The Workshop on Modeling & Simulation of Systems and Applications (ModSim) marked its 13th year in 2024, convening the ModSim research community at the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle. The event spanned nearly three days, focusing on a new theme: ModSim for Sustainable Computing.
The workshop highlighted the importance of sustainable computing in areas such as economic development, national security, environment, energy consumption, and competitiveness. It explored whether the increasing demand for computing is sustainable and how the ModSim community can develop energy-efficient architectures and systems using novel simulation capabilities.
Google’s Chief Technologist for High Performance Computing, Bill Magro, delivered the keynote address titled “HPC at a Crossroads: Navigating the AI and Cloud Revolution.” Magro discussed the impact of artificial intelligence on Google and the broader computing field while emphasizing its role in advancing sustainability across hardware-software stacks. “A hallmark of the ModSim workshop has been hosting leading computing experts from all disciplines and research areas,” said Adolfy Hoisie, chair of the Systems, Architectures, and Emerging Technologies department at Brookhaven National Laboratory. “Bill Magro proved to be an outstanding continuation of that practice.”
The workshop featured various international speakers who addressed topics ranging from software sustainability to ModSim for sustainable computing. Fredrik Robertsén from LUMI Leadership Computing Facility discussed sustainability aspects incorporated into a pre-exascale machine hosted by CSC–IT Centre for Science in Finland. Ana Lucia Varbanescu from the University of Twente advocated for model-based design-space exploration to reduce waste in computing. Simon McIntosh-Smith from Bristol Centre for Supercomputing highlighted the environmental impact of simulating energy-efficient architectures.
Luca Carloni from Columbia University spoke about leveraging architectural heterogeneity to create sustainable computing platforms despite increased complexity. Udit Gupta from Cornell Tech focused on ecological implications associated with AI workloads and HPC data center operations, presenting models to estimate carbon emissions.
The Dr. Sudhakar Yalamanchili Award was presented to Kevin Brown for his work on efficiently composing and controlling hybrid simulations of PDES and ML models. Brown expressed his gratitude: “It’s truly an honor to receive an award associated with Dr. Yalamanchili.” He emphasized the value of participating in ModSim workshops: “With this year’s theme on sustainability, I was able to learn about efforts in developing sustainable ecosystems.”
Planning has already begun for next year’s workshop. “We had another great year with a new, exciting theme that brought together some of the best minds in modeling and simulation and sustainable computing,” concluded Hoisie.
To learn more about ModSim 2024, visit the workshop's homepage.