[hpc-announce] CFP: PAW-ATM: Parallel Applications Workshop, Alternatives To MPI+X (with SC26)

[Dan Bonachea]

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  Call for Papers PAW-ATM 2026:
  Parallel Applications Workshop,
  Alternatives To MPI+X

  Held in conjunction with SC26, Chicago, IL

  Submissions deadline: July 24, 2026
  Notification to authors: August 31, 2026
  Workshop date: November 15-20, 2026

  https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://go.lbl.gov/paw-atm__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!c2DW8xiHlC1z3HAVR-wSww8Z9s6HxNRCzL1nZnsW1tGjy-a02nbB_qICuwMiNNTCeNzzLwEEpW56IsmtwsY_bsmPWbZz$ 
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SUMMARY

As supercomputers become more and more powerful, the number and
diversity of applications that can be tackled with these machines
grow. Unfortunately, the architectural complexity of these
supercomputers grows as well, with heterogeneous processors, multiple
levels of memory hierarchy, and many ways to move data and synchronize
between processors. The MPI+X programming model, use of which is
considered by many to be standard practice, demands that a programmer
be expert in both the application domain and the low-level details of
the architecture(s) on which that application will be deployed, and
the availability of such superhuman programmers is a critical
bottleneck. Things become more complicated when evolution and change
in the underlying architecture translates into significant
re-engineering of the MPI+X code to maintain performance.

Numerous alternatives to the MPI+X model exist, and by raising the
level of abstraction on the application domain and/or the target
architecture, they offer the ability for "mere mortal" programmers to
take advantage of the supercomputing resources that are available to
advance science and tackle urgent real-world problems. However,
compared to the MPI+X approach, these alternatives generally lack two
things. First, they aren't as well known as MPI+X and a domain
scientist may simply not be aware of models that are a good fit to
their domain. Second, they are less mature than MPI+X and likely have
more functionality or performance "potholes" that need only be
identified to be addressed.

PAW-ATM is a forum for discussing HPC applications written in
alternatives to MPI+X. Its goal is to bring together application
experts and proponents of high-level languages to present concrete
example uses of such alternatives, describing their benefits and
challenges.

SCOPE AND AIMS

The PAW-ATM workshop is designed to be a forum for discussion of
supercomputing-scale parallel applications and their implementation in
programming models outside of the dominant MPI+X paradigm. Papers and
talks will explore the benefits (or perhaps drawbacks) of implementing
specific applications with alternatives to MPI+X, whether those
benefits are in performance, scalability, productivity, or some other
metric important to that application domain. Presenters are encouraged
to generalize the experience with their application to other domains
in science and engineering and to bring up specific areas of
improvement for the model(s) used in the implementation.

In doing so, our hope is to create a setting in which application
authors, language designers, and architects can present and discuss
the state of the art in alternative scalable programming models, while
also wrestling with how to increase their effectiveness and adoption.
Beyond well-established HPC scientific simulations, we also encourage
submissions exploring artificial intelligence, big data analytics,
machine learning, and other emerging application areas.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

* Novel application development using high-level parallel programming languages
  and frameworks

* Examples that demonstrate performance, compiler optimization, error checking,
  and reduced software complexity

* Applications from artificial intelligence, data analytics, bioinformatics,
  and other novel areas

* Performance evaluation of applications developed using alternatives to MPI+X
  and comparisons to standard programming models

* Novel algorithms enabled by high-level parallel abstractions

* Experience with the use of new compilers and runtime environments

* Libraries using or supporting alternatives to MPI+X

* Benefits of hardware abstraction and data locality on algorithm
  implementation

Papers that include description of applications that demonstrate the
use of alternative programming models will be given higher priority.

SUBMISSIONS

Submissions are solicited in two categories:

1) Full-length papers presenting novel research results:

Full-length papers will be published in the workshop proceedings.
Submitted papers must describe original work that has not appeared in,
nor is under consideration for, another conference or journal. Papers
shall be eight (8) pages minimum and not exceed ten (10) pages
including text, figures, and non-AD/AE appendices, but excluding
bibliography, acknowledgments and AD/AE appendices.

PAW-ATM follows the reproducibility initiative of SC26. Submissions
shall include an Artifact Description (AD) appendix, and may
optionally include an Artifact Evaluation (AE) appendix.

Authors should include a draft of the AD/AE appendices with the
initial manuscript PDF submission. You will have the opportunity to
revise the AD/AE appendices after papers are accepted and before
artifact evaluation. See https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://go.lbl.gov/paw-atm__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!c2DW8xiHlC1z3HAVR-wSww8Z9s6HxNRCzL1nZnsW1tGjy-a02nbB_qICuwMiNNTCeNzzLwEEpW56IsmtwsY_bsmPWbZz$  for further
details.

2) User experience abstracts:

Abstracts will be evaluated separately and will not be included in the
published proceedings. Submissions in this track include a title and
1-4 pages abstract. The content may include any combination of novel
and/or previously published work that is relevant to the workshop's
scope. Content that highlights the experiences of users of
alternatives of MPI, and their applications, will be prioritized
within this submission category.

Abstracts may optionally include AD/AE appendices, not included in the
abstract page count, but such appendices will NOT be evaluated and no
badges will be awarded.

WORKSHOP CHAIR
* Karla Vanessa Morris Wright - Sandia National Laboratories

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
* Daniele Lezzi - Barcelona Supercomputing Center
* Tasuku Hiraishi - Kyoto Tachibana University
* Katherine Rasmussen - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
* Elliott Slaughter - SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

PROGRAM COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS
* Daniele Lezzi - Barcelona Supercomputing Center
* Katherine Rasmussen - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

PROGRAM COMMITTEE
* Oliver Alvarado Rodriguez - Hewlett Packard Enterprise
* Scott Baden - University of California, San Diego
* Dan Bonachea - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
* Nils Deppe - Cornell University
* Jason DeVinney - Center for Computing Sciences
* Nelson Dias - Federal University of Parana
* Ryan D. Friese - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
* Yanfei Guo - NVIDIA
* Magne Haveraaen - University of Bergen
* Tasuku Hiraishi - Kyoto Tachibana University
* Engin Kayraklioglu - Hewlett Packard Enterprise
* Daniele Lezzi - Barcelona Supercomputing Center
* Nouredine Melab - University of Lille
* Esteban Meneses Rojas - National High Technology Center
* Henry Monge Camacho - Oak Ridge National Laboratory
* Karla Vanesa Morris Wright - Sandia National Laboratories
* Brandon Neth - Hewlett Packard Enterprise
* Jonas Posner - Fulda University of Applied Sciences
* Katherine Rasmussen - Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
* Michael Schlottke-Lakemper - University of Augsburg
* Shumpei Shiina - Toyota Motor Corporation
* Elliott Slaughter - SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
* Andy Stone - Hewlett Packard Enterprise
* Gabriel Tanase - Amazon Web Services
* Thiago Teixeira - Intel
* Sean Treichler - NVIDIA
* Miwako Tsuji - Riken Advanced Institute for Computational Science

ADVISORY COMMITTEE
* Bradford L. Chamberlain - Hewlett Packard Enterprise
* Damian W. I. Rouson - Sourcery Institute

ARTIFACT EVALUATION COMMITTEE CHAIR
* Elliott Slaughter - SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
* Olivier Aumage - Inria

ARTIFACT EVALUATION COMMITTEE MEMBERS
* Keylor Arley - Universidad Costa Rica
* Yakup Budanaz - Technical University of Munich
* Fabio Durastante - University of Pisa
* Guillaume Helbecque - University of Lille
* Mert Hidayetoglu - Stanford University
* Jonas Posner - Fulda University of Applied Sciences
* Soren Rasmussen - National Center for Atmospheric Research

IMPORTANT DATES

* Manuscript Submissions deadline: July 24, 2026
* Artifact Description (mandatory) Submissions deadline: July 24, 2026
* Notification to authors: August 31, 2026
* Artifact Evaluation (optional) Submissions deadline: September 4, 2026
* Camera-ready papers due from authors: September 25, 2026
* November 15-20, 2026: Workshop at SC26