Supercomputing 25 (SC25)
GE Aerospace had a very interesting, if slightly too high-level talk on their new Open Fan commerical jet engine project, as one of the most interesting talks the last few days of SC25. The scale of compute needed, even with a leadership-class, exaflop-class supercomputer such as Frontier, is pretty staggering, and even that cannot yet model an entire commerical airliner in the desired detail. They had a slide showing the evolution of the simulation quality from years past that really put it into perspective as well-- that was a very effective comparison.
More time on the exhibit hall, checking out the network infrastructure and the statistics they openly show (wish more did this!), plus some more vendor stops. 3D printed copper waterblocks are everywhere now, as are 3-phase DC fans (Sanyo Denki had a very good display), and holy cow, Dell had a massive presence in the stadium part of the exhibit hall. Toasted ravioli, another St. Louis-area special, was perhaps the most tasty of the local foods, too.
Final dinner in St. Louis was the decidedly mediocre Salt + Smoke, right next to the ballpark. The food actualy might not have been bad if the ribs and burnt ends were properly cooked, but sadly they were both dry and overcooked. They were out of the other St. Louis-signature dish, gooey butter cake, as well. Ended up back at Robbie's at the hotel for that, and that provided to be just as sugary a disaster as expected (aka: this is why Americans are fat).
One last workshop the next morning, on testing and evaluation systems, tools, and software. "test harness" for larger HPC, as well as more on ethernet, plus a useful session on the integration of quantum computing. Then ran off to the airport, a ridiculous (both in terms of ingredients as well as in price) cobb salad, and a surprisingly efficient set of flights home.
Like every Supercomputing conference, this one was useful and relevant to attend, even if getting everything you expect out of it rarely happens. Being able to change course mid-conference when you realize you've seen enough of one subject and shif to another is a major benefit of such large conferences, not to mention the massive vendor presence.