James Redekopp and Karl Keshavarzi launch UW High Performance Computing
The new Sedra Student Design Centre team has nearly finished a C++ simulation and was recruiting for the Fall 2026 term.
UW High Performance Computing (UWHPC) was founded earlier this year by computer engineering students James Redekopp and Karl Keshavarzi inside the Sedra Student Design Centre, with Dr. Tahsin Reza of Electrical and Computer Engineering as faculty advisor. Redekopp says they started it because the team they wanted to join did not exist.
The first project, nearly finished, is a Variational Monte Carlo simulation written from scratch in C++. The method estimates properties of quantum systems with many interacting particles by statistical sampling, so the faster the software runs, the larger the problem the team can take on. Redekopp says performance tuning is rarely a single change that makes a program faster.
Next term the team turns to machine learning systems, starting with GPU optimization and specialized compilation. It takes on any high-performance problem members care about, from scientific computing to compilers and distributed systems.
As of the September 3 report, recruitment for the Fall 2026 term was open, with a hands-on onboarding challenge for applicants. Keshavarzi says GPU programming is not a prerequisite, because the team looks for the motivation to dig deeper. UWHPC is one of more than 40 student design teams in Waterloo Engineering.
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