First Place, ISC25 Best Research Poster Award (€500) + Co-Organising HPCAsia EE HPC SOP Workshop 2026

Welcome

The secret to a creative life is to see challenges as opportunities
and free yourself from the fear of failure

About me

I'm Ayesha ([ai·ee·shah], she/her), a researcher at the Erlangen National High Performance Computing Center (NHR@FAU) and the Department of Computer Science at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. My work involves generating novel scientific ideas to tackle unsolved, complex, and intriguing problems. I enjoy solving challenging puzzles and exploring the world through research and collaboration.

I earned my Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan (2012), where I focused on power systems and completed an internship with the Transformers Energy Division at Siemens, Lahore, Pakistan. After my undergraduate studies, I embarked on a teaching career and taught final-year Electrical Engineering courses at the University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan, before persuing my Master's degree in Computational Engineering from FAU, Germany (2015). During my master’s, I worked as a Research Assistant at the Department of Regionales Rechenzentrum Erlangen (RRZE) and completed my thesis, "The cost of computation: metrics and models for modern multicore-based systems in scientific computing," gaining hands-on experience in high-performance computing systems and performance/energy analysis. After parental leave (2015 - 2017), I spent a year at the Department of Computer Science 12 (Hardware/Software Co-Design) on the BMFTR-funded HighPerMeshes project, designing a domain-specific language and developing target-aware optimization techniques for unstructured grids.

My PhD research, "A Holistic White-Box Approach to Performance Modeling for Supercomputing," lies at the intersection of analytic performance models, performance tools, and parallel simulation frameworks in HPC. I also explore multi-core and parallel architectures, parallel algorithms and programming models, as well as domain-specific languages. Following maternity leave in 2024, I resumed my researcher position (Wiss. Mietarbeiterin) at NHR@FAU and I am actively involved in several HPC initiatives, including the KONWIHR collaboration with the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) on performance optimization and the NHR EEC project on improving energy efficiency and operational cost management across NHR centers. I have collaborated on research projects with leading international institutions, including Japan (University of Tokyo and Kyushu University), Sweden (KTH Royal Institute of Technology), Switzerland (University of Basel) and Germany (NHR Centers, LRZ Garching, Paderborn University, Fraunhofer ITWM, ZIB Berlin).

I contribute to the HPC community through various leadership roles. I serve as Vice Chair for both the IEEE Computer Society Germany Section Chapter and Region 8 Area 2. I founded the NHR Women in HPC chapter and organize workshops at conferences. I regularly participate in scientific community events as a chair, vice chair, program committee member, journal reviewer, panelist, and speaker. I have authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, and my work has been recognized through distinctions. I enjoy teaching engineering tutorial courses and supervising undergrad and master's students, finding it rewarding to help young minds grow and grasp new concepts. Born and raised in Pakistan and now based in Germany, I bring a multicultural perspective to my work and collaborations. Through leadership, mentorship, advocacy, and writing, I strive to inspire and empower the next generation in science and technology.

Resume-Afzal.pdf

Resume (PDF)

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

2025: First Place, Best Research Poster Award (€500) — ISC High Performance, sponsored by Springer
2025: Named in Heroes Top 100 Future Leaders Role Model List — Supported by YouTube
2024: 2023 Best Paper Runner-Up Award — IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems Journal
2024: Best Research Poster Award Finalist — Supercomputing Conference
2024: Named in Heroes Top 100 Future Leaders Role Model List — Supported by YouTube
2024: Advancing Inclusion Faculty Scholarship for Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) — AnitaB.org
2023: Best Short Paper Award — Supercomputing PMBS Workshop
2023: Global Award for Achievement — WeAreTheCity Rising Star Awards
2023: Named in Heroes Top 100 Future Leaders Role Model List — Supported by YouTube
2023: Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) Faculty Scholarship — AnitaB.org
2022: Wiley Top Downloaded Article — Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience (CCPE) Journal
2022: Data Scientist Award Finalist — Diversity in Tech Awards, sponsored by AWS
2022: Travel Grant Recipient ($600) — ACM SIGHPC
2022: Named in Empower Top 100 Future Leaders Role Models List — Supported by Yahoo Finance
2021: First Place, PhD Forum Award (€600) — ISC High Performance, sponsored by Springer
2021: Innovation Alliance 4.0 Sponsorship — University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Germany
2021: Data Scientist Award Finalist — Diversity in Tech Awards, sponsored by AWS
2021: Young Female STEM Pioneer Award Finalist — Diversity in Tech Awards, sponsored by AWS
2018: HiPEAC Paper Award — HiPEAC Network, Steering Committee
2014: Second Place, Fastest Scientific Computing Performance Challenge — University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany
2008: First Place, Intermediate Pre-Engineering — Queen Mary College Lahore, Pakistan

LEADERSHIP ROLES

May 2024 – Present: Founder and Lead – NHR Women in HPC (WHPC) Chapter
May 2024 – Present: Vice Chair – IEEE Computer Society Germany Section Chapter C016
Jan 2025 – Present: Vice Chair – IEEE Computer Society Region 8 Area 2 (Benelux, Denmark, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, UK & Ireland, Switzerland)
Apr 2024 – Apr 2025: Lead – IEEEXtreme Region 8 Germany Section
2026: Posters Chair – 38th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Chicago, IL, USA
2026: WHPC Posters Chair – 41st ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
2026: Invited Program Session Chair – 41st ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
2026: Co-Chair – 6th Energy Efficient High Performance Computing Systems (EE HPC SOP) Workshop at SCA/HPCAsia, Osaka, Japan
2025: General Chair – 1st Energy Efficiency with Sustainable Performance (EESP) Workshop at 40th ISC High Performance, Hamburg, Germany
2025: General Chair – 5th Performance EngineeRing, Modelling, Analysis, and VisualizatiOn STrategy (PERMAVOST) Workshop at 34th ACM International Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing (HPDC), Notre Dame, IN, USA
2025: WHPC Program Chair – 31st International European Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing (Euro-Par), Dresden, Germany
2025: WHPC Posters Chair – 40th ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
2025: Publicity Co-Chair – 54th International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP), San Diego, CA, USA
2025: Research Paper Session Chair – 40th ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
2024: Posters Vice Chair – 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
2024: Research Posters Vice Chair – 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
2024: Doctoral Showcase Vice Chair – 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
2024: ACM Student Research Competition Vice Chair – 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
2024: Art of HPC Vice Chair – 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
2024: Co-Chair – 4th Performance EngineeRing, Modelling, Analysis, and VisualizatiOn STrategy (PERMAVOST) Workshop at 33rd ACM International Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing (HPDC), Pisa, Italy
2024: WHPC Posters Co-Chair – 39th ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
2024: Publicity Chair – 53rd International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP), Gotland, Sweden
2023: Co-Chair – 3rd Performance EngineeRing, Modelling, Analysis, and VisualizatiOn STrategy (PERMAVOST) Workshop at 32nd ACM International Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing (HPDC), Orlando, Florida
2023: Mentoring Co-Chair – 19th Women in HPC (WHPC) Workshop at 35th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Denver, CO, USA

FEATURES

2025: Vanguards of HPC‑AI: Erlangen HPC Center’s Ayesha Afzal and the Acceleration of Science, spotlighting current and future HPC-AI leaders
2025: ISC 40th Anniversary: Connecting the Dots with Ayesha Afzal, emphasizing the interplay of technology, personal journeys, and evolving scientific identities
2025: Supercomputing Conference: Women Igniting Innovation in HPC with Ayesha Afzal, celebrating contributions to HPC
2023: Like Minded Females (LMF) Network Mentoring Program: Ayesha Afzal — Profiles in Spotlight Series, inspiring women to pursue STEM and mentor future scientists
2022: ACM SIGCSE Computing Crossroads: The Electrical Engineer Shifting to Computer Science, promoting multidimensional career paths
2022: Quartl Magazine #102: KONWIHR Erlangen: Getting to the bottom of modelling large-scale parallel applications, featuring ISC’21 First Place PhD Forum research
2021: Bavarian Ministry of Science and Art Research in Bavaria: The Researcher Mom, highlighting work-life balance
2018: Developer Blog by Codeplay: Solving Maxwell's Equations on Unstructured Meshes with SYCL and ComputeCpp, presenting research innovations

JOURNAL PEER REVIEWER

CONFERENCE COMMITTEE ROLES

2026: Tech Program Communication Liaison – 38th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Chicago, IL, USA
2026: Technical Papers Committee Member – 40th ACM International Conference on Supercomputing (ICS), Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
2025: Technical Papers Committee Member – 27th IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing (CLUSTER), Edinburgh, Scotland
2025: Technical Papers Committee Member – 25th IEEE International Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Internet Computing (CCGrid), Tromsø, Norway
2025: Research Posters Committee Member – 40th ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
2025: WHPC Posters Committee Member – 40th ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
2025: Research/ACM SRC Posters Committee Member – 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), St. Louis, MO, USA
2025: Lead Volunteer Reviewer – 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), St. Louis, MO, USA
2025: Student Volunteer Reviewer – 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), St. Louis, MO, USA
2025: SIGHPC Immersion Reviewer – 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), St. Louis, MO, USA
2025: Community Engagement and Support Communication Liaison – 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), St. Louis, MO, USA
2024: Technical Papers Committee Member – 26th IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing (CLUSTER), Kobe, Japan
2024: Technical Papers Committee Member – 30th International European Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing (Euro-Par) WHPC Session, Madrid, Spain
2024: Research/ACM SRC Posters Committee Member – 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
2024: Doctoral Showcase Committee Member – 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
2024: Committee Member – IEEE TechEthics Ad Hoc
2023: Technical Papers Committee Member – 35th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Denver, CO, USA
2023: Technical Papers Committee Member – 25th IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing (CLUSTER), Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
2023: Technical Papers Committee Member – 52nd International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP), Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
2023: Technical Papers Committee Member – 7th High Performance Computing and Cluster Technologies Conference (HPCCT), Jiaxing, Zhejiang, China
2023: Technical Papers Committee Member – Annual Modeling and Simulation Conference (ANNSIM), Hamilton, ON, Canada
2023: Technical Papers Committee Member – International Workshop on Performance, Portability and Productivity in HPC (P3HPC) at 35th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Denver, CO, USA
2023: Research Posters Committee Member – 35th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Denver, CO, USA
2023: Awards Committee Member – ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing, Virtual
2023: Awards Committee Member – CSTA CS Teaching Excellence Awards, Virtual
2022: Reviewer [Certificate] – 6th High Performance Computing and Cluster Technologies Conference (HPCCT), Fuzhou, China
2022: Reviewer [Certificate] – CSTA CS Teaching Excellence Award, Chicago, USA
2022: Reviewer – ACM/CSTA Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing, Chicago, USA
2022: Reviewer – Annual Conference of Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), Chicago, USA
2022: Student Volunteer – 34th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Denver, CO, USA
2022: Student Volunteer – 9th Annual Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing (PASC) Conference, Basel, Switzerland
2018: Reviewer – 31st International Conference on Architecture of Computing Systems (ARCS), Braunschweig, Germany

SUPERVISED THESES

2025: Bachelor Thesis, Markus Manfred Li: Energy Consumption of Modern CPUs and GPUs: A Study with Production Applications (ongoing) — FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2025: Bachelor Thesis, Onur Karaca: Implementation and Benchmarking of MPI Collectives in a Parallel Simulator Framework — FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2025: Master Thesis, Jean-Yves Verhaeghe: Exploring Advanced Visualization of MPI-Parallel Programs — FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2025: Master Thesis, Krishna Sai Lakshmi Gayatri Manda: Performance Analysis of Desynchronization Effects in a Parallel Optical Flow Solver — FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2024: Master Thesis, Aditya Ujeniya: Extending a Simulation Framework for Performance Assessment of Parallel Applications — FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2021: Bachelor Thesis, Sebastian Bönning: Integration of Chip-Level Performance Models into a Parallel Simulation Framework — FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2019: Master Thesis, Hassan Asghar: Development of a Benchmark Suite for Investigating MPI Communication Behavior — FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

INVITED TALKS

(excluding paper presentations or poster lighting talks)

Mar 25, 2024: Predicting Parallel Applications Performance using Automated Analytic First-principles Models in DisCostiC — TU Darmstadt, Parallel Programming Group, Darmstadt, Germany
Aug 22, 2023: Performance Modeling Challenges in Extreme Scale Computing — ICIAM 2023 Minisymposium “Progress and Challenges in Extreme Scale Computing and Big Data”, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
Apr 26, 2022: The Role of Idle Waves in Modeling and Optimization of Parallel Programs — NHR PerfLab Seminar, FAU Erlangen, Germany
Mar 21, 2022: Modeling Challenges and Variability-driven Speedup of Parallel Programs — High Performance Computing Workshop, Leogang, Austria
Aug 30, 2021: Variability is not all bad: parallel code out of lock-step — University of Basel, High Performance, Parallel, and Distributed Computing Group, Switzerland
Jul 14, 2020: Intel Trace Collector and Analyzer for Parallel Computing — HPC Cafe, FAU Erlangen, Germany
2019 – 2024: “Parallel Programming with MPI in Depth (I + II)” and “Hands-On: Profiling with ITAC” — Annual course on Parallel Programming of High-Performance Systems, LRZ Garching / FAU Erlangen, Germany

TEACHING

2023 – Present: HPC Software Project, M.Sc. — Professorship for High Performance Computing, NHR@FAU, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2021 – Present: Programming Techniques for Supercomputers Tutorial, M.Sc. — Professorship for High Performance Computing, NHR@FAU, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2020 – Present: Elementary Numerical Mathematics Tutorial, M.Sc. — Professorship for High Performance Computing, NHR@FAU, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2019 – Present: Seminar on Efficient Numerical Simulation on Multi- and Manycore Processors Tutorial, M.Sc. — Professorship for High Performance Computing, NHR@FAU, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2019 – 2024: Parallel Programming of High Performance Systems — Erlangen National High Performance Computing Center (NHR@FAU) and Leibniz Supercomputing Center (LRZ)
2018: Multi-Core Architectures and Programming Tutorial, M.Sc. — Department of Computer Science 12, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2018: Parallel Systems Tutorial, M.Sc . — Department of Computer Science 12, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2018: Extended Exercises Parallel Systems Tutorial, M.Sc. — Department of Computer Science 12, FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2012: Electrical Machines Tutorial, B.Sc. — Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
2012: Digital System Design Tutorial, B.Sc. — Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Management and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan

PROJECTS

2024 – 2025: Energy Efficiency and Operational Costs in NHR (EEC) — Developing standardized KPIs and tools for HPC energy efficiency and sustainability — NHR Centers, Germany
2023 – 2025: JHPCN Heterogeneous Computing Project — Modeling MPI performance on heterogeneous supercomputing architectures — University of Tokyo, Japan & FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2023 – 2024: JHPCN Non-blocking Collectives Project — Investigating communication–computation overlap in large-scale MPI applications — Kyushu University, Japan & FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2022 – 2023: HPC-Europa3 Collaboration — Performance modeling of asynchronous behavior in parallel applications — KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden & FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2021 – 2023: Performance Variability and Load Balancing — Studying load-balancing effects and desynchronization in MPI programs — University of Basel, Switzerland & FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2019 – 2025: KONWIHR OMI4papps Project — Performance optimization and holistic modeling for large-scale scientific HPC applications — LRZ Garching & FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany
2018 – 2019: BMFTR-funded HighPerMeshes project — Designing a domain-specific language and developing target-aware optimization techniques for unstructured grids — Paderborn University, Fraunhofer ITWM, ZIB Berlin & FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS

Oct 2023 – Present: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Oct 2023 – Present: IEEE Computer Society (IEEE CS)
Oct 2023 – Present: IEEE Women in Engineering (IEEE-WIE)
Oct 2023 – Present: IEEE CS Technical Community on Computer Architecture (IEEE CS TCCA)
Oct 2023 – Present: IEEE CS Technical Community on High Performance Computing (IEEE CS TCHPC)
Oct 2023 – Present: IEEE CS Technical Community on Parallel Processing (IEEE CS TCPP)
Oct 2023 – Present: IEEE Young Professionals (IEEE YP)
Jul 2022 – Present: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
Jul 2022 – Present: ACM’s Women in Computing (ACM-W)
Nov 2021 – Present: Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA)
Aug 2019 – Present: Women in High Performance Computing (WHPC)

LANGUAGES

English: Professional working proficiency
Urdu: Native proficiency
Punjabi: Native proficiency
German: Elementary proficiency
Arabic: Elementary proficiency

EVENT MODERATION

2025: Moderator: NHR Sofa Talk, Energy Efficiency and Operational Costs in NHR — 40th ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
2025: Moderator: NHR|WHPC Sofa Talk, Empowering Women's Visibility in HPC — 40th ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
2025: Co-Host: Meet & Greet with Cristin Merrit & Ayesha Afzal — 40th ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
2025: Moderator: Women in HPC Poster Pitch Session — 40th ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
2025: Co-Moderator: Women in HPC Poster Reception — 40th ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
2025: Host: Pre-ISC Early Career Lightening Talks Showcase Webinar — Online
2024: Coordinator, NHR|WHPC Chapter Travel Grantees Mentorship Program — 36th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA
2024: Co-Host: Pre-ISC Early Career Lightening Talks Showcase Webinar — Online

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & ADVOCACY

2025: Speaker: NHR|WHPC Chapter at the Women in HPC Tech Talk — 40th ISC High Performance Conference, Hamburg, Germany
2025: Blog writer: Empowering the Next Generation: The Early Career Program — 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), St. Louis, MO, USA
2025: Blog writer: Innovation and Family-Friendly Fun for All Ages at SC25 — 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), St. Louis, MO, USA
2025: Blog writer: Get Noticed at SC25: Apply to the HPC Illuminations Pavilion — 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis (SC), St. Louis, MO, USA
2023: Panelist: Women in HPC: Empowering Future Careers — 1st NHR Conference, Berlin, Germany
2022: Advisory Board Member and Bronze Member – German Chapter of Women in Voice (WiV DE)
2022: Mentor and Member – Like Minded Females (LMF Network) CIC
2021: Ambassador and Member – Google Women Techmakers
2021: Ambassador, Mentor, and Member – WomenTech Network
2021: Volunteer and Member – AnitaB.org
2021: Volunteer and Member – Women Who Code
2021: Member – Ada’s List and Tech Ladies
2021: Member – Women in Tech (WIT) - Global Movement and WIT-Germany
2021: Member – Womentechcouncil (WTC)
2021: Participant – WITI’s (Women in Technology International) Global Summit and Hall of Fame via Carolyn Leighton Scholarship

PUBLICATIONS

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