One of the big problems in the industry is that fewer and fewer universities offer HPC-specific courses. There are a lot of online HPC tutorials, but they typically are specific to a particular application or organization and don’t cover the basics.

Solution: After looking for literally months, someone suggested the HPC Summer Boot Camp sessions from the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC). I took a look and immediately saw huge value. John Urbanic, the presenter, does a fantastic job walking new HPC users through HPC concepts and the reasons behind them. It’s engaging, understandable, and starts at a place that’s right for computer science students at any level.

There are also hands-on exercises, which are important to make sure you understand the material. This year, you can get access to the PSC Bridges-2 supercomputer and do those very same exercises. To get access to their system, you need to contact me (dan@oldsresearch.com) directly so I can add you to our Winter Classic account. Each team member will want this account for the competition.

We first used this in 2025 and students found it so valuable that they told me it needs to be the very first competition challenge, thus the HPC Crash Course Challenge was born. An exam covering this material will be the very first event in the 2026 Winter Classic, so getting at it earlier will pay off for you and your team.

If you want an early look at the course, click your clicking device here…