Late Breaking News
XSEDE Quarterly Meeting is Just Around the Corner
December 6-7, 2011 – San Diego, California
The next XSEDE quarterly meeting is next week in San Diego. Please be prepared to provide your team leaders with updates on activities that should be presented at the meeting. Please include accomplishments during this quarter, but the presentations should focus mostly on challenges, issues, opportunities, and timelines and plans for next steps. Please be sure to let us know of needs and/or issues that the larger XSEDE team can assist you with, so that you can be most successful.
Please complete SC11 Surveys
For those of you that were in Seattle for SC11, we hope you had a great time. Please take time to complete the attendee and exhibitor surveys when you receive either or both. Any suggestions you may have for improvements for SC12 and beyond are always appreciated via the surveys and email.
Webinars, Seminars and Talks
Rice University hosts next Webinar Session as Part of Planning Your Ph.D. Series
On Wednesday, November 30, the ELA Mentoring Program is hosting the next webinar session in the Planning Your PhD Workshop Series featuring Raquell Holmes, who will discuss "Building a Functional Relationship with Your Advisor and Committee".
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
10:00 – 11:00 AM (PDT), 12:00 – 1:00PM (CDT)/ 1:00 – 2:00PM (EDT)
To join the hour-long session, please visit https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFNUM0hyMDRraDl4Yi1VLUxLc0Rha0E6MA#gid=0 by Tuesday, November 29, 2011.
Robert Noyce Master Teachers' Workshop Offered at NCSA
December 1 2011 – 9:00am - Institute for Chemistry Literacy through Computational Science
The Robert Noyce Master Teaching Fellowship has been awarded to rural high school teachers through their leadership work in the Institute for Chemistry Literacy through Computational Science. This award, given by the National Science Foundation to exemplary math and science teachers who serve in high-needs school districts, is made on the basis of professional achievement and academic merit, including demonstration of advanced content knowledge in science, mathematics, and technology, and a commitment to being a computational science education advocate. As part of the program, fellows commit to teaching in a high-needs district for four years while they earn their certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. In addition to earning their certification, Master Teaching Fellows participate in online coursework, daylong workshops, and summer Institutes to gain additional content knowledge, and pedagogical expertise. For more information, please visit http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/772/8924462.
XSEDE Partner News
Rice University-designed eyewash earns honors at NASA
Rice University engineering students reached an early peak in the creation of their senior capstone design project when they won a batch of awards at the annual Texas Space Grant Consortium Design Challenge this week. Team Helios and its design for an emergency eyewash for microgravity environments won $550 for prizes in five categories. The ongoing project won "Best Concept Down Selection," "Best Team Patch Design," "Best Team Management" and "Forum Favorite". The team placed second for presentation. To read further, please visit http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=16478.
SDSC’s Gordon Ranks Among Top 50 Fastest Supercomputers in the World
Gordon, a unique data-intensive supercomputer using flash-based memory that will enter production in January at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, made its debut as the 48th fastest supercomputer in the world, according to the latest Top500 list. SDSC researchers submitted an entry for Gordon using 218 teraflops per second (Tflop/s) and 12,608 cores – about 75 percent of the system. Built by SDSC researchers and Appro, a leading developer of supercomputing solutions, Gordon, the next generation Appro Xtreme-X™ Supercomputer is currently undergoing acceptance testing and when made available to the research community on January 1, 2012, it will have 16,384 cores and achieve over 280 Tflop/s. To read further, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR111411_top500.html.
University of South Florida Scientists use TeraGrid/XSEDE resources to determine how shock waves move through solids
A new computer simulation technique developed using TeraGrid and XSEDE resources, provides scientists with a better observation technique for determining how high-speed shock waves move through solids and how the solids respond. University of South Florida scientists made the discovery while working with research colleagues from the Landau Institute of Theoretical Physics in Russia and the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC. To read further, please visit http://news.usf.edu/article/templates/?a=3754&z=123.
Student Engagement
If Google Software Engineers Earn $250,000, Why Aren't More Students Learning Programming?
Excerpt from GOOD Education Prominent technologist Jacques Mattheij recently blogged an eye-popping salary quote revealed to him by an under-30 programmer at Google: "I'm pushing $250K per year." So if software engineers at Google and other tech companies are raking in that kind of dough and are in such high demand, why is it so tough to get more students into programming? To read further, please visit http://www.good.is/post/if-google-software-engineers-earn-250-000-why-aren-t-more-students-learning-programming/.
YouTube Space Lab for High School Students – Call for Submissions
Submission Deadline – December 7, 2011
YouTube Space Lab is a worldwide educational initiative that challenges 14-18 year-old students to design a science experiment that can be performed in space. The two winning experiments will be conducted aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and live streamed on YouTube. A prestigious panel of scientists, astronauts, and educators, including renowned professor Stephen Hawking, will judge the entries with input from the YouTube community. Students may submit in two age categories, 14-16 years old and 17-18 years old, either alone or in groups of up to three. For more information and for submission guidelines, please visit http://www.youtube.com/spacelab?feature=inp-pr-space.
Summer Research Opportunities at Your Fingertips
A great summer research opportunity search site is offered through the Institute for Broadening Participation, Pathways to Science. Tips on effective search techniques include browse all, level of study, institution and geographic location. For more information, please visit
http://www.pathwaystoscience.org/programs.asp?descriptorhub=SummerResearch_Summer%20Research%20Opportunity
Summer Research Opportunities Program
Sponsored by the Committee on Institutional Cooperation
Application Deadline – February 10, 2012
The Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) is a gateway to graduate education at CIC universities. The goal of the program is to increase the number of underrepresented students who pursue graduate study and research careers. SROP helps prepare undergraduates for graduate study through intensive research experiences with faculty mentors and enrichment activities.
For more information, please visit http://www.cic.net/Home/Students/SROP/Home.aspx.
NASA SEEKS SPACE TECHNOLOGY GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP APPLICANTS
NASA is seeking applications from graduate students for the agency's second class of Space Technology Research Fellowships. Applications will be accepted from accredited U.S. universities on behalf of graduate students interested in performing space technology research beginning in fall 2012. The fellowships will sponsor U.S. graduate student researchers who show significant potential to contribute to NASA's strategic space technology objectives through their studies. Sponsored by NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist and the Space Technology Program, the fellowships' continuing goal is to provide the nation with a pipeline of highly skilled engineers and technologists to improve America's technological competitiveness. For more information and application guidelines, please visit http://go.usa.gov/9SL.
Research Features
Cloud Computing in HPC: Rationale for Adoption
Intersect360 Research conducted a survey of High Performance Computing (HPC) users regarding their adoption of cloud computing resources. This study sought to understand the adoption of cloud computing for HPC applications, as well as the barriers, drivers, and rationales for using or evaluating cloud resources. For the purposes of this study, Intersect360 Research defines cloud computing as the outsourcing of all or part of an IT infrastructure or workflow through the web or a web-like interface. This definition is inclusive of both public and private cloud models, as well as hybrid models that blend the two. To read further, please visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/product/78e56d/cloud_computing_in_hpc_rationale_for_adoptio.
