# 📝 2025 Annual Report
Sam Foreman
2025-09-22

- [Goals for Next Year (2026)](#goals-for-next-year-2026)
- [Goals from Last Year (2024)](#goals-from-last-year-2024)
- [Contributions to ALCF](#contributions-to-alcf)
- [Publications](#publications)
- [Presentations](#presentations)
- [Posts](#posts)
- [Organizational Efforts](#organizational-efforts)
- [Mentoring](#mentoring)
- [Scientific / Technical
  Accomplishments](#scientific--technical-accomplishments)
- [References](#references)

## Goals for Next Year (2026)

- [ ] Build out generic training services for science teams
- [ ] Continue to push on resilient / fault-tolerant training techniques

## Goals from Last Year (2024)

- [x] Continue to contribute to division(/lab)-wide efforts
- [x] Continue to work with application teams to efficiently scale on
  ALCF systems
- [x] \[WIP\] Publish retrospective on initial pre-training of AuroraGPT

## Contributions to ALCF

- AERIS: Argonne Earth Systems Model for Reliable and Skillful
  Predictions

  - [ACM Gordon Bell Prize Finalist](https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.13523)
    (co-author)
  - Contributed to model development, performance analysis, and scaling
    studies

- MProt-DPO: Breaking the ExaFLOPS Barrier for Multimodal Protein Design
  with DPO

  - [Finalist for the 2024 ACM Gordon Bell
    Prize](https://sc24.supercomputing.org/2024/10/presenting-the-finalists-for-the-2024-gordon-bell-prize/)
    (first-author)

- AuroraGPT

  - Co-lead Models and Training team with Venkat Vishwanath
  - Ongoing writeup of pre-training efforts
  - Successfully pre-trained:
    - AuroraGPT-7B on 2T tokens
    - AuroraGPT-2B on 4T tokens (ongoing)

- Catalyst for:

  - Arvind Ramanthan’s INCITE Project (`FoundEpidem`)
  - Zheng Zhang’s ALCC Project
  - Rao Kotamarthi’s ALCC Project

- Member of Software Committee

- [Intro to HPC Undergraduate
  Bootcamp](https://intro-hpc-bootcamp.alcf.anl.gov/):

  - Project lead for [Intro to {AI, HPC} for
    Science](https://saforem2.github.io/intro-hpc-bootcamp-2025/)

## Publications

1.  [**AERIS**: *Argonne Earth Systems Model for Reliable and Skillful
    Predictions*](https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.13523) (Hatanpää et al.
    (2025))[^1]
2.  [Aurora: Architecting Argonne’s First Exascale Supercomputer for
    Accelerated Scientific Discovery](https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08207)
    (Allen et al. (2025))
3.  [HiPerRAG: High-Performance Retrieval Augmented Generation for
    Scientific Insights](https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.04846) (Gokdemir et
    al. (2025))
4.  [Automated Tuning for HMC Mass
    Ratios](https://www.osti.gov/biblio/2551828) (Torsiello et al.
    (2025))
5.  [MOFA: Discovering Materials for Carbon Capture with a GenAI and
    Simulation-Based Workflow](https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.10651) (Yan et
    al. (2025))
6.  [**MProt-DPO**: *Breaking the ExaFLOPS Barrier for Multimodal
    Protein Design with
    DPO*](https://doi.org/10.1109/SC41406.2024.00013) (Dharuman et al.
    (2024))[^2]

## Presentations

- [Scientific AI at Scale: AI for
  Science](https://samforeman.me/talks/openskai25/ai4science/index.html)
  @ [Open SkAI 2025](https://www.openskai-conference.org)
- [Scientific AI at Scale: Distributed
  Training](https://samforeman.me/talks/openskai25/training/index.html)
  @ [Open SkAI 2025](https://www.openskai-conference.org/)
- [Large Scale Training on Diverse
  Accelerators](https://samforeman.me/talks/AuroraGPT-SIAM25/index.html)
  @ [Scalable Deep Learning, SIAM
  AN2025](https://meetings.siam.org/sess/dsp_programsess.cfm?SESSIONCODE=84772)
- [LLMs on Aurora: 🌌
  AuroraGPT](https://samforeman.me/talks/incite-hackathon-2025/AuroraGPT/index.html)
  @ [2025 ALCF INCITE GPU
  Hackathon](https://www.alcf.anl.gov/events/alcf-incite-gpu-hackathon)
- [LLMs on Aurora: 🍋
  ezpz](https://samforeman.me/talks/incite-hackathon-2025/ezpz/index.html)
  @ [2025 ALCF INCITE GPU
  Hackathon](https://www.alcf.anl.gov/events/alcf-incite-gpu-hackathon)
- [AuroraGPT: Foundation Models for
  Science](https://samforeman.me/talks/aurora-gpt-fm-for-electric-grid/index.html)
  @ [Foundation Models for the Electric
  Grid](https://www.alcf.anl.gov/alcf-ai-science-training-series)
- [Parallel Training
  Methods](https://samforeman.me/talks/ai-for-science-2024/index.html) @
  [AI-for-Science on
  Supercomputers](https://www.alcf.anl.gov/alcf-ai-science-training-series)
- [AuroraGPT](https://samforeman.me/talks/AuroraGPT/alcf-hpc-workshop-2024/index.html)
  @ [2024 ALCF Hands-On HPC
  Workshop](https://www.alcf.anl.gov/events/2024-alcf-hands-hpc-workshop)
- [Machine Learning and Foundation Models at
  Scale](https://samforeman.me/talks/alcf-hpc-workshop-2024/index.html)
  @ [2024 ALCF Hands-On HPC
  Workshop](https://www.alcf.anl.gov/events/2024-alcf-hands-hpc-workshop)

## Posts

- [📊 pbs-tui : TUI for PBS Job Scheduler
  Monitoring](https://samforeman.me/posts/2025/09/17/)
- [🍹 BlendCorpus + TorchTitan @
  ALCF](https://samforeman.me/posts/2025/09/12/)
- [🏗️ Building PyTorch 2.8 from Source on
  Aurora](https://samforeman.me/posts/2025/06/14/)
- [🚧 Frameworks Issue with numpy \>
  2](https://samforeman.me/posts/2025/05/03/)
- [🔥 Building PyTorch 2.6 from Source on
  Aurora](https://samforeman.me/posts/2025/04/28/)
- [🪛 Torchtune on
  Aurora](https://samforeman.me/posts/torchtune-aurora/)
- [🚑 Torchtune Patch on
  Aurora](https://samforeman.me/posts/torchtune-patch-aurora/)
- [💾 Converting
  Checkpoints](https://samforeman.me/posts/auroragpt/checkpoints/)

## Organizational Efforts

- Organizer for:
  - [SC25 Workshop: High Performance Python for Science at Scale
    (HPPSS)](https://hppss.github.io/SC25/)
  - [SC25 Tutorial: Accelerating and Scaling Python for
    HPC](https://sc25.conference-program.com/presentation/?id=tut121&sess=sess255)
  - [SC24 Workshop: High Performance Python for Science at Scale
    (HPPSS)](https://hppss.github.io/SC24/)
- Served as reviewer for:
  - HiPC 2025
  - SPIGM @ NeurIPS
  - ML4PS Workshop @ NeurIPS’24
  - AI4Science Workshop @ NeurIPS’24
  - GenBio Workshop @ NeurIPS’24
  - AI4Science Workshop @ ICML’24

## Mentoring

- Khalid Hossain: Supported Khalid’s successful transition from postdoc
  to staff
- Joseph Frimpong: Postdoc in [Center for Nanoscale
  Materials](https://cnm.anl.gov/group/Theory-and-Modeling)
- Hung Nguyen: Graduate student @ UIUC

## Scientific / Technical Accomplishments

## References

<div id="refs" class="references csl-bib-body hanging-indent"
entry-spacing="0">

<div id="ref-allen2025aurora" class="csl-entry">

Allen, Benjamin S., James Anchell, Victor Anisimov, Thomas Applencourt,
Abhishek Bagusetty, Ramesh Balakrishnan, Riccardo Balin, et al. 2025.
“Aurora: Architecting Argonne’s First Exascale Supercomputer for
Accelerated Scientific Discovery.” <https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.08207>.

</div>

<div id="ref-mprot-dpo2024" class="csl-entry">

Dharuman, Gautham, Kyle Hippe, Alexander Brace, Sam Foreman, Väinö
Hatanpää, Varuni K. Sastry, Huihuo Zheng, et al. 2024. “MProt-DPO:
Breaking the ExaFLOPS Barrier for Multimodal Protein Design Workflows
with Direct Preference Optimization.” In *Proceedings of the
International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking,
Storage, and Analysis*. SC ’24. Atlanta, GA, USA: IEEE Press.
<https://doi.org/10.1109/SC41406.2024.00013>.

</div>

<div id="ref-gokdemir2025hiperrag" class="csl-entry">

Gokdemir, Ozan, Carlo Siebenschuh, Alexander Brace, Azton Wells, Brian
Hsu, Kyle Hippe, Priyanka V. Setty, et al. 2025. “HiPerRAG:
High-Performance Retrieval Augmented Generation for Scientific
Insights.” <https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.04846>.

</div>

<div id="ref-stock2025aeris" class="csl-entry">

Hatanpää, Väinö, Eugene Ku, Jason Stock, Murali Emani, Sam Foreman,
Chunyong Jung, Sandeep Madireddy, et al. 2025. “AERIS: Argonne Earth
Systems Model for Reliable and Skillful Predictions.”
<https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.13523>.

</div>

<div id="ref-torsiello2025automated" class="csl-entry">

Torsiello, J., G. T. Fleming, S. Foreman, X.-Y. Jin, and J. C. Osborn.
2025. “Automated Tuning for HMC Mass Ratios.” *PoS*. Argonne, ALCF;
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Temple
U.; Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United
States). <https://doi.org/10.22323/1.466.0052>.

</div>

<div id="ref-yan2025mofa" class="csl-entry">

Yan, Xiaoli, Nathaniel Hudson, Hyun Park, Daniel Grzenda, J. Gregory
Pauloski, Marcus Schwarting, Haochen Pan, et al. 2025. “MOFA:
Discovering Materials for Carbon Capture with a GenAI- and
Simulation-Based Workflow.” <https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.10651>.

</div>

</div>

[^1]: ✨ [*2025 ACM Gordon Bell Prize for Climate Modeling
    Finalist*](https://awards.acm.org/bell-climate)

[^2]: 🌟 [*2024 ACM Gordon Bell
    Finalist*](https://sc24.supercomputing.org/2024/10/presenting-the-finalists-for-the-2024-gordon-bell-prize/)
