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KAUST Professor David Keyes to chair International Supercomputing Conference 2020

May 20, 2019 Features

David Keyes, KAUST professor of applied mathematics and computational science; director of the University's Extreme Computing Research Center; and senior associate to the President of KAUST, will chair the International Supercomputing Conference 2020. File photo.

David Keyes, KAUST professor of applied mathematics and computational science; director of the University's Extreme Computing Research Center; and senior associate to the President of KAUST, will chair the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) 2020. He will be the first program chair from a Middle Eastern institution, as announced by ISC 2020. 

The conference will take place in June 2020 in Frankfurt, Germany, and will tackle high performance computing (HPC) in terms of processing, storage, network, HPC algorithms and applications and the convergence of large-scale simulation with machine learning and big data analytics.

As program chair, Keyes will work with a team of about 100 steering committee and program committee volunteers to define conference topics. He will also lead joint efforts to elevate the value of ISC 2020 within the HPC community.

"ISC is Europe's leading HPC conference, so it is a great opportunity to have technical influence over the meeting as its program chair," stated Keyes.

"HPC evolves as rapidly as any field of scientific endeavor today, making it important for us to be aware of all trends that affect our competitiveness and to network for the placement of our graduates with top HPC partners," he added.

The University is home to Shaheen II, the most powerful supercomputer in the Middle East. File photo.


Keyes is also participating in ISC 2019, which takes place next month. The conference will feature a special session on HPC in Asia that relates to high watermarks in HPC applications.

Not only is KAUST taking the lead as the first institution in the Middle East to chair ISC, but the University is also home to Shaheen II, the most powerful supercomputer in the Middle East.

"Ten years into KAUST's supercomputing legacy, literally half of all KAUST faculty have accounts for their research groups on Shaheen, and their ability to serve the Kingdom with predictive simulations and data analytics depends upon KAUST continuing to provide expertise in and top-ranked facilities for high performance computing," Keyes concluded.

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