A note from Craig Stewart, Conference Chair
Dear Colleagues,
We have an opportunity, with this inaugural XSEDE conference, to establish a new level of quality in the conference and in the proceedings that result from the conference.
The only way we can capitalize on this opportunity, though, is for you and your colleagues to submit high quality papers in response to the call for participation. That call is on the web at https://www.xsede.org/xsede12-call-for-participation. The deadline for submission of papers is 25 April.
I am writing to ask your help and participation in the XSEDE12 conference – in the form of writing and submitting papers and encouraging your colleagues and XSEDE users to do the same. We are particularly interested in papers in theEducation, Outreach, and Training track and the Science track. And we are interested in PAPERS. One of the things we have to do to develop a solid reputation for the XSEDExy conference series is to have the proceedings be as valuable as the conference itself is. Abstract-only entries in a proceedings volume don’t do that. Well written papers do.
The note below has a bit of info on submissions for the EOT and Science tracks that should help you in putting together a successful submission. There is plenty of time to put together a paper between now and the April 25 submission deadline!
EOT tracks: Have you ever done something really great with an outreach, training, or education activity and wanted to publish it . . . just to have a journal about science tell you it wasn’t sciency enough and have an education journal tell you that you had failed to ground your work successfully on the conceptual foundation of today’s top educational theory (or worse yet you had grounded it successfully but on yesterday's top theory)? We plan for the EOT track of XSEDE12 to focus on practical information about building a large and diverse scientific, academic, and industrial 21st century workforce. Submissions are especially encouraged that address the inclusion of traditionally underrepresented and underserved communities (including women, minorities, and people with disabilities), institutions, and disciplines. Here’s are the best parts for you: In a matter of less than six months, you can submit a paper, present a talk, and have it out in the proceedings and available to cite. Be the first on your block to have a paper in XSEDE12’s first EOT track session. Be the envy of your friends when you improve your grant competitiveness by having this paper to cite in the ‘broader impacts’ section of your next NSF proposal. Most of all, convey to your colleagues your insights that will help XSEDE do a better job recruiting and training the next generation of scholars, scientists, and staff in the US (and world) so that in the future we will be better able tomake use of the advanced technology we are now helping develop.
Science tracks: The question we get over and over and over and &*#%@#% over is “why should a scientist submit a science paper to XSEDE12 and loose her/his ability to submit their science to a journal that matters to them when trying to get a job / tenure / promotion to full professor”?
The answer: we have carefully constructed the science track so that scientists do NOT have to make such a choice.
We are asking that submissions to the science track of XSEDE12 focus on the computational and methods aspects that enable scientific discoveries, and not be written to serve as a means of disseminating the key scientific discoveries. The science matters, so we want to hear general high points of the science. But the particular feature of the Science track that should make it be of interest is this: it is a GREAT way for scientists and their lab staff and theXSEDE staff with whom they work to publish the methods details of how they achieved science breakthroughs using XSEDE. Science and Nature aren’t going to let you include that level of detail anyway even if you do get a paper accepted in one of those journals. So what we are hoping for is that in a Science Track paper at XSEDE12 there will be a very general highlighting of science accomplishments (“we proved that Higgs Bosons exist,” “we have created a phylogenetic tree of all forms of life including the political system of Belgium*,” “we developed a motor that uses spam email as its only fuel,” etc.) and then highlight the computational and data-intensive science. Here are some ideas about what to put in a Science paper:
Challenges you faced relative to the use of HPC
-What aspects of HPC are most relevant to your work – computing, data, visualization, I/O, etc. – about 10 minutes
-How do you balance usage of HPC versus HTC, and CPU versus GPU?
-Describe the data challenges you are facing (e.g.):
How much data are you managing, and where do you store it?
How did you move the data?
How did you analyze it?
-What barriers did you encounter (I/O, memory contention, networking, etc.)?
-If you were able to overcome those barriers – how did you do it?
-What barriers remain and what are the most promising solutions (that perhaps theXSEDE could help address)
-What challenges lie ahead for advancing your research relative to HPC infrastructure? Are there any promising solutions, either currently available or on the horizon, that students should be aware of?
-What advice would you have for others pursuing research that requires high performance/high throughput/data intensive computing? What general lessons have you learned that may apply to other fields?
Sincerely, Craig
Craig A. Stewart
General Chair, XSEDE12
Executive Director, Pervasive Technology Institute
Associate Dean, Research Technologies
Indiana University
