SCIENCE

The Society of HPC Professionals (SHPCP) has announced its schedule of 2011 technical conferences and meetings. SHPCP, which promotes the business and technical interests of the high performance computing (HPC) profession, will hold its next Annual Spring Conference on April 13, 2011, at the WesternGeco Conference Center in Houston.

The theme for the 2011 Annual Conference is “Retooling HPC.” Registration is free to members and now open on the SHPCP website. HPC professionals interested in submitting abstracts for presentations should contact Ebb Pye at epye@ebbpye.com.

SHPCP was established in 2009 to conduct open forum meetings that address the application, availability and evaluation of existing HPC technology and to facilitate development of emerging technologies. Society membership is open to individuals, corporations, universities, and government entities with interests in HPC technology serving any industry or market.

Individual memberships are only USD $40 per year. SHPCP events are free for members thanks to support from corporate, industry and governmental sponsors. Additional sponsorship opportunities for conferences, meetings and other events are available.

Following a successful line-up of events in 2010, SHPCP has expanded its 2011 schedule to include the Annual Conference, technical meetings, and multiple roundtables. Technical meetings focus on providing members with the resources and knowledge to apply HPC technology and solve real-world problems. Roundtable topics will be member-driven with an emphasis on exchanging ideas, promoting new concepts and developing HPC best practices for the profession.

New in 2011 will be a Canada Technical Meeting tentatively slated for October. The 2011 U.S. Fall Technical Meeting will be held October 19 in Houston. Roundtable groups will be scheduled as requested throughout the year and will be held in various North American locations. Depending on sponsor support, some Roundtables may be conducted as webcasts or webinars.

The Fall 2010 Technical Meeting attracted over 200 attendees representing HPC technology end-user organizations, hardware and software vendors, and services firms. Attendees heard presentations on the latest trends in supercomputing technology including Susan Baldwin, Executive Director of Compute Canada, giving the keynote address entitled “To Compete, You Must Compute.” Plenary sessions on emerging technologies were led by Earl J. Dodd of the Rocky Mountain Supercomputing Centers and Addison Snell of Intersect360 Research.