SCC Connect

SCC Connect is a companion to the Student Cluster Competition (SCC) with a focus on accessibility and education. While sharing many goals with SCC, an additional goal of SCC Connect is to lower the barrier to entry for teams that are not selected or able to compete in the SCC this year, but have a goal of doing so in a future year. It takes significant time and effort to put a team together, and one motivation for the creation of SCC Connect was to provide additional opportunities for teams not selected to apply their hard work, gain experience, and maintain momentum for future years. 

SCC Connect teams compete using provided cloud resources and are not required to partner with a vendor, assemble a cluster in hardware, or attend the conference. 

Teams apply to SCC Connect through the same submission form as the SCC. Teams should indicate on that form whether they would like to be considered only for SCC, first for SCC and for SCC Connect if not selected for SCC, or only for SCC Connect. Indicating you would like to be considered for SCC Connect does not guarantee you will be selected for the competition.

SCC Connect aims especially to foster the development of less-experienced teams, and to help teams that competed in the previous SCC but are not selected for SCC at SC26, to keep momentum in their development of HPC experience. 

A team is composed of six students and an advisor. Students work with their advisors to craft a proposal that describes the team, their educational goals and how they plan to prepare for the competition. The SCC and SCC Connect committees review each proposal and select teams for the competition. The requirements for teams, the selection process, and what makes a good proposal are described in more detail below.

Selected teams are invited to participate in preparation and learning activities from late summer to November, and a remote competition during SC26.

Students, with the guidance of their advisor, will craft a proposal that describes their team, their educational goals and how they plan to prepare for the competition. The SCC and SCC Connect committees review each proposal and select teams for the competition. 

Your proposal will describe your team members, their strengths and goals, and how everyone will work together in order to learn and compete. A good proposal will describe how the team members have different strengths and skills (i.e., academic studies and inclusion of non-STEM majors), diversity (inclusion of underrepresented groups in your home regions and institution), and how members will work together and contribute to a strong team. This should not be a simple list of each team member’s qualifications – the reviewing committee will want to see how you will work together as a team. Describing your efforts to recruit a diverse team is also recommended.

You will also describe how your team will prepare for the competition. We are looking for evidence that you have a plan to prepare, both before and after getting access to the provided cloud resources. This could include things like meeting regularly to work on the cluster, explore topics, practice, attend guest lectures, etc. Mentioning any classes the team members are taking that directly relate to the competition may also be helpful, but be sure to explain how they will benefit the team rather than listing a course catalog. 

Finally, you will describe your team’s educational goals and what your team hopes to gain by participating in the competition. You should be as specific as possible with your goals rather than listing vague high level goals – we want to know what makes your team unique!

Teams will be provided remote or cloud-based HPC resources and guidance on accessing the resources. Continuous support is provided by HPC experts in the months leading up to the competition. Webinars are recorded for the virtual platform, the benchmarks, and the two applications. At times during the preparation, teams will be asked to submit reports relating to their preparation, and will receive feedback from the experts.

Participants are encouraged to source travel support from their local institution and supporters to attend the conference in person. Reduced rate in-person and Digital Experience registration are available for SCC Connect student participants.

Benchmarks

Teams will run some industry-standard benchmarks on their provided resources. 

Applications

Two HPC applications will be announced in advance, teams will build these and have practice tasks to run during the preparation phase, then competition tasks using the applications will be announced at the opening of the 48-hour competition.

A third Mystery Application will be announced at the opening of the 48-hour competition, teams will have some competition tasks based on building and using the Mystery Application.