EuroHack19: GPU Programming Hackathon
The Swiss National Supercomputing Centre is pleased to announce that the fifth GPU-programming EuroHack will be held from September 30 to October 04, 2019 at the Hotel De La Paix in Lugano, located in the Italian area of Switzerland.
Background
General-purpose Graphics Processing Units (GPGPUs) potentially offer exceptionally high memory bandwidth and performance for a wide range of applications. The challenge in utilizing such accelerators has been the difficulty in programming them. Today, these devices can be programmed with the CUDA/C++ programming platform or with OpenACC Directives for Accelerators, which offer straightforward extensions to C++ and Fortran to address this programming hurdle. Alternative programming paradigms such as OpenCL or Kokkos can also be employed.
Workshop Goal
EuroHack provides a unique opportunity for current or prospective users groups of large hybrid CPU-GPU systems to either (1) port their (potentially) scalable application to GPU accelerators, or (2) optimize an existing GPU-enabled application, on a state-of-the-art GPU system. The goal is that the development teams leave at the end of the week with applications running on GPUs, or at least with a clear roadmap of how to get there.
Target Audience and Format
You form a team of minimum 2 to maximum 4 developers with mission to port or optimize your application on a cluster of GPU accelerators. You cannot find time during the year due to the demands of science and teaching and are looking for a retreat to accomplish this mission in a short, but extremely intense, time window. This is a great opportunity for grad students and post-docs.
Collectively the team should know the application intimately. There will be intensive mentoring during this 5-day hands-on workshop. Our mentors come from national laboratories, universities and vendors, and besides having extensive experience in programming GPGPUs, many of them develop the GPU-capable compilers and help define the OpenACC standard. Space will be limited to 8 teams, with 2 mentors for each team.
Ok, so how can we attend?
The application period is now open. The team coordinator needs to fill out the application 2019 GPU Hackathons website (please select “CSCS” hackathon) and give us as much information in the form as possible) by July 7, 2019 (anywhere on Earth). Groups will be notified about acceptance or rejection of their application by July 24, 2019. Please note that, in contrast to the on-line application form, we can only accept teams with 2-4 members.
Groups whose application successfully passes the selection process will need to register for the event to confirm participation within two weeks from notification of acceptance. The notification of acceptance will include information on how to register.
What applications is EuroHack targeting?
No application specifically, but preferably a scalable, distributed parallel one. We hope to have open-source community codes (e.g., Berkeley or MIT licenses) in need of porting individual modules, i.e., with a well-defined subset of 2-10K lines of code with a unit test. The latter is crucial for incremental development without introducing bugs.
So what is in it for the participants?
Besides your code running lightning fast on a hybrid CPU-GPU machine like CSCS_Piz_Daint? During the workshop, we will enable your amazing transformation to GPU programmer and present your team with a certificate in front of your admiring fans. And you will be able to do all this in one of the most beautiful areas in central Europe
Participation costs
Participation in the workshop is free of charge. The meeting room, lunches and one conference dinner, as well as access to the supercomputers throughout the event are offered by the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS). Mentors and learning materials are provided by CSCS and NVIDIA (an official event sponsor), Oak Ridge National Laboratory and other partner organizations.
Participants are responsible for their travels to the meeting venue, their accommodation, four dinners during the week, and personal expenses. There are 45 rooms blocked for this event at the venue. Rooms range from CHF 150 (single) – 155 (double room for single use) per night per person with breakfast.
Venue
In order to offer a good atmosphere for a week of intense programming, we have chosen Hotel de la Paix in Lugano, Switzerland, only minutes by foot to the scenic Lake of Lugano. The region is served by Lugano airport and Milan-Malpensa airport as well as the Swiss Federal Railways.
Whom can I contact for more information or questions?
Please contact Vasileios Karakasis (karakasis__AT__cscs.ch) for questions related to the EuroHack content, or Raluca Hodoraba (raluca__AT__cscs.ch) for questions related to the workshop logistics.
For further information and applications, please see: https:www.cscs.ch/events/upcoming-events/event-detail/eurohack19-gpu-programming-hackathon/