Ana Veroneze Sol\u00f3rzano often jokes that she ended up in high-performance computing by accident. What\u2019s not a joke is that she\u2019s now transforming a field that itself is transforming the world.<\/p>\n
High-performance computing, or HPC, doesn\u2019t tackle small problems. Solving global warming and revealing the mystery of how galaxies are formed are par for the course with those who operate the world\u2019s most powerful supercomputers. However, the field has problems of its own \u2013\u2013 massive energy usage, gaps in privacy and inequitable access.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sol\u00f3rzano, a computer engineering Ph.D. candidate at Northeastern University, is pushing HPC in bold new directions that could address those very challenges. The two prongs of her research, for which she recently received a George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship<\/a>, aim to make HPC more sustainable and private for the world\u2019s supercomputer users \u2013\u2013 and the millions of people that HPC research will potentially help.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw [in HPC] an opportunity to learn more about the technical aspects of computing, on deeply how the architecture of a CPU or GPU worked but also [how it] caused an impact in the world,\u201d Sol\u00f3rzano says.<\/p>\n Growing up in Porto Alegre, Brazil, a career in computing wasn\u2019t part of Sol\u00f3rzano\u2019s plan. Her self-deprecating joke about her winding path to HPC is partially true. She only ended up going into computer science because the coordinator for the international relations track she originally wanted to enter at a small private university in Brazil failed to show up for a meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead, she had a run-in with the computer science program adviser, a happenstance meeting that changed the trajectory of her life.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sol\u00f3rzano ultimately received her bachelor\u2019s degree in computer science from the Federal University of Santa Maria. Sol\u00f3rzano later secured a position at the National Institute of Space Research in Brazil, working to apply an algorithm to identify particles in the universe. Her first taste of HPC only reinforced her need to further study advanced computing, and she eventually received her master\u2019s degree from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.<\/p>\n \u201cThey knew exactly the computational powers of the processors they were using and how to take advantage of that to cause an impact,\u201d Sol\u00f3rzano says. \u201cThat\u2019s when I saw if I get good at this specific field, I can do a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n Now at Northeastern, Sol\u00f3rzano is tackling the field\u2019s most pressing challenges at an institution that has gained a reputation for innovative and impactful computing research<\/a>. She is the third Northeastern student and member of the Goodwill Computing Lab to receive the George Michael Memorial HPC Fellowship.<\/p>\n Sol\u00f3rzano\u2019s work on one of Japan\u2019s most powerful supercomputers, RIKEN\u2019s Fugaku, is the first incentive-based energy control mechanism that has been put into production on an active supercomputer.\u00a0The project is part of an ongoing collaboration between Northeastern and Japan\u2019s RIKEN Center at Japan and Sandia\u00a0National Lab in the U.S.<\/p>\n Supercomputers are open for researchers around the world to use for complex, boundary-pushing work that also uses massive amounts of energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Termed Fugaku points, Sol\u00f3rzano\u2019s program allowed users to opt into three energy-saving methods while operating the supercomputer. In exchange, they could then spend \u201cpoints\u201d to access a priority queue that put them in front of the long line to use Fugaku.<\/p>\n The program ended up saving 10.7% of Fugaku\u2019s energy in an initial round of testing and 13.26% in a second round as more people opted in.<\/p>\n