Source: Own Illustration
For the High-Performance Computing (HPC) division at the IT Center of RWTH Aachen University, 2025 was marked by international exchange, practice-oriented workshops, sustainability initiatives, technological developments, and numerous activities related to HPC use and competence building. In this review, we summarize key events, projects, and successes.
International Impulses
One of the highlights of the year was our participation in the international Supercomputing Conference (SC25) in St. Louis, USA. Under the motto “HPC ignites,” around 15,000 participants gathered to discuss current research results, technological trends, and future challenges in the field of HPC. The IT Center was represented by several experts at the conference. Particularly noteworthy was the OpenMP tutorial “Mastering OpenMP Tasking,” in which our Chief HPC Officer Christian Terboven gave insights into modern tasking concepts as a speaker. As part of the SC25 Technical Program, the IT Center was also represented with a workshop and a poster session, providing important insights into correctness and tasking optimization in HPC.
In 2025, NHR4CES was again represented at the ISC in Hamburg at the joint NHR booth, where it was available for technical discussions. Several sofa talks were organized as part of this, including the talk “GPU and ML Benchmarking for HPC Procurements” moderated by Sandra Wienke. In addition, NHR4CES participated in the scientific program of the conference with several workshops and tutorials, including “Mastering Tasking with OpenMP 6.0.”
Sustainability in HPC: Green HPC & Energy Efficiency
Sustainability is an increasingly important topic in the field of HPC. The IT Center’s approach to Green HPC aims to reduce the energy consumption and CO₂ emissions of data centers. A key component of this is our CLAIX-2023 supercomputer, which not only features powerful hardware but also innovative hot water cooling that efficiently utilizes waste heat, thereby significantly reducing the energy required for passive cooling. In addition, CLAIX-2023 is powered by renewable energies and supported by research projects such as ENSIMA and IT-Zauber, which focus on intelligent monitoring solutions and AI-supported optimizations.
In addition to hardware-related measures, sustainability in HPC also includes software optimizations and concepts for future CO₂-neutral data centers that use waste heat specifically for heating energy.
Workshops and Training for HPC Users
A focus in 2025 was on practice-oriented training and workshops for HPC users with the aim of strengthening performance awareness and imparting optimization knowledge:
- In March, the annual event “Parallel Programming in Computational Engineering and Science,” or PPCES for short, took place. This event imparts performance and porting knowledge specifically for parallel codes and was an important opportunity to strengthen practical skills in the HPC field. You can find the videos on our YouTube channel.
- Cooperation with MathWorks & HPC.NRW enabled additional workshop series on numerical mathematics and optimized software development in HPC environments.
- The C++ course with HPC.NRW also contributed to deepening knowledge of modern HPC software development.
- In December, the aiXcelerate 2025 event offered advanced users an intensive workshop on I/O and data processing strategies for HPC and ML codes. Participants were able to apply the concepts they learned directly to their own codes and optimize them with HPC experts.
These offerings help both beginners and experienced users to use HPC resources efficiently and design complex codes for high performance.
Anniversaries, Resources and Community Highlights
An important technological highlight of the year was the first year of operation of our CLAIX-2023 supercomputer: since its official inauguration in October 2024, the system has been continuously delivering high computing power for research and teaching and has established itself as a central resource in the HPC field.
Social media channels such as Instagram were used this year to highlight how our HPC resources are being used, from performance visuals to insights into innovative technologies such as water cooling for CLAIX-2023.
International Collaborations and Research Stays
2025 provided opportunities for special international experiences: Tim Gerrits and Marcel Krüger spent three months in Japan on a research stay, where they worked intensively on HPC and visualization. This was made possible by NHR4CES, the NHR Association, and JHPCN, and further strengthened international exchange and collaboration in the HPC community.
Special HPC Experiences and Engagements
In addition to technical topics, there were also inspiring events with direct practical relevance, such as the Kaytus event in the VR Cave. It showed how HPC, visualization, and immersive technologies can be combined and offered participants exciting access to the world of HPC visualization. It helped to bring HPC to life as a vibrant world of research and experience, as well as technical infrastructure.
Outlook for 2026
All these activities demonstrate how diverse and dynamic the field of high-performance computing is at the IT Center. Exciting challenges and events are already lined up for 2026, including further workshops, conferences, and technical developments in the HPC environment. The community continues to grow, competence networks are being strengthened, and HPC remains an integral part of the digital research landscape.
Responsible for the content of this article is Malak Mostafa.
Leave a Reply