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ASC25 — Xining, China

In 2025, Wits HPC made history as the first standalone African university to compete at the ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge. The team qualified among the top 25 finalists worldwide from the preliminary round, then travelled to Qinghai University, Xining, China to compete in person against the best student HPC teams on the planet.

The competition this year featured tasks including Google DeepMind's AlphaFold3 (Nobel Prize 2024) inference optimisation, DeepSeek-AI's DeepSeek R1 inference optimisation, CERN's Geant4, and an RNA m5C site detection pipeline — alongside the standard HPL and HPCG benchmarks.

ASC24 Student Cluster Competition: Who Won and Why?

ASC24 Winners

HPCwire covers the results of the ASC24 Student Cluster Competition, highlighting the winners and key insights.

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Meet the Team

From Egoli, the City of Gold, we have Wits HPC, who earned their place among the 25 ASC25 finalists, standing out from hundreds of teams worldwide.

The team is made up of undergraduate students from the Science and Engineering faculties who have demonstrated their passion and dedication to HPC through facilitating talks, writing papers, and engaging in outreach. Most of the team members have competed in other Student Cluster Competitions, both locally and internationally.

Their advisor, Prof. Ling Cheng, joined Wits University in 2010 and has made significant contributions to telecommunications and artificial intelligence. He has supervised over 50 postgraduate students, including 11 PhDs, and served as an associate editor for three journals.

From left to right: Lily de Melo, Sefora Kapenga, Jonathan Faller, Reinhard Jansen van Vuuren, Talhah Patelia, Prof. Ling Cheng

The team composition is as follows:

The Journey

Travel from South Africa to China

The team departed on May 7th and competed from May 8th to May 14th at Qinghai University, recognized as one of China's leading institutions for its state-of-the-art research in science and technology. They returned on May 18th.

Qinghai University

Why Sponsor Us?

What other reasons do you need, besides our great South African accents and distinct personalities? On a more serious note, our students have worked tirelessly and shown immense passion in elevating the HPC student space in South Africa. Sponsoring Wits HPC means supporting the next generation of HPC industry professionals and investing in future talent.

By sponsoring Wits HPC, your company gains visibility and aligns itself with a proven track record of excellence in HPC & AI education and performance. Over the past 10 years, we've proven our excellence:

  • 7 first-place titles at the CHPC SCC (South Africa)
  • 4 first-place titles at the ISC SCC (Germany), with 52 out of 88 students selected for Team CHPC at ISC being from Wits HPC
  • The first standalone African university to compete at ASC

Wits University's Success at Local and International Student Cluster Competitions

In return for your support, we're eager to share our experience with you:

Donation Amount Sharing Our Experience with You*
Corporate
R30,000 ($1,600)
  • A personalized stamp featuring your name in traditional calligraphy.
  • Includes all experiences from below as well
R20,000 ($1,070)
  • A Red Book, purchased in China, with a handwritten message from our team - mailed directly to you.
  • Includes all experiences from below as well
R15,000 ($800)
  • Proudly display your logo or name on our Wits HPC team hoodies.
  • Your logo or name featured on our official website.
  • Includes all experiences from below as well
R10,000 ($530)
  • A custom-made shoutout video from us at ASC in China.
  • Includes all experiences from below as well
R5,000 ($270)
  • A fun team photo with your name or company featured at ASC in China - posted on our socials.
  • Includes all experiences from below as well
Enthusiast
R3,000 ($160)
  • A postcard-style digital image of us at the Great Wall with your name on it.
  • Includes all experiences from below as well
R2,000 ($110)
  • Exclusive access to our newsletter - behind-the-scenes content and early previews.
  • Includes all experiences from below as well
R1,000 ($55)
  • Your name proudly displayed on our Hall of Fame canvas in the Wits HPC hardware room.
  • Includes all experiences from below as well
Casual
Under R1,000 (Under $55)
  • Your name proudly displayed on our digital Hall of Fame on the Wits HPC website.

And for our top donors:

Top Donor Rank Sharing Our Experience with You*
Top Donor Naming Rights for Cluster
2nd Highest Donor Naming Rights for two nodes
3rd Highest Donor Naming Rights for one node
4th Highest Donor Naming Rights for one node

*All perks depend on us being able to make it to ASC. If that doesn't happen, we'll do our best to refund as much of your donation as we can — though it might not be the full amount.

BackaBuddy

The team raised funds through BackaBuddy, a crowdfunding platform based in Africa. Payments were managed by an attorney on a pro bono basis.

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Follow our journey on social media:

Our technical content:

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Explore our published works:

Second Life: Enabling a Student Special Interest Group through Decommissioned HPC Systems

Michael Beukman, Sayfullah Jumoorty, Jonathan Luke Faller, Eugene de Beste, and Bryan Johnston present insights on leveraging decommissioned HPC systems to empower student engagement in HPC research and competitions.

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From Student SIG to Success: The Journey of a Student HPC Special Interest Group

Bryan Johnston, Lara Timm, David Macleod, John Poole, Lily de Melo, Sayfullah Jumoorty, Jonathan Faller, Reinhard Jansen van Vuuren, and Michael Beukman discuss the evolution of a student HPC special interest group and its impact on training and competition success.

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