in cooperation with

Topic: I/O and Data Handling for HPC and ML Codes (on CLAIX)

Description

The annual event aiXcelerate at RWTH Aachen University (NHR4CES@RWTH) is a tuning workshop for users of HPC systems. It comprises lectures that are open to everyone, and hands-on parts where (invited) groups apply the learned concepts to their own (!) codes. This year, aiXcelerate covers the topic “I/O and Data Handling for HPC and ML Codes” and focuses on using the RWTH’s HPC cluster “CLAIX”.

Presentations (open to everyone)

Presentations (see agenda below) give an introduction on I/O topics for HPC and ML codes. They cover, e.g., an overview of available I/O solutions on CLAIX, how they are best mapped to the I/O behavior of own codes, and further tips and tricks.
Talks are offered in a hybrid form: The presenters will do their talks in-person on the premises of the IT Center at RWTH Aachen University. Thus, participants are very welcome to attend the presentations in-person, too. Additionally, presentations will be streamed live in online form. Hence, participants can also attend remotely. Participants need to choose their setup (on-premise or online) during the registration process.

Code & Tuning Activities (limited seats)

The sessions on “Code and Tuning Activities” (see agenda below) follow the principle of bring-your-own (BYO) code. They target at users with their own HPC or ML codes running on CLAIX and that (might) have (performance) issues with I/O and data handling. Participants of these sessions will closely work together with and get support by our HPC/ML experts to, e.g., analyze the I/O performance of their codes and to tune the I/O and data handling of their codes.
Since participants will work together with our experts, this part can only be attended in-person and on-premise. We invite HPC and ML users with suitable compute time projects on CLAIX. Nevertheless, other interested people are also welcome to register for this part of the workshop. However, since seats are limited, we reserve the right to only accept certain projects/ users for this workshop part.

Requirements for “BYO Code”

To make good use of the time with our HPC/ML experts, it is necessary (until the workshop date) that…

•  … the brought code is already running on CLAIX (software & hardware environment).
• … a (test) dataset is available that (a) runs on few hardware ressources (e.g. CPUs or GPUs) for a short time (e.g., few minutes) and (b) still captures the I/O performance profile of a regular dataset by triggering the same production parts of the application.
• … all needed data is already transferred to one of the CLAIX’ file systems (HOME, WORK, HPCWORK).
• … at least one developer of the targeted application registered. Several people using the same application is also possible (please register separately).

Organization

• There is no workshop fee.
• Presentations will be given in English. Slides will be available during or after the event (see “Course Material” below).
• Presentations are presented in hybrid form (see above). Please choose your setup during the registration process.
• Code activities are in-person on-premise only.
• Presentations and code activities focus on using the RWTH’s HPC cluster “CLAIX”.

Date & Venue

Date: December 2nd (and December 3rd), 2025
Venue: IT Center of RWTH Aachen University, Kopernikusstr. 6, 52074 Aachen, seminar rooms 3 + 4 (or online via Zoom/Webex)

Registration

Registration link (via our NHR4CES website): https://eveeno.com/aixcelerate_2025

During the registration, please specify whether you want to participate in-person or online. Please also withdraw your registration in the registration system using the link that you got in your confirmation e-mail (or let us know) if you cannot attend anymore. That will help us a lot in preparing the event (seats, catering and so on). Thanks! (Here are further instructions how to change or cancel your registration.)

Registration closing date: November 24th, 2025

Agenda

Agenda is subject to slight changes.

Day 1: Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025