CHPC staff

CHPC Staff Highlight

CHPC Employee Produces a MTech Dissertation on High Performance Computing

CHPC system administrator, Samuel Sticks Mabakane has recently completed his Masters Degree in IT at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). His thesis was on high performance computing, entitled 'Scaling of scientific software applications on CHPC clustering environment', a rare study in South Africa.

Sticks conducted his research in collaboration with the CHPC, Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), University of Cape Town (UCT) & University of Tennessee (UT) in the U.S.A under the advisory of supercomputing guru, Prof Jack Dongarra and supervisions of Drs Elmarie Biermann and Daniel Moeketsi, the later being a CHPC Senior Research Scientist. His research aims to make a contribution to the local and international HPC community, this study can be useful to scientific users and decision makers as it provides valuable information on how various codes perform on the CHPC supercomputer.

In his findings, Sticks indicates that the performance of scientific codes on supercomputers can be affected by interplays of factors such as network, architecture of the system, and configuration of the code.

Sticks is currently preparing to pursue a PhD in Computer Science with the University of Cape Town, supercomputing systems have proven to be the most outstanding tool for both scientists and technologists and can play a valuable role in industry government, it all depends on the outlook of South Africans towards this technology, he said.

CHPC Staff Highlight

Dr Happy Sithole

Dr Happy Sithole is the director of the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC), an initiative funded by the Department of Science and Technology and managed by the CSIR.

With a PhD in physics from the University of the North, he regards himself as a research scientist utilising high performance computing. He has extensive experience of utilisation of high performance computing (HPC) in the mining industry and for nuclear power plants.

Sithole joined CHPC in 2007 and spearheaded the development of the centre which currently houses state-of-the art HPC systems ranging from the IBM Blue Genes to the SUN Microsystems hybrid machine. This machine is ranked on the TOP500 list of supercomputers in the world. The CHPC plays a pivotal role in promoting HPC nationally and providing HPC facilities for researchers from academia, science councils and industry; industry is increasingly engaging with the CHPC to find ways to tap into its resources.