South African kids win global cluster glory at HPC fest

HPC blog Our last day's talk with Team South Africa did nothing to tip us off that they were going to be the eventual winner of the entire ISC’13 Student Cluster Challenge. But I wasn’t the only one in the dark – I don’t think they had any idea they had a chance to win it all.

Team South Africa displayed their normal good-spirited, fun demeanour, although they seemed a bit tired. In the video, they admitted they hit plenty of problems with the apps on the last day. But they obviously did a pretty good job of finding solutions, since they were one of the three teams that submitted valid results for every competition app.

I caught up with Team Costa Rica while they were relaxing in the lounge area after the competition. Like the other teams, they hit “Many, many” problems with the devilish mix of applications that the organisers selected this year.

While they probably weren’t going to contend for the overall championship, I did let them know that they had a solid shot at the Fan Favorite award. I had checked the voting earlier and found that the Rainforest Eagles (2.0) had built up a large lead over the rest of the field with only a day left in the voting.

Working to engage show attendees and build a fan following back home paid off for the Rainforest Eagles (2.0). They did end up winning the Fan Favorite award with more than 70 per cent of the overall vote in the online poll. Nice work, Costa Rica… ®