HPC Day
Thank you to everyone who participated in Clemson’s inaugural HPC Day! The event showcased student research posters, engaging talks and inspiring discussions that strengthened our high performance computing community and sparked new collaborations. Read the 2025 wrap-up article, view the photo gallery from the event and make plans to join us for HPC Day 2026!
Overview
Join us for a full-day event from 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. on Friday, September 26, 2025, that is dedicated to showcasing the power of High Performance Computing (HPC) in research and education. It’s a fantastic opportunity to connect with colleagues, learn new skills, and explore the cutting-edge work happening across campus and beyond.
Hosted in partnership with ReDCAT and held in the Watt Family Innovation Center, this year’s event will feature:
- Insightful keynote sessions from leading experts.
- Hands-on workshops to build your computing skills.
- Opportunities to showcase your research in our Poster Session and Lightning Talks.
- Critical Discussions on the future of research computing and HPC in education.
- Valuable networking with researchers, industry partners, and HPC support staff.
This event is for all faculty, students (undergraduate and graduate), researchers, and staff interested in the field of high performance computing (HPC). Contact Carl Ehrett for more information. Registration is free, use the links below to register and view the HPC Day agenda.
Speakers
Timo Heister, Ph.D.
Professor, Clemson University Math Department
Dr. Heister is an applied mathematician in Clemson’s School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences. His research centers on massively parallel adaptive finite-element methods and open-source HPC software, notably the deal.II library. He has led NSF-funded projects on geodynamics and scalable solver technology and regularly mentors students on Clemson’s Palmetto cluster. Timo Heister received the 2025 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)/ Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Prize in Computational Science and Engineering. The prize is a prestigious award given biennially to an individual or group that has made outstanding contributions to the development and use of mathematical and computational tools and methods for the solution of real-life science and engineering problems.
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Dan Stanzione, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC)
A triple-Tiger alumnus (B.S. ’91 EE; M.S. ’93 & Ph.D. ’01 Computer Engineering, Clemson University), Dr. Stanzione oversees flagship NSF systems such as Frontera and the forthcoming Horizon. His 30-year career has focused on advancing open-science cyberinfrastructure and building HPC workforce pipelines nationwide.
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Franck Cappello, Ph.D.
Senior Computer Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory
Dr. Cappello leads Argonne’s Scientific/AI Data Management & Reduction team and the evaluation effort for AuroraGPT, focused on measuring LLM capabilities for scientific research. In his career he has led major initiatives in resilience, data compression, and extreme-scale I/O. He is an IEEE Fellow and a recipient of the IEEE Computer Society Charles Babbage Award (2024).
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Nathan DeBardeleben, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Dr. DeBardeleben co-leads LANL’s Ultrascale Systems Research Center, co-leads LANL’s AI for Mission (ArtIMis) effort, and leads the AI portion of the Enabling Manufacturing effort. He earned B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Engineering from Clemson and has been at Los Alamos since 2004.
Amy Apon, Ph.D.
Professor of Computer Science, Clemson University
Dr. Apon’s research spans high performance computing, cloud computing, and cyberinfrastructure, with a focus on performance optimization and large-scale distributed systems. She previously directed Clemson’s School of Computing and founded the Arkansas High Performance Computing Center.
Subramanian Kartik
Vice & Chief Scientist, Systems Engineering, VAST Data
Subramanian Kartik has been the Vice & Chief Scientist, Systems Engineering, at VAST Data since January of 2020, running the global presales organization. An accomplished technologist and executive in the industry, he has a wide array of experience in Data Architecture, AI/Machine Learning/Deep Learning, as well as in Life Sciences, covering high-performance computing and storage. He is an expert in Generative AI and has worked for 4 years with NVIDIA on GPU Direct Storage, BasePOD, SuperPOD and NCP architectures – especially with Large Language Models (LLMs) training and inference and other modern technologies. He has had a lifelong deep passion for studying complex problems in all spheres spanning both workloads and infrastructure at the vanguard of current day technology.
Chris Fowler
HPC/AI Research Scientist, Cambridge Computer
Mr. Fowler is a HPC/AI Research Scientist at Cambridge Computer and PhD Candidate at UNC Chapel Hill in applied mathematics. His role at Cambridge Computer involves scientific consultation and optimization of parallel workloads for clients in both the public and private sectors. His research involves advancing the theory of multiphase fluid flow through porous media using the lattice Boltzmann method. Recently, his work has been recognized by the University of Florida Information Technology for advancements in mechanistic modeling and scientific visualization.
Sessions
Getting Started with Palmetto
Hands-on Workshop
A fast-paced onboarding session for new users of Clemson’s Palmetto 2 cluster. Attendees will practice SSH access, module management, Slurm job submission, and file transfer, leaving with a first batch job successfully run.
HPC in Education
Workshop and Roundtable
An open forum for faculty and instructional staff to exchange ideas on bringing HPC concepts into coursework, share teaching resources, and discuss common challenges such as scaling assignments and supporting diverse student backgrounds. Learn more from the ACM SIGHPC Education Chapter.
Panel Participants
- F. Alex Feltus (moderator), Genetics & Biochemistry
- Rong Ge, School of Computing
- Carlos Toxtli-Hernandez, Human Centered Computing
- Bing Li, CU-ICAR
- Dvora Perahia, Chemistry
- Todd Allen Price, Clemson MBA Program (Virtual Participant)
- Justin Talbot, Chemistry
- MinJae Woo, Public Health
- Non-presenting panelists: Jon Calhoun (ECE)
Careers in HPC
Panel Discussion
Leaders from academia, national labs, and industry will outline career paths in system architecture, scientific application development, data engineering, and research management, followed by an interactive Q&A to help attendees map their own trajectories.
Panel Participants
- Jill Gemmill (moderator), Clemson AVP Research Computing & Data
- Industry: Chris Fowler, HPC/AI Research Scientist, Cambridge Computing
- Industry: Kurtis Taylor, Senior Solutions Architect, Dell Technologies
- Academic Research Staff: Maria Adonay, Bioinformatician, Clemson Center for Human Genetics
- System Administration: Becky Ligon, Clemson HPC Storage Architect
- Research Administrator: Dan Stanzione, Executive Director Texas Advanced Computing Center
- National Laboratory: Franck Capello, Senior Computer Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory
Lunch with Experts
Engage in small-group conversations with recognized experts in their fields. The relaxed, roundtable format provides a unique opportunity to ask burning questions, share challenges, and gain practical insights.
- “HPC Skills That Employers Actually Want”, Clemson Research Computing & Data Staff
- “HPC Meets AI: Training Large Models and Deep Learning”, Carl Ehrett, Fanchen Meng
- “Using HPC in Cybersecurity”, Michael Bryant
- “Cryptocurrency and Blockchain: The HPC Connection”, Richard Brooks
- “HPC and Biomedical Informatics”, Brian Dean
- “HPC and Quantum Computing”, Nathan Jones, Landon Holcomb
- “HPC in Materials Science/BioEngineering”, DP Aidhy, Gary Grest
