A successful 2017: Looking back on the past year

As we approach 2018, we look back and reflect on this past year.

For hpc-ch, 2017 was a year full of remarkable achievements, with new members (both from Swiss universities and industry), new communication channels, consistent growth in the number of participants at the Forums, and a strong presence at ISC17 and SC17.

NEW MEMBERS
The Swiss HPC Service Provider Community supports and fosters knowledge exchange between providers of HPC systems at Swiss universities and industry.

This year, the hpc-ch community has welcomed the following new members:

– SBB CFF FFS
– SDSC
– WSL
– ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences

MAY
In May we had the pleasure of meeting many representatives from academia and industry at the hpc-ch forum on “Data Science & Machine Learning“, kindly hosted by T-Systems Switzerland. The forum included two keynote talks, five technical presentations, a community development session and a stimulating “Powerlab-Experience” at Bombardier Transportation.

Presentations focused on the application of machine learning to HPC and are available to view and download here.

JUNE
In June we participated in the ISC17 conference in Frankfurt, Germany. At the exhibition booth (#K-431), attendees could discover everything about the largest HPC provider in Switzerland, meet Swiss HPC specialists and scientists, and get the latest news about HPC in Switzerland.

OCTOBER
The fifteenth community forum on “Containers for HPC” took place in October and was kindly hosted by PSI.
The forum attracted close to 70 participants for engaging discussions on the current state of the art, and the potential of HPC containers, and how we can leverage them in our environments.
For further information on the event, please click here.

Slide presentations and photographs from the forum are available on the event webpage.

NOVEMBER
Finally, in November we hosted our own booth (#289) at the SC17 conference in Denver, US.
As in previous years, we had many visitors pass by for an update on HPC activities in Switzerland and also to get some good coffee and Swiss chocolate!