International HPC Certification

Creating and providing training for practitioners with diverse backgrounds is challenging. There is no common base knowledge possessed by all new users, identifying similarities and differences between training courses is difficult, and the skills expected from a competent HPC user are not well defined. Establishing a common ground for both HPC educators and users is critical to the further growth and development of the community. The main goal of the International HPC Certification Forum is to ease the provision and uptake of training by clearly categorising, defining, and eventually assessing the skills required to efficiently use HPC resources.

The initiative is continuing to gather momentum by attracting collaborations with individuals and organisations, and making significant progress in classifying and defining HPC roles, skills, and prerequisites. The HPC community is starting to adopt the skill definitions by referencing them in education and training activities, however, a lot more work is required to create a comprehensive certification ecosystem. This session is another step in that direction.

This BoF session will introduce the Forum, its activities, and strategy for long-term sustainability, and will present the first certificate and exam. Then we will jointly revise, refine and consolidate the skill standard to ensure the community input and acceptance. To make sure this is an independent community-wide effort, we invite anyone interested in HPC teaching and training to participate in the discussion. Our international consortium aims for the certificates to be recognized and respected globally by the whole HPC community, including the industry.

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Contributors:

• Julian Kunkel (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen)
• Anja Gerbes (TU Dresden, ZIH)
• Weronika Filinger (EPCC, The University of Edinburgh)
• Marc-Andre Hermanns (RWTH Aachen)