---
title: "CARC team gears up for SC24 Competition"
description: "Six UNM students take a Dell/Penguin/Intersect360-sponsored H100 cluster to the SC24 student competition in Atlanta."
type: News
tags:
  - News
  - Students
generated:
  by: "claude/fable-5"
  at: "2026-08-29T00:00:00Z"
sources:
  - id: carc-web
    resource: "https://carc.unm.edu/news--events/News/sc24.html"
    title: "SC24 team (carc.unm.edu)"
    author: "team:unm-carc"
---

# CARC team gears up for SC24 Competition

<p class="carc-byline">By Mariah Rosales</p>

![The UNM SC24 team](https://carc.unm.edu/images/molly-reece-matthew-faculty-advisor-nick-team-coach-xavier-saskia-ryan-sumaya-alex-logistic-coordinator-1.png)

As the 2024 Supercomputing Conference (SC24) approaches, the University of
New Mexico's Center for Advanced Research Computing (CARC) is in full
preparation mode. This year, a team of five seniors and one junior is set to
compete in Atlanta, Georgia this November, showcasing their expertise in
high-performance computing (HPC).

Leading the team is returning SC23 competitor Ryan Scherbarth, joined by
seniors Molly Palko, Xavier Barr, Sumaya Houssini Mohamed, Reece Ransby, and
junior Saskia Trefethen. Most team members have participated in various HPC
competitions over the past year, equipping them for the challenges they will
face.

The SC24 competition unfolds over three days, but preparation began long ago
for the team. For the competition, the teams receive a combination of known
and mystery benchmarks to tackle. Familiar benchmarks like HPL, often a
staple in HPC competitions, and MLPerf, which focuses on machine learning,
are central to their strategy. New challenges such as NAMD add an extra
layer of complexity. Working at CARC has provided the team with valuable
insights and hands-on experience with these applications.

This year's competition features a unique opportunity for collaboration with
hardware sponsors, allowing the team to customize their computing cluster
for optimal performance. With support from Dell, Penguin Solutions, and
Intersect360, they built a cluster consisting of three nodes, each equipped
with four NVIDIA H100 NVL accelerators. This setup aligns with the
competition's technical requirements and underscores the increasing
significance of AI and machine learning in the field.

The competition begins with the assembly of their cluster, followed by a
critical 24-hour benchmarking phase. After submitting their scores, they
transition to running applications for the subsequent 48 hours. "The
adrenaline during those first hours is intense, but it's also a great
opportunity to see how well our preparation pays off," said Sumaya Houssini
Mohamed.

For many team members, SC24 is not just a competition; it is an opportunity
to engage with industry professionals and explore potential career paths in
a dynamic field. "This experience is invaluable. It allows us to network and
gain insights from experts that can help shape our futures," noted Xavier
Barr.

The team's journey began in Spring 2023, and they have since seen
substantial growth and increased interest in HPC at UNM. From a small group,
they have expanded to include more members and multiple competitions,
enabling students to develop essential skills in Linux systems and
command-line operations. "When I started, I had little exposure to HPC, but
now I feel well-prepared to tackle complex problems. It's amazing to see how
far we've come," said Molly Palko.

As they prepared to travel to SC24, the team focused on demonstrating their
capabilities and contributing to the evolving landscape of high-performance
computing. "This competition is a culmination of our hard work, and I'm
excited to see how we measure up against other top teams," reflected team
leader Ryan Scherbarth.