The Joint Laboratory for Extreme Scale Computing (JLESC) is an international, virtual organization dedicated to fostering collaborative research in high-performance computing (HPC). Its mission is to empower member institutions and researchers to effectively address the growing challenges of extreme-scale computing by advancing HPC, hybrid HPC/quantum and HPC-driven AI technologies. Within the JLESC, researchers advance HPC hardware, software, and methods to improve the use, the performance and scalability of traditional HPC and hybrid QC workloads, as well as of emerging AI workloads on HPC systems.
JLESC brings together computer scientists, engineers, domain scientists, and industry collaborators, ensuring that its research directly targets the most pressing scientific and engineering challenges while capitalizing on emerging developments in computing technologies. Founded by INRIA and the UIUC, JLESC also includes ANL, BSC, JSC, and R-CCS.
The 18th JLESC Workshop will take place at Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany, from May 19 to 21, 2026.
The 17th JLESC Workshop will take place at ANL, Argonne, from May 13 to 15, 2025.
The 16th JLESC Workshop will take place at R-CCS, Kobe, from April 16 to 18, 2024.
The 15th JLESC Workshop will take place at INRIA Bordeaux, from March 21 to 23, 2023.
The 14th JLESC Workshop will take place at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, from September 28 to 30.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, INRIA, the French national computer science institute, Argonne National Laboratory, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Jülich Supercomputing Centre and the RIKEN Center for Computational Science formed the Joint Laboratory on Extreme Scale Computing, a follow-up of the Inria-Illinois Joint Laboratory for Petascale Computing. The Joint Laboratory is based at Illinois and includes researchers from INRIA, and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Argonne National Laboratory, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Jülich Supercomputing Centre, and RIKEN Center for Computational Science as well as JLESC Fellows. Its mission is to empower member institutions and researchers to effectively address the growing challenges of extreme-scale computing by advancing HPC, hybrid HPC/quantum and HPC-driven AI technologies. Within the JLESC, researchers advance HPC hardware, software, and methods to improve the use, the performance and scalability of traditional HPC and hybrid QC workloads, as well as of emerging AI workloads on HPC systems.
In June 2009, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and INRIA, the French national computer science institute, formed the Joint Laboratory for Petascale Computing. The JLPC was based at Illinois and included researchers from INRIA, Illinois Center for Extreme-Scale Computation, and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. It focused on software challenges found in complex high-performance computers.
The success of the JLPC motivated its extension to other partners. Argonne National Laboratory joined in 2013. Barcelona Supercomputing Center joined in 2014 and the JLPC became the Joint Laboratory on Extreme Scale Computing. Jülich Supercomputing Centre and RIKEN Center for Computational Science (then RIKEN AICS) joined in 2015. From 2018 to 2024, the University of Tennessee was an associate partner. In 2024, the JLESC Fellowship program was initiated, honoring individuals by inviting them to participate in JLESC activities such as workshops and projects.