Bryan JohnstonSenior HPC Technologist IICentre for High Performance ComputingAdvanced Computer Engineering Lab | Cape Town, South Africa | ||||||||||
As a Senior HPC Technologist with over 7 years of experience in the national Centre for High Performance Computing, I have designed and deployed more than 30 HPC systems across the African region. I have led an international team to develop the first-of-its-kind scalable and self-hosted virtual HPC training environment for HPC system administrators and users. My knowledge of systems architecture, performance optimisation, and information security has enabled me to serve on several national HPC steering committees, and my expertise in analytical problem solving and project management has equipped me to lead diverse teams to deliver complex projects on time and within budget. I am a collaborative team player with excellent communication and leadership skills, and have experience in mentoring colleagues. I am always seeking opportunities to extend my personal development where I may continue to innovate and meaningfully impact the HPC community. |
Current Role | |
Senior High Performance Computing Technologist IICouncil for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Advanced Computer Engineering Lab (ACE Lab) | Jan 2023 - present |
Leading the HPC Ecosystems Project, which consults national governments and regional scientific institutions towards the design and deployment of repurposed tier-1 HPC systems (exceeding 30 sites) and delivers the technical HPC training and operationalisation of the HPC systems in diverse computing environments. Facilitating the transfer of digital skills through several Human Capital Development initiatives. Performing technology evaluations and leading project task teams to develop technology packages to contribute to the global HPC hardware and software ecosystems. Expanded the HPC Ecosystems community from 148 members in January 2023 to over 225 members, to date. | |
Responsibilities | |
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Current Projects | |
HPC Ecosystems ProjectRepurposing of decommissioned tier-1 HPC systems for distribution as mid-tier systems for research institutions / centres in Africa.
“Cloudless Cluster Lab” - standalone, scalable & sustainable HPC technical training labDevelopment of a self-hosted virtual cluster that is available indefinitely on the HPC practitioner’s local system for continuous learning and training.
ARM-based HPC Evaluation & Monitoring ProbeDevelopment of a standalone Raspberry Pi-based cluster to perform HPC datacentre readiness evaluation and continuous HPC datacentre monitoring.
High Performance Computing CyberInfrastructure National Framework DevelopmentRelating to various National Government HPC Steering Committees |
Professional Experience (past 10 years) | |
Senior High Performance Computing Technologist ICouncil for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Advanced Computer Engineering Lab (ACE Lab) | Jun 2016 - Dec 2022 |
Increased HPC systems from 5 to 28 sites in Africa and founded an HPC virtual community (reaching 148 members). Optimised and standardised the community HPC software stack. Provided detailed reporting for government departments, prepared HPC policy documents, and served on several national HPC steering committees. Facilitated NSF/donor-funded multi-day co-located international workshops. Oversaw procurement for HPC system resources. Developed the first-of-its-kind scalable & standalone virtual HPC training platform for a globally adopted HPC software stack. | |
Principal Technician: Systems & Operations (Scientific Computing)University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) School of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science | Aug 2013 - May 2016 |
Managed a team of six technical personnel to provide scientific computing support for the Westville campus. Provided oversight and responsibility for all technical operations, including asset inventory management; access control management; network and server infrastructure; software and hardware specification; procurement; cross-discipline scientific computing support. | |
Principal Technician: Academic & Research (Scientific Computing)University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) School of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science | May 2013 - May 2016 |
Responsible for supporting technical requirements of academic research and advanced scientific computing. This included designing and deploying advanced computing resources and reviewing existing systems for optimisation and performance enhancements. Deployed and administered several HPC systems, including the 1000-core flagship Dell HPC; Cyclops 64-core SMP; Firebird 1 & 2 ROCKS clusters; 1536-core Ranger SUN HPC. | |
Additional work experience (i.e. more than ten years ago) is available upon request and is also published via LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brattex |
Education | |||
Master of Science (Computer Science)Georgia Institute of Technology Specialisation: Computing Systems | Jan 2019 - Dec 2021GPA 3.9 | ||
CS6200 Graduate Introduction to Operating Systems CS6290 High Performance Computer Architecture CS6250 Computer Networks CS6035 Information Security CS6460 Educational Technology CS8001 Learning At ScaleCS8001 Data Structures & Algorithms | CS7638 Robotics: AI Techniques CS7646 Machine Learning For Trading CSE6220 Introduction to HPC CS6515 Graduate Algorithms CS6750 Human Computer Interaction CS8001 Machine Learning & Data Science Tooling | ||
Bachelor of Science Honours (Computer Science)University of Natal | Jan 2000 - Dec 2000 | ||
Bachelor of Science (Computer Science & Economics)University of Natal | Jan 1997 - Dec 1999 |
Strengths and Skills | |||||||||||
Leadership
Project Management
Training and Education
Communication & Public Engagements
Research and Development
| Parallel & Distributed Computing
Software Development✝
System Administration✝
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✝ Most recent / non-exhaustive list |
Organizations and Leadership | ||
Association for Computing MachinerySpecial Interest Group on High Performance Computing - Education Chapter (SIGHPC Edu) - Regional Chair (Africa) | Mar 2023 - present | |
Planning Committee: SC21 Student Programming Technical Sessions | Nov 2021 | |
Special Interest Group on High Performance Computing - Resource Constrained Environments (SIGHPC-RCE) - Membership Coordinator | Nov 2016 - Nov 2018 | |
Centre for High Performance Computing CHPC Cybersecurity Champion | Aug 2021 - present | |
NICIS-Centre for High Performance Computing Team Lead: National Integrated CyberInfrastructure System Data Stewards | Nov 2021 - present |
Publications | ||
Let’s Get Our Heads Out of the Clouds (A Scalable and Sustainable Approach to HPC Training Labs for Resource Constrained Environments and Anyone Else Stuck in the Clouds) Research Paper presented at ACM Supercomputing Conference ’23 (SC’23) | Nov 2023 | |
Delivering Digital Skills Across the Digital Divide Research Poster presented at ACM Supercomputing Conference ’23 (SC’23) | Nov 2023 | |
HPC Ecosystems Project: Facilitating Advanced Research Computing in Africa Research Poster presented at ACM PEARC’19 Proceedings of the Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing | July 2019 |
Milestones and Awards | ||
HPCwire 2022 Editors’ Choice Award - Workforce Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Award 2022 HPCwire Awards - Readers' & Editors' Choice | Nov 2022 | |
CSIR Excellence Award: Best Master’s Student | Nov 2022 | |
NGEI Excellence Award: Human Capital Development (HPC Ecosystems Project) CSIR NextGen Enterprises and Institutions Excellence Awards | Nov 2022 | |
“This is HPC on Intel” invited panelist | Nov 2019 | |
CSIR Excellence Award: Human Capital Development (HPC Ecosystems Project) CSIR Excellence Awards 2018 | Nov 2018 | |
HPCwire 2018 Reader’s Choice Award for Workforce Diversity Leadership 2018 HPCwire Awards - Readers' & Editors' Choice | Nov 2018 |
ScienceSlam@SC20 First Prize Winner (Outreach) and Grand Prize Winner (Overall) | Nov 2020 |
Bryan Johnston Senior HPC Technologist II Advanced Computer Engineering Lab (ACE Lab) Centre for High Performance Computing MS Computer Science (Computing Systems) - Georgia Institute of Technology https://www.linkedin.com/in/brattex/ | ||
About | ||
Current Role | Senior HPC Technologist II (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) As a Senior Technologist in the ACE Lab, I am responsible for leading one of the Lab’s main projects - the HPC Ecosystems Project. I lead a team*** | CSIR Jan 2023 to present |
Responsibilities | ||
Special Projects | ||
Professional Work Experience | ||
Job Roles | ||
Education | ||
Tertiary Education | MSc. Computer Science (specialization: Computing Systems) Georgia Institute of Technology | 2019-2021 |
Senior HPC Technologist I (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) | ||
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/bryan-johnston/8/9a5/b43
Bryan Johnston is a motivated individual with a passion for innovation, service and leadership in the Information Technology field and the community. Bryan obtained his BSc (Computer Science and Economics) from Natal University and completed his Honours degree (Computer Science) the following year (2000). He formed his own computer and technology business ("BTE") in 2000 and while performing business services for SOHO clients, developed a sound understanding of network infrastructures and hardware troubleshooting and broad-based solutions provisioning.
In 2005 Bryan entered a full-time position at the Head Office of a multinational company as the Senior Systems Administrator. He later moved to UKZN as a Senior Network Technician for the Specialised Scientific Computing Unit which enhanced his experience with systems administration, network maintenance, server support, solutions provisioning, consulting and hands-on involvement with cutting-edge and breakthrough technologies.
In mid-2012 Bryan moved back to industry as Senior Systems Engineer for an I.T. consulting company where he adopted more responsibilities as a technical manager over other I.T. engineers within the organisation. Currently, Bryan is employed as Principal Technician for Academic and Research support at UKZN within the School of Maths, Stats and Computer Science. Given Bryan’s ambition to become a pioneer leader in I.T. as a specialist in cutting-edge system solutions with a wide-ranging impact on technical operations, he has focused towards growing his experience in High Performance Computing.
Full name: Bryan John Johnston.
Marital Status: Married
Languages: English (home), Afrikaans (intermediate), Italian (intermediate), Portuguese (Basic), Zulu (very basic), German (attended intermediate classes until end of 2010), French (very basic), Spanish (very basic)
E-Mail address: bryan@johnston.za.net
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/bryan-johnston/8/9a5/b43
Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry
May 2013 – Present (1 year 6 months)
Principal Technician responsible for academic research support in School of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science in the College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science.
Particular focus on supporting Astrophysics and Cosmology Research Unit and High Performance Computing.
Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry
August 2013 – Present (1 year 3 months)
In addition to the role of Principal Technician (Academic & Research), now also supervising two Senior Systems Technicians, a Desktop Technician, and a Technical / Helpdesk Administrator for Westville campus.
September 2009 – July 2014 (4 years 11 months)
Providing up-to-date commentary and insight on the latest gaming hardware and software available, with special emphasis on game reviews, previews and opinion pieces.
Privately Held; 201-500 employees; Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing industry
August 2012 – April 2013 (9 months) Durban Area, South Africa
Seconded to PFK Electronics 4.5 days per week on behalf of Cais (Pty) Ltd;
Fulfilling roles of I.T. Manager at PFK HQ in Umbilo Road.
Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees; Information Technology and Services industry
May 2012 – April 2013 (1 year) Durban Area, South Africa
Senior Engineer for Isegen South Africa (Pty) Ltd. (onsite 0.5 days / week)
Acting I.T. Manager at PFK Electronics (Pty) Ltd. (onsite 4.5 days / week)
Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry
January 2012 – April 2012 (4 months)
Senior Technician for School of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science in the College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science.
Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry
June 2006 – December 2011 (5 years 7 months) Durban Area, South Africa
Senior Technician for Specialised Scientific Computing Unit in the Faculty of Science & Agriculture
June 2005 – April 2006 (11 months) Durban Area, South Africa
Management and administration of complete IT infrastructure
Civil Rights and Social Action
June 2014 to Present
Team Members: Robin Humble, Bryan Johnston, Jon Sievers, Leonard Els
Mentorship from lead engineer for configuration, rollout and administration of UKZN's Hippo HPC.
Once HPC is commissioned, I will be one of the administrators of the system.
Hippo is a 1000 core (2.5 GHz 64 GB RAM) HPC running HP SL230s Gen8 and HP SL250s Gen8 compute nodes. Running CentOS, using OneSIS for deployment.
May 2013 to Present
32 core 500 GB RAM super computer running RedHat Enterprise Linux used to accelerate academic research computing that is pioneering the stuff of legend.
Deployment, configuration, rollout and administration of Ranger HPC chassis (192 core 2.3 GHz 1.5 TB RAM) as a simplified and experimental / training HPC.
Ranger chassis running CentOS, using Cobbler, Torque, Puppet.
(presently awaiting arrival of Ranger HPC from CHPC)
October 2014
Served as External Examiner / Moderator for Computer Engineering Design 2 (ENEL3CB H2), which is a design (project) course for 3rd year Computer Engineering undergraduates.
Computers, Administration
Acting Technical Operations Supervisor UKZN: 2014 to date
Acting IT Manager IT Dept. (PFK Global HQ): 2012 to 2013
SSCU Student Helpdesk Supervisor: 2009 to 2012
Home Group Leader: 2004 to 2015
Chairman of Romax Court (commercial/residential Sectional Title complex): 2008 to 2011
BTE Founder / Owner and manager: 2000 to date
Young Adults Committee: 2004 to 2009
Various selection panels / call committees
Gaming
Drama and performing arts
Running
Touch Rugby
Squash
Languages
2004 – 2013
Pending mini-dissertation; failing which it's a Post-Graduate Diploma in Medical Informatics.
2000 – 2000
Computer Science Honours project: Computer-Aided Knowledge (C.A.K)
1997 – 1999
Activities and Societies: Science Student Council, Armourer, Fencing, Touch Rugby, Orientation Committee, Gym
1992 – 1996
49 Matric points, 8 subjects.
Maths, English, Science, Afrikaans, Accounting, Geography, Adv. Maths, Computer Science
Activities and Societies: Debating, Library, Computer, History, Drama, Rugby, Chess, Editor of School Newspaper, Class Clown
May 2013 to date
Principal Technician: Academic & Research Support
3 projects
3 courses
January 2012 to April 2012
Senior Technician for School of Maths, Stats, and Computer Science (MSCS)
June 2006 to 2011
Senior Network Technician for Specialised Scientific Computing Unit (SSCU)
September 2009 to June 2014
Content Contributor
June 2005 to April 2006
Senior Systems Administrator
2000 to date
Founder / Owner
Revd. Richard Erasmus (Executive Pastor: Westville Baptist Church)
Mr. Andrew Kruger (Partner in a private consulting practice)
Mr. Jonathan Graham (Financial Manager: Reutech Communications, a Division of Reutech Limited)
Mr. Leonard Els (Manager of Technical Operations: School of Maths, Stats & Computer Science)
Contact numbers and additional references available upon request
Available upon request
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