May 2, 2025 Exhibits Community Engagement HPC Illuminations Pavilion SC Theater Share this page: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Email By Ayesha Afzal Want to bring your groundbreaking work to SC25 but don’t have a booth? The HPC Illuminations Pavilion is your opportunity to shine. This program gives individuals from small labs, nonprofits, or research teams who have never exhibited at SC before a chance to present their work in the SC Theater — right on the exhibit floor. Whether you’re developing innovative software or hardware, exploring new discoveries, or building exciting technical content, this is your platform. What’s the HPC Illuminations Pavilion? Make an Impact at SC Recognizing that not all impactful research comes from large organizations, SC25 is committed to elevating the work of smaller teams by offering alternative ways to gain visibility and connect with the broader community. The HPC Illuminations Pavilion encourages meaningful discussions and interactions, with the aim to showcase the breadth and depth of the global supercomputing community. Selected participants will: Present during a featured time slot at the SC Theater on the exhibit floor Join a two-hour shift at the HPC Around the World exhibit to connect with attendees (and hand out some awesome stickers and plushies!) Meet with the Community Engagement and Support (CES) Committee and join our committee group photo Connect with fellow participants and the broader SC community Be eligible for travel and lodging support (available for a limited number of selected applicants) Meet Last Year’s Illuminators Get inspired by our SC24 Illuminators Márcio Castro Federal University of Santa Catarina (Brazil) Márcio Castro is an Associate Professor of the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and coordinator of the Distributed Systems Research Laboratory (LaPeSD). He is also the coordinator of the Special Commission of Computer Architecture and High Performance Computing (CE-ACPAD) of the Brazilian Computer Society (SBC) and the coordinator of the Graduate Program in Computer Science (PPGCC) of UFSC. He graduated from Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) in Computer Science with honors (Summa Cum Laude) in 2006 and earned a master’s degree in Computer Science from the same university in 2009. He received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Grenoble (France) in 2012. His main research area is high performance computing, with focus on parallel programming models, parallel and distributed applications, parallel architectures and cloud computing. Amanda Menezes Núcleo de Processamento de Alto Desempenho (Brazil) UFRN supercomputing center responsible for accelerating discoveries in various areas of knowledge. Our goal is to increase the number and level of UFRN’s scientific production, raising its concept as a reference research institution. Given the importance of computing for the various areas of contemporary science, increasing capacity and resource availability is critical to this goal. In addition, the action of the NPAD allows the universalization of access to supercomputing and enables the scientific support necessary to make the use of these resources more efficient, allowing the researcher to worry more about research and less about resource management. Lara Timm HPC Ecosystems Project (South Africa) Lara Timm is an HPC Engineer at the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) in Cape Town, South Africa. In her role, she contributes to the development of CHPC’s localised cloud platform, leveraging DevOps tools and practices to create sustainable, resilient infrastructure. Lara is also active in HPC training and outreach through the HPC Ecosystems Project, which aims to extend HPC resources and expertise to underserved research institutions across Africa. She is deeply committed to sharing her insights and experiences, both in HPC and beyond, to empower individuals and enhance collaborative learning. Esteban Hernández Cybercolombia (Colombia) With over 20 years of expertise in software architecture for performance, I am an established leader in high-performance computing (HPC) and data science. My work focuses on optimizing scientific data storage and transport through advanced in-memory data representation, leveraging frameworks like Apache Arrow, Ray, Dask, and Spark 3.3. Since 2012, I have designed and managed MPI clusters, job scheduling with tools such as Slurm, and parallel computing simulations, particularly in numerical weather forecasting using WRF. I co-founded CyberColombia in 2017, fostering HPC adoption across Colombia and creating a vibrant community of researchers and industry leaders. My commitment is to driving innovation and efficiency in computational science across Latin America. Juan Pablo Fernández Gutiérrez Universidad de Medellín (Colombia) SC24 has been one of the most rewarding events of my life. I had the opportunity to attend an amazing conference where I learned so much about HPC topics, met several people, and made important connections to advance my career. The travel grant allowed me to be there at a time when I lacked financial support for academic events. Although I didn’t secure a partnership for my university, I understand how challenging that can be at a single event, especially if you’re not well known in the community. However, this event enabled me to meet many people and start building long-term relationships. Arghya Kusum Das University of Alaska Fairbanks (USA) The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF or Alaska) is a public land-, sea-, and space-grant research university in College, Alaska, United States, a suburb of Fairbanks. It is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska system. UAF was established in 1917 and opened for classes in 1922. Originally named the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, it became the University of Alaska in 1935. Fairbanks-based programs became the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1975. Unlike most funders, the HPC Illuminations Pavilion didn’t impose on participants which sessions to join. Participants were allowed the freedom to choose the sessions they would like to attend and participate fully throughout the conference. That was great support! Juan Manuel Gómez Piedrahita & Santiago Rodríguez Mojica EAFIT University (Colombia) EAFIT University is a private Colombian university located in Medellín offering 23 undergraduate programs, 70 specializations, 34 masters, and six doctoral programs. Mary-Jane Sule The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Italy) Mary-Jane is currently a tenured lecturer at the University of Jos, Nigeria. An enthusiast of inclusive, affordable, and accessible technology for everyone irrespective of geographical location and the depth of one’s pocket. She was a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, (ICTP) Trieste – Italy; where, she collaborated with the ICT Section to produce a lightweight remote graphical cloud desktop that can be linked to an HPC cluster for additional processing power when needed and has a USB-over-IP capability to attach external boards. Prior to joining ICTP, she was a Post-Doc Research Assistant at the University of Oxford, UK where she developed a trusted VPN Gateway Proof of Concept currently in use. Mary-Jane received her PhD from Brunel University of London, UK where she developed and deployed a Multilayer Security Trust Model for cloud platforms. An extrovert, Mary-Jane loves traveling and cooking. Carlos González RedCLARA (Latin America and the Caribbean) Carlos González is an experienced IT Program/Product Manager and Chartered Electrical Engineer with a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and additional certifications, including Project Management Professional (PMP). With over 15 years of successful experience as a Senior Professional and Project Manager, Carlos has worked across various sectors such as data networks, information systems, information security, and disaster recovery in government, oil and gas, telecommunications, R&D, and financial industries. As the Services Manager at RedCLARA, he is responsible for driving the vision, due diligence, design development, bidding and negotiation, contract management, and delivery of digital products and services to support research, development, and education across 13 associated countries in Latin America. Aline Azevedo MONISE methods (Brazil) Aline Azevedo is a telecommunications engineer currently pursuing a master’s degree in Computer Science at UNICAMP, specializing in Multi-Objective Optimization for Machine Learning. She began her journey in Machine Learning last year, focusing on scaling techniques and fairness, exploring new modeling approaches for complex problems. Aline is also an advocate for diversity in technology and has a strong interest in vegan-friendly practices. Umesh Upadhyaya Gairapiplee HPC Nepal (Nepal) HPCNepal is visioned to create a scientific research culture using HPC to foster scientific innovations and to acquire for the universities and research institutions, a world-class capacity in high-performance computing to create next generation expertise and workforce for the application of HPC in nurturing a knowledgebased (smart) society and economy. Hervé Yviquel UNICAMP (Brazil) Hervé has been a Professor at the Institute of Computing (IC) at UNICAMP in Campinas, Brazil, since 2020, and is a member of the Computer Systems Laboratory (LSC). He earned his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Rennes 1 (France) in 2013, after collaborative research with IRISA/Inria and INSA Rennes. In 2015, he joined UNICAMP as a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Computing in Engineering & Sciences (CCES), focusing on advanced scientific computing. Hervé has contributed to two research projects funded by Petrobras, particularly in high performance computing (HPC) and geophysics. He has worked on three different compiler infrastructures and has published at top-tier conferences such as ICPP, ICASSP, and IWOMP, as well as in respected journals like JPDC and TACO. His work has garnered over 400 citations, and his research focuses on parallel computing and HPC, with expertise in compilers, runtime systems, scheduling, and programming models. Bigani Sehurutshi University of Botswana (Botswana) Bigani Sehurutshi is a dedicated professional specializing in High Performance Computing (HPC) and cloud technologies. He leads the HPC unit at the University of Botswana, supporting various researchers and students. He is actively involved in the SADC Cyberinfrastructure Framework implementation project, addressing the growing demand for infrastructure to handle high-computation workloads. Bigani has made significant contributions to national projects, such as the Botswana Meteorological Services’ Ex-Tropical Cyclone Dineo Rainfall Simulations, as well as ongoing astronomy initiatives like the African VLBI Network (AVN) and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). He is passionate about community engagement and a strong advocate for open-source technologies. As a certified Linux trainer by the Linux Professional Institute, he is committed to empowering individuals with the skills to thrive in the digital age. A member of the SADC HPC Ecosystems Project, he holds an MSc in Computer Science, and his technical interests include containerization, HPC in the cloud, and AI-powered simulations. Ready to Apply? See all the details for this opportunity and apply for one of the 24 spots. Applications are now open and close on July 7, 2025. HPC Illuminations Pavilion If you have questions regarding applications, please contact the Community Engagement & Support committee. contact us
