Ayesha Afzal
Ayesha Afzal
Erlangen National High Performance Computing Center (NHR@FAU)
Research Division
Short Bio
Ayesha Afzal is a researcher at Erlangen National High Performance Computing Center (NHR@FAU) in Germany. She holds a master’s degree in computational engineering from the 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 lies at the crossroads of analytic performance models, performance tools and parallel simulation frameworks, with a focus on first-principles performance modelling of distributed-memory parallel programs in HPC. She also conducts research in multi-core and parallel architectures, parallel computing and algorithms, parallel programming models, and domain-specific languages. She is actively involved in HPC initiatives like KONWHIR with Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) on performance optimization and NHR’s project on enhancing energy efficiency and managing operational costs across NHR centers.
Ayesha contributes to the HPC community through various leadership roles. At 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 like EESP at ISC and PERMAVOST at ACM HPDC, 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 received first place in the ISC PhD Forum Award 2021, which honors outstanding PhD research. Her accolades also include the IEEE TPDS Best Paper Runner-up Award 2023, the SC PMBS Workshop Best Short Paper Award 2023, SC Best Research Poster Finalist 2024, and the ISC Research Poster Award 2025. She was named to the Top 100 Future Leaders Role Model List 2022–2024, supported by Yahoo Finance and YouTube, and won WeAreTheCity’s Global Award for Achievement in 2023.
- Bachelor thesis, 2025 (ongoing): Implementation of MPI collectives in the DisCostiC simulator framework
- Master thesis, 2025 (ongoing): Visualizing Global Structures in Distributed-Memory Parallel Programs
- Master thesis, 2025 (ongoing): Performance Analysis of Desynchronization effects in a Parallel Optical Flow Solver
- Master thesis, 2024: Extending a Simulation Framework for Performance Assessment of Parallel Applications
- Bachelor thesis, 2021: Integration of chip-level performance models into a parallel simulation framework
- Master thesis, 2019: Development of a benchmark suite for investigating MPI communication behavior
- Energy Modeling and Simulation of Parallel Applications on Clusters
- Energy Consumption of Modern CPUs and GPUs: A Study with GROMACS Benchmarks
2023
- , , , :
Making applications faster by asynchronous execution: Slowing down processes or relaxing MPI collectives
In: Future Generation Computer Systems-The International Journal of Grid Computing Theory Methods and Applications (2023)
ISSN: 0167-739X
DOI: 10.1016/j.future.2023.06.017 - , , :
Physical Oscillator Model for Supercomputing
14th IEEE/ACM Workshop on Performance Modeling, Benchmarking and Simulation of High Performance Computer Systems (PMBS23) (Denver, CO, USA, 2023-11-12 - 2023-11-17)
In: 14th IEEE/ACM Workshop on Performance Modeling, Benchmarking and Simulation of High Performance Computer Systems (PMBS23) 2023
DOI: 10.1145/3624062.3625535 - , , :
SPEChpc 2021 Benchmarks on Ice Lake and Sapphire Rapids Infiniband Clusters: A Performance and Energy Case Study
14th IEEE/ACM Workshop on Performance Modeling, Benchmarking and Simulation of High Performance Computer Systems (PMBS23) (Denver, CO, USA, 2023-11-12 - 2023-11-17)
In: 14th IEEE/ACM Workshop on Performance Modeling, Benchmarking and Simulation of High Performance Computer Systems (PMBS23) 2023
DOI: 10.1145/3624062.3624197 - , , , :
Exploring Techniques for the Analysis of Spontaneous Asynchronicity in MPI-Parallel Applications
14th International Conference on Parallel Processing and Applied Mathematics, PPAM 2022 (Gdansk, Poland, 2022-09-11 - 2023-06-14)
In: Wyrzykowski, R., Dongarra, J., Deelman, E., Karczewski, K. (ed.): Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2023
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-30442-2_12 - , , , , :
PERMAVOST ‘23 Chairs’ Welcome Message
3rd Workshop on Performance Engineering, Modelling, Analysis, and Visualization Strategy, PERMAVOST 2023 (Orlando, FL, USA, 2023-06-20)
In: PERMAVOST 2023 - Proceedings of the 2023 on Performance Engineering, Modelling, Analysis, and Visualization Strategy 2023
DOI: 10.1145/3588993
URL: https://dl.acm.org/doi/proceedings/10.1145/3588993
2022
- , , :
Addressing White-box Modeling and Simulation Challenges in Parallel Computing
ACM SIGSIM-PADS '22 (GA, Atlanta, USA, 2022-06-08 - 2022-06-10)
In: SIGSIM-PADS '22: SIGSIM Conference on Principles of Advanced Discrete Simulation 2022
DOI: 10.1145/3518997.3534986 - , , :
Analytic performance model for parallel overlapping memory-bound kernels
In: Concurrency and Computation-Practice & Experience (2022)
ISSN: 1532-0626
DOI: 10.1002/cpe.6816
URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cpe.6816 - , , :
The Role of Idle Waves, Desynchronization, and Bottleneck Evasion in the Performance of Parallel Programs
In: IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (2022), p. 1-16
ISSN: 1045-9219
DOI: 10.1109/TPDS.2022.3221085
2021
- , , :
Analytic Modeling of Idle Waves in Parallel Programs: Communication, Cluster Topology, and Noise Impact
36th International Conference on High Performance Computing, ISC High Performance 2021 (Virtual, Online, 2021-06-24 - 2021-07-02)
In: Bradford L. Chamberlain, Bradford L. Chamberlain, Ana-Lucia Varbanescu, Hatem Ltaief, Piotr Luszczek (ed.): Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) 2021
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-78713-4_19
2020
- , , :
Desynchronization and Wave Pattern Formation in MPI-Parallel and Hybrid Memory-Bound Programs
35th International Conference on High Performance Computing, ISC High Performance 2020 (Frankfurt, 2020-06-22 - 2020-06-25)
In: Ponnuswamy Sadayappan, Bradford L. Chamberlain, Guido Juckeland, Hatem Ltaief (ed.): Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) 2020
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-50743-5_20
2019
- , , :
Propagation and Decay of Injected One-Off Delays on Clusters: A Case Study
2019 IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing, CLUSTER 2019 (Albuquerque, NM, 2019-09-23 - 2019-09-26)
In: Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing, ICCC 2019
DOI: 10.1109/CLUSTER.2019.8890995 - , , , , :
ClusterCockpit-A web application for job-specific performance monitoring
2019 IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing, CLUSTER 2019 (Albuquerque, NM, 2019-09-23 - 2019-09-26)
In: Proceedings - IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing, ICCC 2019
DOI: 10.1109/CLUSTER.2019.8891017
2018
- , , , , , , :
Solving Maxwell's Equations with Modern C++ and SYCL: A Case Study
The 29th Annual IEEE International Conference on Application-specific Systems, Architectures and Processors (ASAP) (Politecnico di Milano, Milan, 2018-07-10 - 2018-07-12)
In: Proceedings of the 29th Annual IEEE International Conference on Application-specific Systems, Architectures and Processors (ASAP) 2018
DOI: 10.1109/ASAP.2018.8445127
URL: https://www12.cs.fau.de/downloads/schmittch/publications/ASAGTFH18asap.pdf - , , , , , , , , :
OpenCL-based FPGA Design to Accelerate the Nodal Discontinuous Galerkin Method for Unstructured Meshes
The 26th IEEE International Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM) (Boulder, CO, USA, 2018-04-29 - 2018-05-01)
In: Proceedings of the 26th IEEE International Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM) 2018
DOI: 10.1109/FCCM.2018.00037
2025
- Afzal A., Hager G., Wellein G.:
DisCostiC: Digital Twin Performance Simulations Unlocking Hardware-Software Interplay
(Best Research Poster Award Finalist)
ISC High Performance 2025
(Hamburg, Germany, 2025-06-10/2025-06-13)
Download: Poster PDF
2024
- Afzal A., Hager G., Wellein G.:
DisCostiC: Simulating MPI Applications Without Executing Code
(Best Poster Award Candidate and Finalist)
The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis, SC24
(Atlanta, GA, USA, 2024-11-17/2024-11-22)
Download: Poster PDF
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
- Afzal A., Hager G., Wellein G.:
DisCostiC: A DSL-based Parallel Simulation Framework using First-Principles Analytic Performance Models
The Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing Conference (PASC22)
(Basel, Switzerland, 2022-06-27/2022-06-29)
Download: Abstract and video talk; Poster PDF - Afzal A., Hager G., Wellein G.:
White-box Modelling of Parallel Computing Dynamics
The 5th International Conference on High Performance Computing in Asia-Pacific Region (HPC Asia 2022)
(Virtual, Online, 2022-01-12/2022-01-14)
Download: Extended abstract; Poster PDF
2021
- Afzal A., Hager G., Wellein G.:
Physical Oscillator Model for Parallel Distributed Computing
ISC High Performance 2021
(Virtual, Online, 2021-06-24/2021-07-02)
Download: Abstract; Poster PDF; Slides; Video talk - Afzal A., Hager G., Wellein G.:
Noise-driven Cluster-level Performance Modelling and Engineering
(First Place in the ISC PhD Forum Award 2021)
ISC High Performance 2021
(Virtual, Online, 2021-06-24/2021-07-02)
Download: Abstract; Poster PDF; Slides; Video talk
2019
- Afzal A., Hager G., Wellein G.:
Delay Flow Mechanisms On Clusters
EuroMPI ’19 Proceedings of the 26th European MPI Users’ Group Meeting
(Zurich, Switzerland, 2019-09-10/2019-09-13)
Download: Extended abstract; Poster PDF