In their fourth outing as a Winter Classic mentor, AWS brought in challenge that, on the surface at least, looked deceptively simple.
The students were tasked with setting up a cloud instance (aided by a step-by-step guide) and then run WRF with the provided dataset. Their run had to be completed within 4:30 to be valid and the lowest price/performance would be the winner.
While there was node type used in the initial set up, the students were tree to select any instance type in the AWS catalog – currently more than 850. This is the crux of the task, to figure out what WRF needs and then to pick the instance types that best fulfill those needs.
There was, of course, an additional twist. The student teams had 72 hours to put together their cluster and submit their best run. Then…..that cluster was blown away and they had to do it over again, with a different student setting up the cluster and an additional 72 hours of run time. This was to get them to document their set ups and introduce them to the “system as code” concept.
AWS Winter Classic mentor/sensi, Evan Bollig, hinted that profiling WRF might be a good idea, but none of the student teams seemed to pick up on it. (Note to self: Add some profiler training to the 2026 pre-comp training.)
In subsequent discussions with students, I found that this was considered one of the most difficult tasks in the competition, but also one that taught them the most. Gotta like that, right?
The video below is a combination score reveal and mentor discussion, with Evan and I discussing the challenge, how the teams approached it, and the results. We also veered off into providing tips for how the students can use their Winter Classic experience in interviews. It’s well worth a view….
Next, the students face their last computational task, this time with the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center hosting have them over for a Quantum Espresso party. In the course of the week, students will be setting up QE on CPU-only systems and GPU accelerated systems, optimizing QE on each, and submitting their best results. The top scores get the lion’s share of the points and get that much closer to the 2025 Winter Classic trophy.
After that, students have their Judgement Day interview with a panel of HPC experts, then they’re done…..stay tuned….