The Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) team that participated in the international Student Cluster Competition at the ISC25 Conference held from 10-12 June 2025 in Hamburg, Germany, has secured second place overall in the online component of the competition, defeating 21 other university teams across the globe.

The placement was announced at the awards ceremony on 12 June 2025.

This fantastic result shows that the team, made up of four Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) students, one student from the University of the Western Cape (UWC) and one student from the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), was a force to be reckoned with while competing against many other international teams! The CHPC student teams have previously won this competition and have defended the trophy on several occasions. The centre is renowned for bringing fierce contenders on the high-performance computing stage.

The CHPC team entered the competition with a 3-node high-performance computing cluster sponsored by Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, featuring Intel central processing units and NVIDIA graphics cards, along with Aruba and NVIDIA networks. 

Team CHPC members are:

• Kapil Ramlall (Wits, Electrical Engineering);
• Thina Calana (CPUT, Computer Engineering);
• Lisa Pitsi (University of the Western Cape, Computer Science);
• Tebogo Diraditsile (CPUT, Computer Engineering);
• Allen Van Dieman (CPUT, Computer Engineering);
• Abdullah Jaffer (CPUT, Computer Engineering); and
• Anna Lukose (University of Cape Town, Electrical and Computer Engineering and an incredibly supportive reserve)
   

Congratulations, Team CHPC!!!