BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The highly anticipated 2025 ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge (ASC25) launch event was held recently in Beijing. The gathering brought together leading academicians, HPC and AI experts, and student-teacher representatives, highlighting the growing importance of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence. A two-day training camp was also successfully held, providing students and teachers with valuable insights into competition rules, preliminary round tasks, and problem-solving strategies, shared by renowned experts and past participants.

The 2025 ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge (ASC25) has attracted participation from over 300 teams representing colleges and universities worldwide. ASC25 follows a two-stage competition format. In the preliminary round, teams are required to complete designated challenges and submit detailed cluster design and application optimization proposals. The top-performing teams will advance to the finals, scheduled to take place at Qinghai University from May 10 to 14, 2025.

As the world's largest supercomputer hackathon, the ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge (ASC) leverages fierce yet friendly contests, focused on cutting-edge technology and applications to foster the growth of young talent. With the profound integration of technological innovation and industrial development, ASC is dedicated to inspiring and nurturing a new generation of interdisciplinary talent. These future expert leaders will be equipped with enthusiasm, innovative spirit, and advanced technological capabilities, poised to drive the next wave of global progress.

Technological advancement and industrial transformation are being reshaped by cutting-edge innovations. ASC25 has crafted tasks inspired by the latest Nobel Prize-winning research achievements, empowering participants to leverage supercomputing to explore groundbreaking scientific discoveries and address complex challenges in frontier fields.

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the developers of AlphaFold, a groundbreaking platform that has revolutionized protein structure prediction. As part of ASC25, the AlphaFold3 task challenges teams to execute and optimize the AlphaFold3 structure prediction code on diverse computing platforms, using amino acid sequences provided by the organizing committee. This task assesses participants' understanding of and ability to optimize the AlphaFold3 inference process.

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to scientists for their groundbreaking discovery of nucleoside base modifications, which paved the way for the development of mRNA vaccines. In ASC25, the RNA task focuses on detecting RNA methylation modification sites. Teams are tasked with optimizing the computational process and performance to identify a specific chemical modification (m⁵C) site on RNA molecules, ensuring accurate operation and precise results at every step.

Shi Yuanchun, President of Qinghai University, the host of the ASC25 Finals, emphasized that ASC serves not only as a global platform for competing in HPC technology and innovation but also as a significant venue for universities worldwide to showcase research achievements, exchange technical expertise, and share ideas. Qinghai University aims to leverage the opportunity of hosting ASC25 to inspire young talent globally to engage with and innovate in the field of supercomputing technology, fostering its development and wider adoption.

Professor Jack Dongarra, Chair of ASC Advisory Committee, Turing Award winner, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Tennessee, said that ASC brings together talented students, teachers, and experts from around the world who are passionate about supercomputing, working together to drive the development of HPC. ASC helps nurture young talent by designing challenging tasks and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. It encourages them to push boundaries, expand their horizons, and develop innovative algorithms and solutions to boost the advancement of supercomputing, contributing to addressing critical global challenges.

About ASC

The ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge, with support from experts and institutions across Asia, Europe, and America, serves as a platform to promote the exchange and development of young talent in supercomputing worldwide. The competition aims to elevate the application and R&D capabilities in supercomputing, harness its technological driving force, and foster innovation across science, technology, and industry. Since its inception in 2012, ASC has attracted tens of thousands of university students from six continents, solidifying its status as the largest university-level supercomputing competition globally. To discover more about this impactful endeavor, visit the website http://www.asc-events.net/StudentChallenge/index.html

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250123564794/en/