Ayesha Afzal

Ayesha Afzal

Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin, PhD Student

Erlangen National High Performance Computing Center (NHR@FAU)
Research Division

91058 Germany

Short Bio

Ayesha Afzal is a researcher at the Erlangen National High Performance Computing Center (NHR@FAU) in Germany. She holds a master’s degree in computational engineering from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan. Her PhD research, “A Holistic White-Box Approach to Performance Modeling for Supercomputing,” lies at the intersection of analytic performance models, performance tools, and parallel simulation frameworks in HPC. She also explores multi-core and parallel architectures, parallel algorithms and programming models, and domain-specific languages while teaching tutorials and supervising undergraduate and master’s students. She is actively involved in HPC initiatives such as KONWHIR with the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) on performance optimization, and NHR’s EEC project on enhancing energy efficiency and managing operational costs across NHR centers.

Ayesha contributes to the HPC community through various leadership roles. At the IEEE Computer Society, she serves as vice chair of both the Germany Section Chapter and Region 8 Area 2. She is the founder of the NHR Women in HPC chapter, organizes workshops such as EESP at ISC, PERMAVOST at ACM HPDC, and EE HPC SOP at SCA/HPCAsia, and regularly contributes to scientific community events as a chair, vice chair, program committee member, journal reviewer, panelist, and speaker. She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, and her work has been recognized through distinctions: the ISC PhD Forum Award (1st place, 2021), IEEE TPDS Best Paper Runner-up Award (2023), SC PMBS Best Short Paper Award (2023), SC Best Research Poster Finalist (2024), and ISC Best Research Poster Award (1st place, 2025). She was named to the Top 100 Future Leaders Role Model List (2022–2025), supported by Yahoo Finance and YouTube, and won WeAreTheCity’s Global Award for Achievement (2023).

  • May 2024 – Present: Founder and Lead – NHR Women in HPC (WHPC) Chapter
  • May 2024 – Present: Vice Chair – IEEE Computer Society Germany Section Chapter C016
  • Jan 2025 – Present: Vice Chair – IEEE Computer Society Region 8 Area 2
  • Apr 2024 – Apr 2025: Lead – IEEEXtreme Region 8 Germany Section
  • 2026: Posters Chair – 38th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Chicago, IL, USA
  • 2026: WHPC Posters Chair – 41st ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
  • 2026: Co-Chair – 6th Energy Efficient High Performance Computing Systems (EE HPC SOP) Workshop at SCA/HPCAsia, Osaka, Japan
  • 2025: General Chair – 1st Energy Efficiency with Sustainable Performance (EESP) Workshop at 40th ISC High Performance, Hamburg, Germany
  • 2025: General Chair – 5th Performance EngineeRing, Modelling, Analysis, and VisualizatiOn STrategy (PERMAVOST) Workshop at 34th ACM International Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing (HPDC), Notre Dame, IN, USA
  • 2025: WHPC Program Chair – 31st International European Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing (Euro-Par), Dresden, Germany
  • 2025: WHPC Posters Chair – 40th ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
  • 2025: Publicity Co-Chair – 54th International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP), San Diego, CA, USA
  • 2025: Research Paper Session Chair – 40th ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
  • 2024: Posters Vice Chair – 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
  • 2024: Research Posters Vice Chair – 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
  • 2024: Doctoral Showcase Vice Chair – 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
  • 2024: ACM Student Research Competition Vice Chair – 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
  • 2024: Art of HPC Vice Chair – 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
  • 2024: Co-Chair – 4th Performance EngineeRing, Modelling, Analysis, and VisualizatiOn STrategy (PERMAVOST) Workshop at 33rd ACM International Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing (HPDC), Pisa, Italy
  • 2024: WHPC Posters Co-Chair – 39th ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
  • 2024: Publicity Chair – 53rd International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP), Gotland, Sweden
  • 2023: Co-Chair – 3rd Performance EngineeRing, Modelling, Analysis, and VisualizatiOn STrategy (PERMAVOST) Workshop at 32nd ACM International Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing (HPDC), Orlando, Florida
  • 2023: Mentoring Co-Chair – 19th Women in HPC (WHPC) Workshop at 35th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Denver, CO, USA

  • 2026: Tech Program Communication Liaison – 38th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Chicago, IL, USA
  • 2026: Technical Papers Committee Member – 40th ACM International Conference on Supercomputing (ICS), Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
  • 2025: Technical Papers Committee Member – 27th IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing (CLUSTER), Edinburgh, Scotland
  • 2025: Technical Papers Committee Member – 25th IEEE International Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Internet Computing (CCGrid), Tromsø, Norway
  • 2025: Research Posters Committee Member – 40th ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
  • 2025: Research/ACM SRC Posters Committee Member – 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), St. Louis, MO, USA
  • 2025: Lead Volunteer Reviewer – 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), St. Louis, MO, USA
  • 2025: Community Engagement and Support Communication Liaison – 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), St. Louis, MO, USA
  • 2024: Technical Papers Committee Member – 26th IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing (CLUSTER), Kobe, Japan
  • 2024: Technical Papers Committee Member – 30th International European Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing (Euro-Par) WHPC Session, Madrid, Spain
  • 2024: Research/ACM SRC Posters Committee Member – 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
  • 2024: Doctoral Showcase Committee Member – 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
  • 2024: Committee Member – IEEE TechEthics Ad Hoc
  • 2023: Technical Papers Committee Member – 35th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Denver, CO, USA
  • 2023: Technical Papers Committee Member – 25th IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing (CLUSTER), Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
  • 2023: Technical Papers Committee Member – 52nd International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP), Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
  • 2023: Technical Papers Committee Member – 7th High Performance Computing and Cluster Technologies Conference (HPCCT), Jiaxing, Zhejiang, China
  • 2023: Technical Papers Committee Member – Annual Modeling and Simulation Conference (ANNSIM), Hamilton, ON, Canada
  • 2023: Technical Papers Committee Member – International Workshop on Performance, Portability and Productivity in HPC (P3HPC) at 35th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Denver, CO, USA
  • 2023: Research Posters Committee Member – 35th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Denver, CO, USA
  • 2023: Awards Committee Member – ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing, Virtual
  • 2023: Awards Committee Member – CSTA CS Teaching Excellence Awards, Virtual
  • 2022: Reviewer – 6th High Performance Computing and Cluster Technologies Conference (HPCCT), Fuzhou, China
  • 2022: Reviewer – CSTA CS Teaching Excellence Award, Chicago, USA
  • 2022: Reviewer – ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing, Chicago, USA
  • 2022: Reviewer – Annual Conference of Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), Chicago, USA
  • 2022: Student Volunteer – 34th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Denver, CO, USA
  • 2022: Student Volunteer – 9th Annual Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing (PASC) Conference, Basel, Switzerland
  • 2018: Reviewer – 31st International Conference on Architecture of Computing Systems (ARCS), Braunschweig, Germany

2026

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2025

2024

2023

  • Afzal A., Hager G., Wellein G.:
    Making Applications Run Faster by Slowing Down Processes?
    ISC High Performance 2023
    (Hamburg, Germany, 2023-05-21/2023-05-25)
    Download: Poster PDF

2022

2021

2019

(excluding paper presentations or poster lighting talks)

  • 2025: Bachelor Thesis – Markus Manfred Li: Energy Consumption of Modern CPUs and GPUs: A Study with Production Applications (ongoing)
  • 2025: Bachelor Thesis – Onur Karaca: Implementation and Benchmarking of MPI Collectives in a Parallel Simulator Framework
  • 2025: Master Thesis – Jean-Yves Verhaeghe: Exploring Advanced Visualization of MPI-Parallel Programs
  • 2025: Master Thesis – Krishna Sai Lakshmi Gayatri Manda: Performance Analysis of Desynchronization Effects in a Parallel Optical Flow Solver
  • 2024: Master Thesis – Aditya Ujeniya: Extending a Simulation Framework for Performance Assessment of Parallel Applications
  • 2021: Bachelor Thesis – Sebastian Bönning: Integration of Chip-Level Performance Models into a Parallel Simulation Framework
  • 2019: Master Thesis – Hassan Asghar: Development of a Benchmark Suite for Investigating MPI Communication Behavior

  • 2024 – 2025: Energy Efficiency and Operational Costs in NHR (EEC) — Developing standardized KPIs and tools for HPC energy efficiency and sustainability — NHR Centers, Germany
  • 2023 – 2025: JHPCN Heterogeneous Computing Project — Modeling MPI performance on heterogeneous supercomputing architectures — University of Tokyo, Japan & FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
  • 2023 – 2024: JHPCN Non-blocking Collectives Project — Investigating communication–computation overlap in large-scale MPI applications — Kyushu University, Japan & FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
  • 2022 – 2023: HPC-Europa3 Collaboration — Performance modeling of asynchronous behavior in parallel applications — KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden & FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
  • 2019 – 2025: KONWIHR OMI4papps Project — Performance optimization and holistic modeling for large-scale scientific HPC applications — LRZ Garching & FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

Ayesha Afzal holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan (2012), where she focused on power systems and completed an internship with Siemens’ Transformers Energy Division in Lahore. She began her career in teaching, instructing final-year Electrical Engineering courses at the University of Management and Technology, Lahore, before pursuing her Master’s degree in Computational Engineering at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg Germany (2015). During her master’s, she worked as a Research Assistant at the Department of Regionales Rechenzentrum Erlangen (RRZE) and completed her thesis, “The Cost of Computation: Metrics and Models for Modern Multicore-Based Systems in Scientific Computing,” gaining hands-on experience in high-performance computing systems as well as performance and energy analysis. After parental leave (2015–2017), she joined the Department of Computer Science 12 (Hardware/Software Co-Design) at FAU on the BMFTR-funded HighPerMeshes project, where she designed a domain-specific language and developed target-aware optimization techniques for unstructured grids. Her PhD research, “A Holistic White-Box Approach to Performance Modeling for Supercomputing,” lies at the intersection of analytic performance models, performance tools, and parallel simulation frameworks in HPC. Following maternity leave in 2024, she resumed her researcher position (Wiss. Mitarbeiterin) at the Erlangen National High-Performance Computing Center (NHR@FAU) and is actively involved in HPC initiatives. She has collaborated on research projects with leading international institutions in Japan (University of Tokyo, Kyushu University), Sweden (KTH Royal Institute of Technology), Switzerland (University of Basel), and Germany (NHR centers, LRZ Garching, Paderborn University, ZIB Berlin, Fraunhofer ITWM).

  • English: Professional working proficiency
  • Urdu: Native proficiency
  • Punjabi: Native proficiency
  • German: Elementary proficiency
  • Arabic: Elementary proficiency

  • Oct 2023 – Present: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
  • Oct 2023 – Present: IEEE Computer Society (IEEE CS)
  • Oct 2023 – Present: IEEE Women in Engineering (IEEE-WIE)
  • Jul 2022 – Present: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
  • Jul 2022 – Present: ACM’s Women in Computing (ACM-W)
  • Nov 2021 – Present: Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA)
  • Aug 2019 – Present: Women in High Performance Computing (WHPC)