Three Questions with Test of Time Award Chair Amanda Randles
SC began recognizing an outstanding paper for the prestigious Test of Time Award in 2013. Learn the requirements for nomination from SC20 Test of Time Award Chair Amanda Randles.
Amanda Randles
SC20 Test of Time Award Chair
Q: What is the Test of Time Award, and what kind of projects should be nominated?
A: These are SC papers that have become milestones in the field. We are looking for works whose contributions end up defining and driving the research of many projects that followed. We are looking for papers that have had a significant impact either broadly in the area of supercomputing or in a specific subdomain.
Q: How do you judge the impact of the nominated papers?
A: We look at a number of factors such as breadth of influence, citation count, duration of citations (for example the 2019 winner was still getting heavily cited a decade after its publication), and general impact in HPC. We are looking for papers that have had a clear contribution such as changing HPC trends or clearly setting the path for new research. These papers must have appeared in the SC Conference Series.
Q: Are you surprised by the papers that have (and haven’t) been nominated?
A: We haven’t received any yet. From last year, I would say that some submissions that were surprising were papers on architectures that at the time may have seemed niche but when the field ended up favoring that architecture, early papers have a profound impact on the research directions.
Nominations for the Test of Time Award close on May 8.
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Amanda Randles
SC20 Test of Time Award Chair