Student Cluster Competition
2018 Competition
Dallas, Texas
Laney College
United States
Laney Supercomputing Club: from left to right: Khuong Dinh, Jonnie Williams (advisor), Jameelah Mercer, Nigel Brown (calling in from San Diego via the laptop Jameelah is holding, and more clearly in the second photo!), Nahuel Pregot, Dongyao Liang, Simon Tekleab, Darrell Owens (supporting), Steve Leak (advisor)
- What is the name of your team and why did you choose it?
Laney Supercomputing Club
Our team is a collection of students at Laney college who are interested in Supercomputing and are working with NERSC to learn more about it. Our club is not only the team at SC18.
- Why do you think your team will have an edge in the event (what's your secret sauce)?
We have the opportunity to live in the heart of the tech industry. Due to this, the Bay Area is a hub of different cultures. In our team we speak a total 12 languages, we come from 6 countries, and 5 different continents. Multi Ethnicity and looking at a problem from different perspective is definitely our secret sauce for success. As a team, we had the opportunity to be trained at the National Lawrence Berkeley Lab. We have had the privilege to get our hands on NERSC's supercomputer Cori. This close training has provided us the necessary experience, knowledge and skills to compete for this competition. Life is a journey, our range of expertise is composed by the summary of life experiences. With this competition we look forward to gain further experience in the wonderful world of supercomputing. Most of all, we look forward to learn from this competition, and to network with other teams around the world.
- What have you done to prepare that makes your team unique?
As a team, we had the opportunity to be trained at the National Lawrence Berkeley Lab. We had the privilege to put our hands on Cori at NERSC, this close training has provided us with the necessary experience and set of skills to compete for this challenge.
- What are you most looking forward to in the competition?
Life is a journey, our range of expertise is composed by the summary of life experiences. With this competition we look forward to gain further experience in the wonderful world of supercomputing. Most of all, we look forward to learn from this competition, and to network with other teams around the world.
- How long will it take you to get to Dallas?
It will take us 2 hours and 50 minutes to travel from California to Dallas.
- What do your team members do for fun?
Many different things!
- If your team had a theme song, what would it be?
We've chosen a famous song from an Oakland artist: "U Can't Touch This"
- Can you share an interesting fact about your team?
We are diverse in age, ideas, and are the only community college participating in the competition. The benefit that our team enjoys due to its diversity extends beyond national and ethnic background; our team contains members of various age groups as well. Some have just finished high school, while others are learning skills to change careers. This gives us many perspectives and experience to bring to the competition.