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Luk Burchard defended his PhD thesis
Luk Burchard defended his PhD thesis

Luk Burchard defended his PhD thesis

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On Tuesday 12 December 2023 at 13:15, Luk Bjarne Burchard defended his PhD thesis "Repurposing Domain-specific Hardware Accelerators for Sparse and Irregular High-Performance General-Purpose Computation".

The defense took place in the Hans Petter Langtangen Lecture Hall at Simula KA23.

Main research findings

This research delves into the potential of Graphcore's IPU AI-optimized architecture in the realm of High-Performance Computing (HPC). Focusing on solving complex challenges like sparse systems and irregular applications, the dissertation contributes to HPC systems and application design, backed by rigorous empirical evaluation. The core objective is to evaluate the applicability of recent AI advancements to the field of HPC, with a specific focus on sparse and irregular applications. The thesis leverages empirical research, encompassing detailed experiments and analysis. This not only demonstrates how applications can seamlessly integrate with the AI accelerator but also highlights potential challenges and limitations associated with its use.In a world increasingly reliant on high-performance computing, this work's findings carry implications for both the scientific and technological communities. By bridging the gap between AI-specific architectures and HPC, the dissertation paves the way for more efficient problem-solving in diverse applications, offering insights for future advancements in this critical intersection of fields.

Trial lecture

Prior to the defense, at 11:15 on the same day, Luk presented his trial lecture also in the HPL lecture hall.

Trial lecture title: “The impact of increasingly diverse computer architectures on scientific codes, with a particular focus on performance portability”


Adjudication committee

  • Professor Simon McIntosh-Smith, School of Computer Science, University of Bristol, UK
  • Professor Ana-Lucia Varbanescu, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Twente, The Netherlands
  • Professor Geir Kjetil Sandve, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway

Supervisors

  • Professor Xing Cai, Simula Research Laboratory/ Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway 
  • Research Scientist Johannes Langguth, Simula Research Laboratory, Norway 
  • Professor Are Magnus Bruaset, Simula Research Laboratory/ Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, Norway 

Read more at the UiO Department of Informatics web pages.

Associated contacts

Johannes Langguth

Johannes Langguth

Senior Research Scientist

Xing Cai

Xing Cai

Adjunct Chief Research ScientistProfessor

Are Magnus Bruaset

Are Magnus Bruaset

Director of Software & AIProfessor