"I love my job, it always represents the cutting edge technology. I have been working in HPC for more than 10 years, but still feel I can learn new and fun stuff everyday."
Where did you grow up? Were you always interested in your current field?
I grew up in south west China, in a city with lots of spicy food. I studied semiconductors in my bachelor degree. However, I didn't really like that field. How to make CPUs and how to draw circuitry didn't interest me. When I decided to study in Australia in 2004, I changed my focus to Information Technology. When I started my HPC journey from my first job, in the beginning, I didn't even know what HPC was.
Are you working from home? If so, how’s it going?
Yes, I have been working from home since 16th of March. It is a big challenge for me. The good side is that it saves me 2-3 hours travel time everyday, plus I have more time to spend with my daughter. On the other side, I feel like work is more fun if we get to see each other in person. My team has a 15 minute Zoom meeting everyday, but it's not the same.
Do you have kids/pets at home that are helping/hindering?
I have a 5 year old daughter who helps to change my Zoom meeting background every time. We go out for walk almost every day to keep up our physical exercise.
What projects are you working on?
The major project I'm working on currently is changing our file system from CePHFS to GPFS. Before we put GPFS to production, we not only need to do lots IO testing, but also need to do some scientific software tests to make sure we get expected results.
I have also been working on improving our module system since the end of 2019. We have changed our module system to hierarchy which is much more useful for researchers. On 20th of July 2020, we are going to have our 3-day maintenance, which will involve upgrading Slurm.
What do you want people to know about the work that you do?
I'll always be there for you, no matter how big or small your problem is.
Why do you love what you do?
I love my job, it always represents the cutting edge technology. I have been working in HPC for more than 10 years, but still feel I can learn new and fun stuff everyday.
What is one specific thing that you have achieved (research or otherwise) that you are most proud of?
When I worked at VLSCI (now Melbourne Informatics) as an HPC Administrator, it had one of the best life science supercomputers in the world. According to the June 2013 Top500 list, VLSCI’s Avoca was the fastest life sciences supercomputer in the world. VLSCI was ranked 39th when compared against all supercomputers.
