---
title: "Computer Science students take part in HPC competition"
description: "University of New Mexico Research Assistant Professor Matthew Fricke recruited a group of six undergraduate students interested in learning how to build supercomputers with the intention of taking part in two supercomputing competitions in 2023."
type: News
tags:
  - News
date: "2023-04"
generated:
  by: "process:scripts/port_legacy_pages.py"
  at: "2026-09-10T00:00:00Z"
sources:
  - id: carc-web
    resource: "https://carc.unm.edu/news--events/News/hpc-competitions-2023.html"
    title: "Computer Science students take part in HPC competition (carc.unm.edu)"
    author: "team:unm-carc"
---

# Computer Science students take part in HPC competition

<p class="carc-byline">By Mariah Rosales · April 2023</p>

University of New Mexico Research Assistant Professor Matthew Fricke recruited
a group of six undergraduate students interested in learning how to build
supercomputers with the intention of taking part in two supercomputing
competitions in 2023. Fricke works in the Computer Science Department and at
the Center for Advanced Research Computing (CARC), UNM’s supercomputing
center.

Qualifications for the students were to have some experience with Linux, have
built their own home computer, and have a general love for computers and
everything to do with them. Ryan Scherbarth, a sophomore Computer Science
student and the supercomputing team manager, says “When you look at our team,
there’s not much more we can do to make it better. We have the best students
that you can ask for. Everyone is really skilled in their own zones of
expertise which makes us strong.”

![](/assets/hpc-competitions-2023-hpc-team-corrected-captions.jpg)

Their first competition was the **\***[Winter Classic Invitational Student
Cluster
Competition](https://www.winterclassicinvitational.com/competition-faq/){target=_blank},
which began in mid-February 2023 and ran through April 2023. Cluster
competitions are an opportunity for students to learn to build their own
supercomputers, interact with high performance computing (HPC) organizations,
and gain experience. This cluster competition involves mentors from Hewlett
Packard Enterprise, NASA, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory's training the
students. Twelve teams competing virtually are responsible for learning about
their assigned application, practicing and optimizing the application, and
then submitting a final scored run of the application to their mentors. After
turning in their required application briefs, each team attends a 30-40 minute
interview with a panel of competition judges. From there, the judges score
each team based on how well they did with each application, how much they
learned about the application and HPC, and the quality of their presentation.
After the scores are finalized, they are announced, and the teams are awarded
from first through 12th place during the Gala Virtual Awards Ceremony.

So far, Scherbarth and his
[teammates](https://www.winterclassicinvitational.com/team/university-of-new-mexico/){target=_blank}
have experienced their fair share of learning curves and difficulties, but are
still enjoying putting their new skills to the test. “Most of us don’t have
any experience in HPC at all. It has been fun to experience these elements
that we are all unfamiliar with - yet challenging. So, there has been a lot of
learning within our team with challenges to get where we are now. But everyone
on the team is having a lot of fun, and we’re excited to see how the rest of
the competition goes,” says Scherbarth.

Competitions like this are opportunities for the students to deepen their
knowledge of Linux and enterprise hardware, which will assist them with future
programming-related work. For example, some of the national labs, including
Sandia, Los Alamos, Berkeley, Livermore, and Oak Ridge, have some of the
largest and fastest supercomputers in existence, and are in need of employees
who can run those systems.

HPC helps researchers involved in engineering, data science, and many other
disciplines solve large, complex problems. These large-scale computations have
revolutionized climate science, astronomy, biology (including COVID-19
research), engineering, and most other scientific fields. Participating in
these competitions prepares UNM students to be a part of that revolution.

The UNM team is already eyeing their next opportunity after the Winter Classic
competition. \*The Student Cluster Competition will take place at SC23, the
International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage
and Analysis. This year’s conference will be held at the Colorado Convention
Center in Denver, Colorado in November 2023.

Fricke, the UNM’s supercomputing team's faculty advisor, says “Supercomputing
is one of UNM’s strengths. UNM has a long history with supercomputing, and we
would like to continue that into the future and make sure our students are
able to take full advantage of that history and depth of knowledge at UNM.”

**\*The UNM HPC Competition team placed 5th in the Winter Classic Invitational
Student Cluster Competition, which officially ended on Friday, April 14, 2023.
The team was also recognized for having the best final presentation and their
impressive hard work for spending their off weeks working on their own
cluster. **

**\*The UNM HPC Competition team has been officially accepted to compete at
SC23 in November.**

![](/assets/hpc-competitions-2023-abigail-pribisova-caption.png)

![](/assets/hpc-competitions-2023-alex-knigge-caption.png)

![](/assets/hpc-competitions-2023-carter-frost-caption.png)

![](/assets/hpc-competitions-2023-ellie-larence-caption.png)

![](/assets/hpc-competitions-2023-ryan-scherbarth-caption.png)

![](/assets/hpc-competitions-2023-sachi-barnaby-caption.png)

![](/assets/hpc-competitions-2023-matthew-fricke-caption.png)

![](/assets/hpc-competitions-2023-nicholas-bacon-caption.png)

Photos courtesy of [Winter Classics
Invitational](https://www.winterclassicinvitational.com/team/university-of-new-mexico/){target=_blank}