ASC26 Student Supercomputer Challenge Concluded

BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 26, 2026--

The 2026 ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge (ASC26) Finals recently concluded in Wuxi, China, after five days of exciting, high-intensity competition. Demonstrating exceptional performance, teamwork, and innovation, the teams from Peking University and Tsinghua University stood out among the finalists, proudly earning the championship and runner-up titles, respectively.

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ASC26 drew participation from more than three hundred university teams worldwide. After a rigorous preliminary round, twenty-five outstanding teams advanced to the Finals, gathering at Wuxi University for the ultimate stage of competition. During the Finals, each team was challenged to design, build, and deploy a mini supercomputing cluster under a strict 5,000-watt power limit. The competition featured a demanding set of workloads, including the internationally recognized HPL and HPCG benchmarks, the UnifoLM-WMA-0 world model, AMSS-NCKU gravitational wave numerical simulation, QiboTN quantum circuit simulation, and the LeWorldModel world model. In addition, participants took part in poster presentations and defense sessions. The twenty-five finalist teams were also divided by draw into five groups for the Group Competition, where they collaborated across universities to optimize ICON, the Gordon Bell Prize-winning model, and jointly recreate the “Blue Marble” digital twin Earth.

The Finals featured exceptionally intense competition, with twenty-five finalist teams going head-to-head in system design, power optimization, application tuning, and presentation defense. Throughout the event, teams continuously pushed the boundaries of performance, delivering one technical highlight after another.

The Peking University team demonstrated outstanding all-around strength, achieving excellent results across multiple challenges, including world models, gravitational wave numerical simulation, and quantum circuit simulation. Their performance highlighted the next generation of technology talent’s deep understanding of artificial intelligence, supercomputing systems, and interdisciplinary applications, as well as their exceptional optimization capabilities, earning them the ASC26 championship title.

The Tsinghua University team also delivered an impressive performance across multiple challenges, including the LeWorldModel world model, the ICON global climate simulation, and gravitational wave numerical simulation, ultimately securing the runner-up title.

In the e-Prize Challenge, focused on inference optimization for the embodied intelligence world model UnifoLM-WMA-0, the Peking University team conducted extensive low-level code restructuring to build an exceptionally compact, purely functional inference stack. The team deeply customized the underlying graph compilation framework to fully unlock GPU performance, while innovatively separating the sampling processes for action and video generation. Combined with a novel caching strategy, this approach successfully balanced inference speed and output quality, earning the team the e-Prize.

A joint team composed of students from Qinghai University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, EAFIT University, Beijing Normal University, and other universities demonstrated strong coordination and highly effective cross-university collaboration. The group achieved the highest score in the ICON global climate simulation challenge, jointly winning the Group Competition.

Three teams, including those from Zhejiang University and Fudan University, received the Application Innovation Award in recognition of their outstanding performance in individual competition challenges.

The Shanghai Jiao Tong University team received the Best Presentation Award for its clear logic, professional delivery, and highly engaging team presentation.

Zhang Yonghong, Secretary of the Party Committee, Wuxi University stated: “Hosting the ASC26 Finals represents an important opportunity for the development of Wuxi University. In recent years, the university has focused on modern industrial clusters, supercomputing, artificial intelligence, and other frontier fields, while building an integrated talent development system that combines industry, education, and regional collaboration. The successful hosting of the competition has not only enabled us to gain valuable experience in organizing a world-class technology event, but also allowed the university to engage directly with the latest global developments in supercomputing, providing important guidance for advancing related disciplines and improving talent cultivation.”

Jack Dongarra, Chair of the ASC Advisory Committee, Turing Award laureate, and Emeritus Professor at the University of Tennessee, said: “High-performance computing and artificial intelligence are rapidly converging. Future breakthroughs will depend on people who understand both HPC and AI. ASC provides an exceptional platform for that kind of growth. It not only teaches students how to solve problems through teamwork, but also challenges them to achieve performance breakthroughs under constraints and turn ideas into results. The technical strength, imagination, teamwork, and global perspective demonstrated by these young participants give me great confidence in the future of computational science.”

About ASC:

The ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge serves as an international platform for technical exchange and the development of the next generation of supercomputing talent with broad support from leading experts and institutions across Asia, Europe, and the United States. Through a rigorous, hands-on competitive format, ASC aims to advance academic excellence and practical skills in supercomputing application development and research, positioning high-performance computing as a catalyst for scientific discovery, technological progress, and industrial innovation. Now in its 13th edition, the ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge has engaged tens of thousands of university students from six continents, establishing itself as the world’s largest student supercomputing competition. Learn more about this exciting competition on the official website: http://www.asc-events.net/StudentChallenge/index.html

Jack Dongarra's Closing Remarks at ASC26

PLANO, Texas (AP) — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, defeating four-term Sen. John Cornyn.

Paxton was endorsed by President Donald Trump last week. His victory in Tuesday’s runoff makes Cornyn the first Republican senator from Texas to lose the party’s nomination for reelection.

Trump endorsed Paxton as part of his effort to dislodge GOP officeholders he views as less than devout in their support of him. Cornyn said in 2023 as Trump was running to return to the White House that his time “has passed him by.”

Cornyn led Paxton in the March 3 primary but did not receive a majority of the vote, forcing Tuesday’s runoff.

Cornyn’s campaign and allied groups spent roughly $109 million on advertising for the primary and runoff. He had the backing of Senate GOP leaders who said he would be the stronger general election candidate.

Paxton will run against state Rep. James Talarico in November.

Tuesday's runoffs also will decide Democratic U.S. House nominees for districts in Dallas and Houston that overwhelmingly support Democrats, and a San Antonio-area seat the party wants to flip.

Cornyn led Paxton in the March primary but failed to win a majority. That was after Cornyn and his supporters waged a monthslong ad campaign, mostly attacking Paxton over ethical and personal questions. The two-term attorney general was acquitted on corruption charges in a 2023 impeachment trial, where allegations of extramarital affairs surfaced. Paxton’s wife filed for divorce last year, citing “biblical grounds.”

The alliance of pro-Cornyn groups has continued its attack, outspending Paxton's campaign and two allied super PACs $16.5 million to $5.9 million since March 3, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

Trump promised to endorse immediately after the primary but didn’t act until after early voting began last week.

“Ken Paxton has gone through a lot, in many cases, very unfairly, but he is a Fighter, and knows how to win,” Trump wrote in a social media post endorsing him.

David Jacobson, a retired 70-year-old Dallas-area resident, said Trump's endorsement was a factor in his decision to back Paxton on Tuesday. While Cornyn has for the most part been a strong Trump supporter, Jacobson generally thinks most politicians have remained in office too long.

“Maybe it’s time for a change,” he said after voting near Dallas.

Linda Williams said she voted for Cornyn, calling him “the lesser of two evils.” She thinks Cornyn has a better chance to beat Talarico this fall.

“Because Paxton is a crook," Williams said after voting in Plano, outside Dallas.

Trump, in his endorsement, poked at Cornyn, saying he “was not supportive of me when times were tough” and that “John was very late in backing me.”

Cornyn suggested in 2023 that Trump could not win the presidency again in 2024 and that his “time has passed him by.” He also was an early critic of Trump’s plan for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico — a project he now supports.

Cornyn said Tuesday on Fox News Radio's “The Brian Kilmeade Show” that the president's ire was misplaced. There are “grifters," he said, "claiming that I am opposed to the president's agenda, and I think that’s caused some confusion with the president himself. But I’ve been supportive.”

Some GOP strategists have argued that a Paxton nomination would cost millions of dollars more to promote in the fall, when money could be spent defending Republican seats in more competitive states. Democrats need to gain a net of four seats to take the majority. Cornyn has the support of Senate GOP leaders.

Newly elected Rep. Christian Menefee defeated veteran Rep. Al Green in Texas' 18th District, dispatching a longtime House incumbent who was one of Trump's most outspoken critics. The Republican-led Texas Legislature redrew the district when it approved a new House map last year. The new map led to a runoff between incumbents and marks the end of a dizzying series of elections in the Houston area.

Former Rep. Colin Allred and U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson are competing in the Dallas-area 33rd District. Johnson was elected to the seat in 2024, the year Allred lost his U.S. Senate challenge to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Allred was running for Senate again this cycle but dropped his bid and instead is looking to return to the House.

Near San Antonio, Democratic leaders are trying to prevent Maureen Galindo, who has expressed antisemitic views, from winning the party's runoff with Johnny Garcia. While Texas lawmakers redrew the 35th District to help Republicans, Democrats view it as within reach and don't want Galindo's past comments to impede them.

This story has been corrected to show that voter David Jacobson is 70, not 71.

Bedayn reported from Austin, Texas. Associated Press reporter Jamie Stengle contributed from Sasche, Texas.

A workers prepares a podium during a primary runoff election night event for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Plano, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Attendees mingle during a primary runoff election night event for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Plano, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Mike Neal, right, 45, a canvasser for Dallas county clerk candidate Damarcus Offord, Jermaca Brown, center, 32, deputy campaign manager for Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Texas, and Sam Dalton, left, 31, a volunteer with Stonewall Democrats, stand outside the Oak Lawn Branch Library during local and primary runoff elections Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Gabriela Passos)

Candidate signs line the entrance to a polling location as voters cast ballots in local and primary runoff elections Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Gabriela Passos)

Candidate signs line the entrance to a polling location ahead of local and primary runoff elections on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Gabriela Passos)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, speaks to supporters at a campaign event in McKinney, Texas, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, listens to State Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, during a campaign event in Lubbock, Texas, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Annie Rice)