SA COMPUTER BOFFINS SCORE HISTORIC WIN

The competition, which focuses on high performance computing, showcases expertise at solving complex problems and the South African team made history as the only team to win consecutively as well as the youngest winners.

Students from South African universities successfully defended their title at the International Student Cluster Competition, held in Leipzig, Germany.

The South African team members were Eugene de Beste, Nicole Thomas, Warren Jacobus and Saeed Natha of the University of the Western Cape; Pieter Malan of the University of Stellenbosch; and Ellen Nxala of the University of Fort Hare. The team supervisors were David Macleod and Nicolas Thorne of the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) and Vernon Nichols of Dell.

The team, which comprised only undergraduate students, practised at Dell headquarters in Texas before facing formidable opponents from South Korea, the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil and China.