Breaking News: Compelling Technical Paper Content Shaping up for SC18

SC Insider
Mon, 18 Jun 2018 16:30:48 +0000
SC18, and Architecture & Networks, Applications, Clouds & Distributed Computing, Data Analytics, ETH Zurich, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Performance, Programming Systems, State of the Practice, System Software, technical papers, Todd Gamblin, Torsten Hoefler, Visualization & Software

SC18 Technical Papers Results

Content is king at SC18, the premier international conference of high-performance computing professionals and educators, and this year’s technical program is no exception.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcomes of our improved technical paper review process,” said Torsten Hoefler, SC18 Technical Papers Chair and associate professor of computer science at ETH Zurich, Switzerland.

Todd Gamblin

Todd Gamblin, SC18 Technical Papers Vice Chair and computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory added “The most significant change was replacing the traditional rebuttal with a featherweight revision. Authors can now respond directly to reviewer suggestions, while they could only promise updates in the past. Feedback on this change from authors and reviewers has been overwhelmingly positive,”.

SC18 received a total of 288 paper submissions and accepted about 19% of those papers (some with minor revisions) for presentation at the conference. A small number of papers (15 in total) have been invited to submit a major revision for a second round of reviews in July.

SC is the top technical venue for high performance computing, and the new, more rigorous selection process will help to attract innovative presentations.

Torsten Hoefler

“SC has a leading reputation for the quality of papers presented and the rigor of our review process,” Hoefler said. “Adding the featherweight revision stage presented challenges to our review workflow, but was well worth it in the end. It allows us to give our presenters more opportunities to incorporate the quality feedback from the committee to bring the very best insights to our conference rooms and conversations—which further burnishes SC’s stellar reputation.”

According to Hoefler and Gamblin, author satisfaction ratings are at a record high – 75% of reviewers stating that the conference’s paper revision process improved the quality of their papers. Approximately 95% of reviews were received on time, despite the added review steps.

SC18’s world-class technical education program includes tracks on Performance; System Software; Data Analytics; Visualization & Software; Clouds & Distributed Computing; Applications; State of the Practice; Programming Systems; and Architecture & Networks.

The conference features many other aspects including a high-interest keynote address, workshops, tutorials, vendor exhibits, demonstrations, hands-on learning opportunities, and industry awards.