Students from the Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Kasetsart University, under Team HPCNC-KU, won First Prize and the special “2026 ASC PRSM Award” at the ASC 2026 Student Supercomputer Challenge, held from 15–21 May 2026 at Wuxi University, People’s Republic of China. Selected as one of the final 25 teams from more than 300 teams worldwide, HPCNC-KU demonstrated outstanding capabilities in high-performance computing throughout the competition. The team, consisting of undergraduate students from the Department of Computer Engineering, was advised by Dr. Kanchanasit Thonglek.
Organized by the Asia Supercomputer Community, the ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge is one of the world’s largest international high-performance computing competitions. The competition includes cluster design and assembly, application performance optimization, and technical presentations before an international panel of experts.
During the competition, Team HPCNC-KU optimized six scientific and AI applications, including HPL/HPCG benchmarks, AI world models, numerical relativity software, quantum circuit simulation, and the ICON global climate model. The team achieved significant improvements in computational performance, including reducing AI model runtime from 1,882 seconds to 413 seconds and enhancing large-scale parallel processing capabilities across multiple applications.
In addition to First Prize, the team received the “2026 ASC PRSM Award,” a special recognition presented by Dan Olds, historian of international Student Cluster Competitions. The award recognizes excellence in Performance, Reliability, Safety, and Maintenance through effective cluster cable management. Dan Olds praised the team’s cable arrangement as “Artistic! Like butterfly wings,” highlighting the team’s attention to both technical performance and engineering detail.
Throughout the competition, Team HPCNC-KU demonstrated strong teamwork, technical expertise, and perseverance. Despite most members being first- and second-year students, the team successfully competed alongside leading universities from around the world.
Source: Department of Computer Engineering https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BnzbFo39X/
