(upbeat music) >> Hello, beautiful humans and welcome back to Supercomputing. We're here in Dallas, Texas giving you live coverage with theCUBE. I'm joined by David Nicholson. Thank you for being my left arm today. >> Thank you Savannah. >> It's a nice little moral. Very excited about this segment. We've talked a lot about how the fusion between academia and the private sector is a big theme at this show. You can see multiple universities all over the show floor as well as many of the biggest companies on earth. We were very curious to learn a little bit more about this from people actually in the trenches. And we are lucky to be joined today by two Purdue students. We have Lucas and Karl. Thank you both so much for being here. >> One Purdue, one IU, I think. >> Savannah: Oh. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. >> I'm sorry. Well then wait, let's give Indiana University their fair do. That's where Lucas is. And Karl is at Purdue. Sorry folks. I apparently need to go back to school to learn how to read. (chuckles) In the meantime, I know you're in the middle of a competition. Thank you so much for taking the time out. Karl, why don't you tell us what's going on? What is this competition? What brought you all here? And then let's dive into some deeper stuff. >> Yeah, this competition. So we're a joint team between Purdue and IU. We've overcome our rivalries, age old rivalries to computer at the competition. It's a multi-part competition where we're going head to head against other teams from all across the world, benchmarking our super computing cluster that we designed. >> Was there a moment of rift at all when you came together? Or was everyone peaceful? >> We came together actually pretty nicely. Our two advisors they were very encouraging and so we overcame that, no hostility basically. >> I love that. So what are you working on and how long have you guys been collaborating on it? You can go ahead and start Lucas. >> So we've been prepping for this since the summer and some of us even before that. >> Savannah: Wow. >> And so currently we're working on the application phase of the competition. So everybody has different specialties and basically the competition gives you a set of rules and you have to accomplish what they tell you to do in the allotted timeframe and run things very quickly. >> And so we saw, when we came and first met you, we saw that there are lights and sirens and a monitor looking at the power consumption involved. So part of this is how much power is being consumed. >> Karl: That's right. >> Explain exactly what are the what are the rules that you have to live within? >> So, yeah, so the main constraint is the time as we mentioned and the power consumption. So for the benchmarking phase, which was one, two days ago there was a hard camp of 3000 watts to be consumed. You can't go over that otherwise you would be penalized for that. You have to rerun, start from scratch basically. Now there's a dynamic one for the application section where it's it modulates at random times. So we don't know when it's going to go down when it's going to go back up. So we have to adapt to that in real time. >> David: Oh, interesting. >> Dealing with a little bit of real world complexity I guess probably is simulation is here. I think that's pretty fascinating. I want to know, because I am going to just confess when I was your age last week, I did not understand the power of supercomputing and high performance computing. Lucas, let's start with you. How did you know this was the path you wanted to go down in your academic career? >> David: Yeah, what's your background? >> Yeah, give us some. >> So my background is intelligence systems engineering which is kind of a fusion. It's between, I'm doing bioengineering and then also more classical computer engineering. So my background is biology actually. But I decided to go down this path kind of on a whim. My professor suggested it and I've kind of fallen in love with it. I did my summer internship doing HPC and I haven't looked back. >> When did you think you wanted to go into this field? I mean, in high school, did you have a special teacher that sparked it? What was it? >> Lucas: That's funny that you say that. >> What was in your background? >> Yes, I mean, in high school towards the end I just knew that, I saw this program at IU and it's pretty new and I just thought this would be a great opportunity for me and I'm loving it so far. >> Do you have family in tech or is this a different path for you? >> Yeah, this is a different path for me, but my family is so encouraging and they're very happy for me. They text me all the time. So I couldn't be happier. >> Savannah: Just felt that in my heart. >> I know. I was going to say for the parents out there get the tissue out. >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. (chuckles) >> These guys they don't understand. But, so Karl, what's your story? What's your background? >> My background, I'm a major in unmanned Aerial systems. So this is a drones commercial applications not immediately connected as you might imagine although there's actually more overlap than one might think. So a lot of unmanned systems today a lot of it's remote sensing, which means that there's a lot of image processing that takes place. Mapping of a field, what have you, or some sort of object, like a silo. So a lot of it actually leverages high performance computing in order to map, to visualize much replacing, either manual mapping that used to be done by humans in the field or helicopters. So a lot of cost reduction there and efficiency increases. >> And when did you get this spark that said I want to go to Purdue? You mentioned off camera that you're from Belgium. >> Karl: That's right. >> Did you, did you come from Belgium to Purdue or you were already in the States? >> No, so I have family that lives in the States but I grew up in Belgium. >> David: Okay. >> I knew I wanted to study in the States. >> But at what age did you think that science and technology was something you'd be interested in? >> Well, I've always loved computers from a young age. I've been breaking computers since before I can remember. (chuckles) Much to my parents dismay. But yeah, so I've always had a knack for technology and that's sort of has always been a hobby of mine. >> And then I want to ask you this question and then Lucas and then Savannah will get some time. >> Savannah: It cool, will just sit here and look pretty. >> Dream job. >> Karl: Dream job. >> Okay. So your undergrad both you. >> Savannah: Offering one of my questions. Kind of, It's adjacent though. >> Okay. You're undergrad now? Is there grad school in your future do you feel that's necessary? Is that something you want to pursue? >> I think so. Entrepreneurship is something that's been in the back of my head for a while as well. So may be or something. >> So when I say dream job, understand could be for yourself. >> Savannah: So just piggyback. >> Dream thing after academia or stay in academia. What's do you think at this point? >> That's a tough question. You're asking. >> You'll be able to review this video in 10 years. >> Oh boy. >> This is give us your five year plan and then we'll have you back on theCUBE and see 2027. >> What's the dream? There's people out here watching this. I'm like, go, hey, interesting. >> So as I mentioned entrepreneurship I'm thinking I'll start a company at some point. >> David: Okay. >> Yeah. In what? I don't know yet. We'll see. >> David: Lucas, any thoughts? >> So after graduation, I am planning to go to grad school. IU has a great accelerated master's degree program so I'll stay an extra year and get my master's. Dream job is, boy, that's impossible to answer but I remember telling my dad earlier this year that I was so interested in what NASA was doing. They're sending a probe to one of the moons of Jupiter. >> That's awesome. From a parent's perspective the dream often is let's get the kids off the payroll. So I'm sure that your families are happy to hear that you have. >> I think these two will be right in that department. >> I think they're going to be okay. >> Yeah, I love that. I was curious, I want to piggyback on that because I think when NASA's doing amazing we have them on the show. Who doesn't love space. >> Yeah. >> I'm also an entrepreneur though so I very much empathize with that. I was going to ask to your dream job, but also what companies here do you find the most impressive? I'll rephrase. Because I was going to say, who would you want to work with? >> David: Anything you think is interesting? >> But yeah. Have you even had a chance to walk the floor? I know you've been busy competing >> Karl: Very little. >> Yeah, I was going to say very little. Unfortunately I haven't been able to roam around very much. But I look around and I see names that I'm like I can't even, it's crazy to see them. Like, these are people who are so impressive in the space. These are people who are extremely smart. I'm surrounded by geniuses everywhere I look, I feel like, so. >> Savannah: That that includes us. >> Yeah. >> He wasn't talking about us. Yeah. (laughs) >> I mean it's hard to say any of these companies I would feel very very lucky to be a part of, I think. >> Well there's a reason why both of you were invited to the party, so keep that in mind. Yeah. But so not a lot of time because of. >> Yeah. Tomorrow's our day. >> Here to get work. >> Oh yes. Tomorrow gets play and go talk to everybody. >> Yes. >> And let them recruit you because I'm sure that's what a lot of these companies are going to be doing. >> Yeah. Hopefully it's plan. >> Have you had a second at all to look around Karl. >> A Little bit more I've been going to the bathroom once in a while. (laughs) >> That's allowed I mean, I can imagine that's a vital part of the journey. >> I've ruin my gaze a little bit to what's around all kinds of stuff. Higher education seems to be very important in terms of their presence here. I find that very, very impressive. Purdue has a big stand IU as well, but also others all from Europe as well and Asia. I think higher education has a lot of potential in this field. >> David: Absolutely. >> And it really is that union between academia and the private sector. We've seen a lot of it. But also one of the things that's cool about HPC is it's really not ageist. It hasn't been around for that long. So, I mean, well, at this scale it's obviously this show's been going on since 1988 before you guys were even probably a thought. But I think it's interesting. It's so fun to get to meet you both. Thank you for sharing about what you're doing and what your dreams are. Lucas and Karl. >> David: Thanks for taking the time. >> I hope you win and we're going to get you off the show here as quickly as possible so you can get back to your teams and back to competing. David, great questions as always, thanks for being here. And thank you all for tuning in to theCUBE Live from Dallas, Texas, where we are at Supercomputing. My name's Savannah Peterson and I hope you're having a beautiful day. (gentle upbeat music)