2025 has been a remarkable year for the HPCC Systems open source community. Our contributors, partners, and advocates have inspired innovation and fostered learning in high-performance computing, Big Data, and Machine Learning, across the globe. From hands-on hackathons in the United States and continuing the HPCC Systems community impact scholarship, to academic outreach and industry collaboration in India and Brazil, HPCC Systems continues to empower the next generation of data scientists and engineers.

Global Community Engagement: A Year in Review

The HPCC Systems community believes in using the power of open-source technology to create meaningful impact. The commitment of our community spans continents, connecting students, educators, and industry professionals through workshops, lectures, research, and training. In 2025, our community’s work reached new heights, with highlights including:

HPCC Systems Rocks UGAHacks X: Empowering Innovation Through Big Data

The energy at UGAHacks X was electric! HPCC Systems and representatives from LexisNexis® Risk Solutions were on site from February 7–9, 2025, at the University of Georgia’s tenth annual hackathon, drawing hundreds of students eager to code, create, and collaborate. This year’s theme was “Rock ‘n’ Roll: Unleash Your Inner Rockstar” which set the stage for bold ideas and groundbreaking projects.

Our Role at UGAHacks X:

• The Music Is Life Challenge:
  Hackers were invited to dive into massive music datasets using the HPCC Systems platform and Enterprise Control Language (ECL). The goal? Build the ultimate playlist powered by data insights.
• Hands-On Workshops:
  We hosted interactive sessions on connecting to the cluster, exploring ECL, and practical coding tips. Students gained real-world experience with HPCC Systems tools like the ECL IDE, or VS Code with the ECL extension, and using ECL Watch.
• Mentorship & Support:
  Our experts—including Bob Foreman, Hugo Watanuki, Alysson Oliveira, and George Foreman—were on-site to guide participants, answer questions, and share insights. From technical troubleshooting to career advice, we were there every step of the way.

HPCC Systems at KSU Hackathon for Social Good 2025: Driving Impact Through Data

From March 27–29, 2025, the College of Computing and Software Engineering (CCSE) at Kennesaw State University hosted its annual Hackathon for Social Good—a premier event that brings together students, industry leaders, and technology innovators to tackle real-world challenges. This year’s focus was on creating solutions that make a meaningful difference in society, and HPCC Systems was proud to be a key sponsor and contributor.

The Challenge: Help Missing Kids

• HPCC Systems partnered with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the ADAM Program to present the “Help Missing Kids” challenge. Participants analyzed multiple datasets—including population, education, crime, and poverty statistics—to identify patterns and hotspots related to missing children cases. The goal was to leverage data-driven insights to propose actionable solutions that could help prevent these tragedies.

Workshops and Mentorship

• HPCC Systems hosted hands-on workshops covering:
  • Introduction to HPCC Systems and ECL
  • Using ECL IDE and VS Code Extensions
  • Data cleaning and analysis techniques
• Our team provided cloud infrastructure, quick-start guides, and GitHub repositories to ensure students had everything they needed to succeed.
• Mentorship was a cornerstone of our involvement. HPCC Systems experts including Bob Foreman, George Foreman, Hugo Watanuki, Alysson Oliveira, and Mauro Marques supported the hackathon either on-site or online throughout the event, guiding students through technical challenges and sharing best practices for big data analytics.

Empowering Education and Research Across Brazil

The dedication and expertise of contributors like Alysson Oliveira and Mauro Marques have elevated HPCC Systems as a leading open-source platform for Big Data and Machine Learning in Brazil. Their efforts in training, outreach, and collaboration have inspired the next generation of data scientists and engineers.

• ERAD-RS 2025 – Southern Region:
  At the 25th Regional High-Performance Computing School of the Southern Region, Alysson Oliveira represented LexisNexis Risk Solutions and HPCC Systems with lectures and short courses focused on Big Data and Machine Learning. His sessions qualified professionals and students in high-performance computing processing and sparked discussions on teaching methodologies in universities.
• ERAD-SP 2025 – São Paulo State:
  From May 28–30, Mauro Marques participated in ERAD-SP 2025 at UNESP in São José do Rio Preto, delivering a corporate talk and a hands-on short course on Big Data processing and Machine Learning with HPCC Systems.
• ERAD-NE 2025 – Northeast Region:
  Held in Natal at UFRN from July 2–4, ERAD-NE 2025 brought together participants from nine northeastern states in Brazil. Mauro Marques led workshops and presentations on Machine Learning using HPCC Systems, contributing to the region’s technical-scientific development.
• ERAD-SE 2025 – Southeast Region:
  In November, the 10th Southeast Regional High-Performance Computing School took place at Fluminense Federal University in Niterói. Mauro Marques presented workshops and lectures, emphasizing HPCC Systems capabilities in supercomputing applications across bioinformatics, engineering, oil and gas, and healthcare.
• ERAMIA-RS 2025 – Machine Learning & AI:
  The inaugural Southern Regional School on Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence was held in Porto Alegre from November 12–14. Alysson Oliveira delivered a workshop and lecture on Big Data and Machine Learning through HPCC Systems, contributing to a rich program of technical training and career development discussions.
• Expanding Access Through Remote Learning:
  In partnership with the Federal University of Pará, Alysson Oliveira organized a free 30-hour remote course titled “Introduction to ECL and HPCC Systems,” delivered in Brazilian Portuguese. The course covered foundational concepts in Big Data, data lake management, and the ECL programming language, furthering HPCC Systems mission to make high-performance computing education accessible to all.
• Industry Collaboration: WS3W Workshop with Petrobras:
  At the 4th Workshop on the 3W, organized by Petrobras in October, Mauro Marques presented his work on processing and analyzing the 3W dataset using HPCC Systems. This event highlighted the platform’s real-world applications and its growing relevance in industrial data analysis.

RVCE’s Continued Impact on HPCC Systems

RVCE’s Continued Impact on HPCC Systems

The HPCC Systems open source community continues to thrive thanks to the dedication and innovation of its academic and research partners. One of the most active contributors in recent years has been the Center of Excellence in Cognitive Intelligent Systems for Sustainable Solutions (CISSS CoE) at RV College of Engineering (RVCE), Bengaluru, India. We’re excited to share a roundup of their latest achievements and initiatives that are helping to advance big data research and education using the HPCC Systems platform.

Empowering Students Through Hands-On Learning
On May 13th and 14th, 2025, RVCE hosted a workshop titled “HPCC Systems and ECL Programming” for 6th-semester B.E. Computer Science and Engineering (Data Science) students. The sessions were led by Dr. Jyoti Shetty, Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, along with her students, providing attendees with practical exposure to the HPCC Systems platform and its powerful ECL programming language. These workshops are a cornerstone of our community engagement, helping to build the next generation of big data professionals.

Welcoming New Community Member
We’re pleased to welcome Dr. Shanta Rangaswamy, Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at RVCE, to the HPCC Systems CISSS CoE team. Her leadership and expertise will undoubtedly strengthen the CoE’s impact and outreach.

Sharing Knowledge on Global Platforms
Dr. Shobha G, Dean of the School of Computer Science & Engineering at RV University, has been actively sharing her expertise through a series of high-profile talks:
• “Big Data Analytics using HPCC” at the International Convocation Series on Applied Sciences and Technology (ICAST), February 27, 2025.
• “High Performance Computing Cluster for Parallel Programming” at the UPGRIS and RV University International Lecturer Series, April 21, 2025.
• “Massively Scalable Density-Based Clustering (DBSCAN) on the HPCC Systems Big Data Platform” at the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, May 12–13, 2025, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Similarly, the RVCE team has also been accepted to deliver presentations on papers published at international conferences, namely:
• The paper titled “Automated Conditional Cleanup After Regression Testing”, authored by Goutami Sooda et al., was presented at the 2025 Third International Conference on Networks, Multimedia and Information Technology (NMITCON), held in Bengaluru, India, on August 1–2, 2025. To learn more about this work, check out this blog.
• Another significant achievement is the acceptance of the paper titled “NLP Pipeline for Electronic Health Records and Predicting the Necessity of MRI Scan Requirement Using Graph Neural Network” by Eshaan, Prashant, and Nikhil. This research, conducted under the mentorship of David Hilster, Hugo Watanuki, Prof. Vishalakshi, and Dr. Shobha G., has been accepted to be presented at the 5th International Conference on Robotics, Automation, and Artificial Intelligence (RAAI 2025) in Singapore on December 18–19, 2025.

These talks not only highlight the versatility of the HPCC Systems platform but also showcase the depth of research and application being driven by our community members.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to Dr. Jyoti Shetty, Dr. Shobha G, and the entire RVCE CISSS CoE team for their continued dedication and contributions. Your work is helping to shape the future of big data and high-performance computing, and we’re proud to have you as part of the HPCC Systems community.

Updates to the Community Impact Scholarship

In 2023 the HPCC Systems Community Impact scholarship was announced as a part of an effort to support the People, Culture and Belonging focus areas at LexisNexis Risk Solutions. The scholarship was launched in partnership with Scholarship America to provide two renewable $5,000 scholarships to female high school graduates from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds who plan to pursue a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) undergraduate degree at an eligible college. The inaugural renewable scholarships were awarded to Falon Kelley and Kini Bibai, two exceptionally amazing young women! Falon, now at Georgia Institute of Technology, is pursuing a Business Administration Information Technology degree and has demonstrated leadership through campus involvement and a strong interest in data science and IT. Kini, attending Oxford College of Emory University, is majoring in Biology with a minor in Predictive Health and has already made her mark as Editor-in-Chief of SciOX, Oxford’s first undergraduate research magazine, where Kini managed a team of 12 editors and organized research mixers connecting students with Emory faculty.

HPCC Systems is so proud of both of these recipients, their stories reflect not only academic excellence but also a commitment to leadership and community engagement, reinforcing the scholarship’s mission to empower future innovators.

Promoting Future Events

We encourage our community members to share details of upcoming public events and talks. We’re happy to help promote them via the HPCC Systems website. Just let us know in advance by emailing the event details to hpcc-community@lexisnexisrisk.com, and we’ll make sure your event gets the visibility it deserves.

Why It Matters

Hackathons and academic outreach events like these exemplify how technology can be a force for positive change. By introducing students and professionals to open-source big data tools and real-world applications, HPCC Systems helps bridge the gap between academic learning and impactful innovation. Our community involvement reflects a commitment to:

• Education and skill-building
• Social responsibility through technology
• Diversity in tech
• Empowering the next generation of innovators

Looking Ahead

The incredible achievements of 2025 were driven by the passion and creativity of our HPCC Systems community. From hackathons to workshops and collaborative projects, these successes reflect the dedication and innovation of developers, partners, and contributors worldwide. We can’t wait to see what this amazing community will accomplish together in 2026!