybe differences between intel based and ARM based HPC instructions’ differences.

Stay healthy folks!