Watch out for Chapters ("Kapitel") to switch between the different Speakers!

Co-Chairs:

Prof. Dr. Thomas Ludwig, Director & CEO, Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum, Germany
Dr. Erich Strohmaier, Head of Future Technology Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA

Inquisitors:

Prof. Dr. Frank Behrendt, Head of Chair for Energy Process Engineering & Conversion Technologies for Renewable Energies, Berlin Institute of Technology, Germany
Prof. Dr. Jack Dongarra, University Distinguished Professor of Computer Science University of Tennessee & Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA
Dr. Fang-Pang Lin, Head of the Grid Application Division, National Center for High-Performance Computing, Taiwan
Prof. Dr. Gabriele von Voigt, Managing Director, Regional Computer Center of Lower Saxony, Germany


The fast-paced Hot Seat Sessions have been a trademark of ISC for many, many years and are open to ALL conference and exhibition attendees. No other HPC event in the world features a session where the audience has the unique opportunity to get a compact, comprehensive overview of the current HPC market from top vendors. In just two afternoons, 18 leading vendor representatives have ten minutes each to present their latest developments, new products and strategies. They then have to answer two tricky questions from a panel of hand-picked so-called “inquisitors”.

You just have to be there to see how vendors send their best people – CTOs and even CEOs – into the arena to fight for their products. You can sense these tough men’s nervousness and even their fear of the inquisitors. The vendor representatives do not know beforehand which two of the four inquisitors will ask them the probing questions, and they will have to defend themselves for five long minutes.