Upcoming Conferences and Workshops
SDSC Summer Institute: Big Data Supercomputing
August 6-10, 2012 – La Jolla, California
Submission Deadline – June 8, 2012 (scholarship priority)
SDSC is expanding upon its successful Gordon Summer Institute program to include both its Gordon and Trestles supercomputers. This is a unique opportunity for participants to focus on specific challenges in their research, such as optimizing a computationally intensive piece of code to make the best use of SDSC’s HPC resources. Current/potential users of SDSC resources are invited to apply. Experience working in a UNIX/Linux environment is essential. The registration fee is $150. Scholarships available to cover on-campus room and board for participants from U.S. academic and non-profit institutions, but not travel to or from the UC San Diego campus. For more information, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/Events/summerinstitute/.
8th IEEE International Conference on eScience
October 8-12, 2012 – Chicago, Illinois
Abstract submission (required) – July 4, 2012
Paper submission – July 11, 2012
Researchers in all disciplines are increasingly adopting digital tools, techniques and practices, often in communities and projects that span disciplines, laboratories, organizations, and national boundaries. The eScience 2012 conference is designed to bring together leading international and interdisciplinary research communities, developers, and users of eScience applications and enabling IT technologies. The conference serves as a forum to present the results of the latest applications research and product/tool developments and to highlight related activities from around the world. Also, we are now entering the second decade of eScience and the 2012 conference gives an opportunity to take stock of what has been achieved so far and look forward to the challenges and opportunities the next decade will bring. A special emphasis of the 2012 conference is on advances in the application of technology in a particular discipline. Accordingly, significant advances in applications science and technology will be considered as important as the development of new technologies themselves. Further, we welcome contributions in educational activities under any of these disciplines. For more information, including submission guidelines and topics, please visit http://www.ci.uchicago.edu/escience2012/
XSEDE Happenings
Blue Waters and XSEDE Host Extreme Scaling Workshop
July 15-16, 2012 – Chicago, Illinois
Registration Deadline – June 15, 2012 for early registration rates
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications' Blue Waters and Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) projects are hosting the sixth in a series of Extreme Scaling workshops. Petascale systems provide computational science teams with effective, scalable, sustained petascale computing platforms. Our community expects these systems to provide sustained petascale performance on a broad range of science and engineering applications and algorithms, from applications that are compute-intensive to those that are data- and memory-intensive. The workshop will address algorithmic and applications challenges and solutions in large-scale computing systems with limited memory and I/O bandwidth. The presentations and discussions are intended to assist the computational science and engineering community in making effective use of petascale through extreme-scale systems across the spectrum of local campus-scale to national systems. For more information and to register, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/xscale/home
Registration is Now Open for XSEDE12
Among the exciting XSEDE12 speakers are Richard Tapia, mathematician, professor, diversity advocate, and 2011 recipient of the National Medal of Science, as well as an international speaker who will be announced soon. The conference also promises valuable networking opportunities, an Internet cafe with a top-floor view of the city, Early registration runs May 14 through June 18, so register and make your hotel reservations soon. Discounted registration rates also are available for students, one-day passes, and tutorials-only, and a special hotel rate is available to conference attendees. See the Registration link below.
Daily Highlights
Monday, July 16: Tutorials all day, including both half-day and full-day sessions.
Tuesday, July 17: Keynote, plenary and technical sessions, Campus Champions focus group, (optional) evening social events to Willis Tower and Cubs game
Wednesday, July 18, Student Day: Students are encouraged to attend, learn more about supercomputing resources and network with researchers and computing experts. The day includes plenary and technical sessions, a full poster session, student poster contest, the Visualization Showcase, and evening reception.
Thursday, July 19: Plenary and technical sessions, panel discussion, closing speaker, and awards luncheon.
Registration link: http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1059727
Conference website: https://www.xsede.org/xsede12
Hotel, Parking and Travel info: https://www.xsede.org/web/xsede12/hotel/travel
XSEDE12 Features Diverse Speakers from Around the World
XSEDE12—the inaugural conference for science, education, outreach, software, and technology related to the National Science Foundation’s eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment—will feature a diverse slate of international speakers, ranging from some of the best computational scientists in the world to some of the most innovative leaders working to bring about profound societal change through technological leadership. The conference also will feature a keynote address from distinguished mathematician, professor, and diversity advocate Richard Tapia. For a complete list of speakers, please visit
https://www.xsede.org/web/xsede12/welcome.
June 2012 Summer Institutes at Rice University – Register Now!
Time is running out register your employees now for the summer institutes organized by the Ken Kennedy Institute at Rice University! Let Rice world class faculty train your staff and summer interns in the latest tools and techniques needed for High Performance Computing and Big-Data. Participants will return to the office armed with fresh insights and the latest information.
HPC Summer Institute - June 4-8, 2012
This year the HPC Summer Institute is a week later than in past years. We hope this later start data will work better for accommodating summer intern schedules.
http://hpcsi.rice.edu
Big-Data Summer Institute - June 18-22, 2012|
We are very excited to introduce the Big-data Summer Institute. Big data is not only a big-buzz, it is big business.
http://bigdatasi.rice.edu
2012 Summer NCSI/XSEDE Workshops – Register Today!
The 2012 NCSI/XSEDE workshops for undergraduate faculty, pre-college teachers, postdocs, grad students, and undergrads accompanying a faculty member is now open for registration. Preference for locations has been given to campuses developing computational science programs and committing to substantial local participation. A limited number of travel scholarships are available to faculty interested in attending the workshops. The scholarships will provide partial or full reimbursement of travel costs to and from the workshops and/or local housing costs. Preference will be given to faculty from institutions that are formally engaged with the XSEDE education program and to those who can provide some matching travel funds. Recipients are expected to be present for the full workshop. If you are interested in a travel scholarship, please visit http://www.computationalscience.org/scholarship. Scholarship applications can be submitted after you apply for the workshop and is available from the page where you review your application. For a complete list of workshops and workshop locations, please visit http://www.shodor.org/succeed/workshops/current/.
XSEDE Training at a Glance
Rice University HPC Summer Institute
June 4-8, 2012 – Houston, Texas
For more information, please visit http://hpcsi.rice.edu.
PSC Computer Simulation of Biomolecular Dynamics and Reactions Workshop
June 5-8, 2012 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
For more information, please visit http://www.nrbsc.org/education/workshops/biomolecular_simulations_2012/.
Rice University Big-Data Summer Institute
June 18-22, 2012 - Houston, Texas
For more information, please visit http://bigdatasi.rice.edu/
Data Storage - Architectures and Networking (webinar)
June 26, 2012 – 1:00pm- 2:00pm CT
Registration Deadline – June 22, 2012
For more information, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/xup/course-calendar/-/training/class/44.
I2PC Summer School on Multicore Programming
July 9-13, 2012 – Urbana-Champaign, Illinois
For more information, please visit http://i2pc.cs.illinois.edu/summer.html.
SDSC 2012 UC-HIPSCC International Summer School on AstroComputing
July 9-20, 2012 – La Jolla, California
For more information, please visit http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/ISSAC2012.html.
TACC Summer Supercomputing Institute 2012
July 30- August 3, 2012 – Austin, Texas
Application Deadline – June 15, 2012
For more information, please visit http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/summer-institute.
SDSC Supercomputing Summer Institute
August 4-10, 2012 – La Jolla, California
Registration Deadline – June 8, 2012
For more information, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/Events/summerinstitute/index.html.
For a complete list of past and future XSEDE training opportunities, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/xup/course-calendar.
Research Features from Across XSEDE and Campus Champion Partners
Ohio Supercomputer Center Researchers Take Virus-Tracking Software Worldwide
Researchers at Ohio State University (OSU) and the Ohio Supercomputer Center are expanding the reach of SUPRAMAP, a Web-based application that synthesizes large, diverse datasets so researchers can better understand the spread of infectious diseases across hosts and geography. The researchers want to use SUPRAMAP to reconfigure the server so that other researchers and public safety officials can develop front-end applications that draw on the logic and computing resources of SUPRAMAP. "Our software allows public health scientists to update and view maps on the evolution and spread of pathogens," says OSU professor Daniel Janies. The original implementation of SUPRAMAP was built with a single client that was tightly coupled to the server software. "We now have decoupled the server from the original client to provide a modular Web service for [poyws.org (POY)], an open source, freely available phylogenetic analysis program," says the American Museum of Natural History's Ward Wheeler. The researchers developed GEOGENES, a client application that demonstrates the POY Web service. "Unlike in SUPRAMAP, in which the user is required to create and upload data files, in GEOGENES the user works from a graphical interface to query a curated dataset, thus freeing the user from managing files," Wheeler says. To read further, please visit http://www.osc.edu/press/releases/2012/janies2012.shtml.
Origami-Inspired Design Method Merges Engineering, Art at Purdue University
Purdue University researchers have developed Kaleidogami, a method for creating robotic systems and shape-shifting sculptures from a sheet of paper using computational algorithms and tools. "One of our aims is to provide a new geometry-inspired art form, reconfigurable structures, in the emerging field of kinetic art," says Purdue professor Karthik Ramani. The researchers also have developed Kinectogami to create foldable robot-like mechanisms that can reconfigure themselves to suit the terrain. "The folded designs have an elegant simplicity, while using paper and cardboard-like materials that are flat is practical because they are very inexpensive and lightweight," says Purdue doctoral student Wei Gao. To read further, please visit http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2012/120521RamaniKaleidogami.html.
SDSC Announces ‘Center of Excellence’ for Predictive Analytics
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego is launching a new "center of excellence" aimed at leveraging SDSC's data-intensive expertise and resources to help create the next generation of data researchers by leading a collaborative, nationwide education and training effort among academia, industry, and government. SDSC is providing seed funding for the program, called PACE for Predictive Analytics Center of Excellence. The program's goal is to develop and deploy a comprehensive suite of integrated, sustainable, and secure cyberinfrastructure (CI) services to accelerate research and education in predictive analytics – or the process of using a variety of statistical techniques from modeling, data mining, and game theory to analyze current and historical facts to make predictions, as well as assess risks and opportunities, about future events. Predictive analytics are now being used in a wide variety of fields such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals, financial services, insurance, and telecommunications. To read further, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR041712_pace.html.
Rice University Computing Experts Unveil Superefficient ‘Inexact’ Chip
Rice University researchers have developed an "inexact" computer chip that boosts power and resource efficiency by allowing for occasional errors. The researchers say the chips are 15 times more efficient than current microchips. "This work opens the door to interesting energy-efficiency opportunities of using inexact hardware together with traditional processing elements," says Hewlett-Packard's Paolo Faraboschi. The researchers cut power consumption by allowing the processing components to make a few mistakes. By managing the probability of errors and limiting which calculations produce errors, the researchers developed a method to simultaneously cut energy demands and boost performance. "When we factored in size and speed gains, these chips were 7.5 times more efficient than regular chips," says Rice researcher Avinash Lingamneni. The technology is expected to find use in application-specific processors, such as special-purpose embedded microchips for hearing aids, cameras, and other devices. To read further, please visit http://news.rice.edu/2012/05/17/computing-experts-unveil-superefficient-inexact-chip/.
Cornell Researchers Develop a Robot Learns How to Tidy Up After You
Cornell University researchers have developed a robot that can survey a room, identify all its objects, and determine where they belong and put them away. "Our major contribution is that we are now looking at a group of objects, and this is the first work that places objects in non-trivial places," says Cornell professor Ashutosh Saxena. The robot's algorithms enable it to consider the nature of an object in deciding what to do with it. In testing, the robot was as much as 98 percent successful in identifying and placing objects it had seen before. First the robot surveys the room with a Microsoft Kinect three-dimensional camera. Various images are combined to create a general perspective view of the room, which the robot's computer splits into blocks according to discontinuities of color and shape. To read further, please visit http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May12/PlacingNewObjects.html.
Educator Curriculum, Opportunities and Information
Study Shows Promise and Challenges of ‘Hybrid’ Courses
Students learn equally well in a course that is taught partly online as they do in a traditional classroom, according to an Ithaka S+R report. However, the report says hybrid courses, which offer both online and traditional classroom instruction, will not reach their potential until they are easier for faculty members to customize and more fun for students. The conclusion that hybrid courses are no better or worse than traditional ones is not "a bland result," says study co-author William G. Bowen. "We felt it was important to do a rigorous, randomized study so we could see if the extreme claims on either side of the divide are justified." The study compared how much students at six public universities learned after taking a prototype introductory statistics course in either a hybrid or a traditional format. "We find that learning outcomes are essentially the same--that students in the hybrid format pay no 'price' for this mode of instruction in terms of pass rates, final exam scores, and performance on a standardized assessment of statistical literacy," the report says. To read further, please visit http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/study-shows-promise-and-challenges-of-hybrid-courses/36350.
National Security Agency Seeks Cyber-Ops Curriculum
The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has launched a new cyber-ops program at selected universities in an effort to broaden U.S. cyber expertise needed for secret intelligence operations against adversaries on computer networks. The cyber-ops curriculum is designed to provide fundamental education for intelligence, military, and law enforcement jobs so classified they will only be disclosed to some students and faculty, who must pass security clearance requirements. "We're trying to create more [quality cyber operators], and yes they have to know some of the things that hackers know, they have to know a lot of other things too, which is why you really want a good university to create these people for you," says NSA's Neal Ziring. He notes the mindset 15 years ago was that of computer systems seldom being hacked and of security hardening being sufficient to ensure protection. "What we've realized these days is ... that systems are under attack constantly," Ziring says. To read further, please visit http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/22/us-usa-intelligence-education-idUSBRE84L12T20120522.
Google Funds Computer Teachers and Raspberry Pis in England
Google is partnering with the Teach First charity to train and fund British teachers specializing in computer science. Additional funds will be provided for teaching aids, such as Raspberry Pis or Arduino starter kits, notes Google chairman Eric Schmidt. He says the United Kingdom has been throwing away its great computing heritage by focusing on how to use software instead of how to make it. "Put simply, technology breakthroughs can't happen without the scientists and engineers to make them," Schmidt says. "The challenge that society faces is to equip enough people, with the right skills and mindset, and to get them to work on the most important problems." Teach First puts exceptional graduates on a six-week training program before sending them to schools where they teach for a two-year period. The Google funds will be used to train more than 100 first-rate science teachers over the next three years, with the majority focused on computer science. "It's vital to expose kids to this early if they're to have the chance of a career in computing," Schmidt says. Each of the 100 teachers will be given a budget to buy equipment related to their teaching. To read further, please visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18182280.
U.S. Tech Worker Shortage Looms, Study Warns
If the U.S. does not adjust its immigration policies to make it easier for foreign-born technology workers to reside in the country, it could fall behind the rest of the world in growth and innovation, according to a recent Partnership for A New American Economy study. The study found that just 4.4 percent of U.S.-born undergraduates are enrolled in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, compared to 33.9 percent of students in Singapore, 31.2 percent of those in China, 12.4 percent of those in Germany, and 6.1 percent of those in the United Kingdom. These statistics will result in a shortage of more than 200,000 high-tech workers by 2018 in the United States, according to the study. To read further, please visit http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/outsourcing/240000853.
Student Engagement Opportunities and Information
PSC Computer Simulation of Biomolecular Dynamics and Reactions Workshop for Graduate Students and Post-doctoral Researchers
June 5-8, 2012 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The workshop will present computational approaches for the simulation of biomolecular dynamics and reactions, primarily focusing on the latter. Lectures will be held on the relevant theoretical background including the prediction and analysis of protein dynamics using normal mode analyses (NMA) and elastic network models (ENM), molecular mechanics (MM) force field parameterization of small molecules, the applicability of Quantum Chemical (QC) methods for large molecules, re-parameterization strategies for improving Semiempirical Molecular Orbital (SMO) methods for specific reactions, and hybrid QC/MM potential energy functions and simulation techniques on high performance computers. In-depth tutorials will be presented on applying and interpreting the results from ENM-based NMA using ProDy. The workshop is designed for graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and faculty in computational biophysics and physical organic chemistry who have experience with computational chemistry methods and seek to enhance their capabilities to include the modeling of enzymatic reactions. Participants are encouraged to discuss and work on bio-molecular systems from their own research during the workshop.
For more information, please visit http://www.nrbsc.org/education/workshops/biomolecular_simulations_2012/.
SDSC 2012 UC-HIPSCC International Summer School on AstroComputing
July 9-20, 2012 – La Jolla, California
This is the third UC-HiPACC International Summer School on AstroComputation. The 2010 school at UCSC was on galaxy simulations and the 2011 school at Berkeley and LBNL was on computational explosive astrophysics. A key feature of the UC-HiPACC summer schools has been the access by all students to accounts on a powerful supercomputer on which the lecturers have put relevant codes and sample inputs and outputs, and the inclusion in the school of workshops each afternoon in which the students can learn how to use these tools. For the 2012 summer school on AstroInformatics, all students will have accounts on the new Gordon data-centric supercomputer at SDSC, and many relevant astronomical datasets and simulation outputs will be put on Gordon's massive FLASH memory for the use of the students. For more information about the workshop, including speakers and topics, please visit http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/ISSAC2012.html.
CSIG’12: Geoinformatics Education and Training for the 21st Century Geoscience Workforce
August 6-10, 2012 – La Jolla, California
The 9th Cyberinfrastructure Summer Institute for Geoscientists (CSIG’12) will be held at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California, San Diego. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the theme for CSIG’12 is “Geoinformatics Education and Training for the 21st Century Geoscience Workforce”, reflecting the emphasis on preparing geoscientists for cyber-enabled research and education. As in prior years, CSIG’12 will include a broad survey of information technologies and their impact on science and education, but also focus on a few key technical topics, with in-depth presentations. Lectures provided by geoinformatics researchers and practitioners will introduce the technical topics and provide descriptions of the state-of-the-art, with examples taken from current geoscience-related cyberinfrastructure efforts. The topics will be chosen from among a broad selection including, data discovery, data access, and data mining; data and system interoperability; services-oriented architecture; workflow systems; use of semantic technologies and development and use of ontologies; high-performance computing; and cloud computing. For more information, please visit http://www.geongrid.org/index.php/education/summer_institute/csig_2012/.
News at 11:00: XSEDE Staff and Partners in the News
UC San Diego Names Eighth Chancellor, Pradeep Khosla, Currently Dean of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University
Pradeep Khosla was officially appointed UC San Diego’s eighth Chancellor at today’s UC Board of Regents meeting. Currently the Dean of Engineering at the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University, Khosla will begin his tenure at UC San Diego August 1. In his first interview as the Chancellor-Designate, Khosla articulated his passion for students and higher education, his commitment to shared governance at UC San Diego, and his excitement about being its next leader. “When I think about education, I think about the next-generation citizen, the next-generation leader, the one who is educated and trained in using both the left and the right brain in solving problems. And I cannot imagine an education better than the one provided by UC San Diego, because of its great strengths in the arts and humanities, the sciences and medicine, and engineering and technology,” said Khosla. To read further, please visit http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/features/first_look_at_uc_san_diegos_8th_chancellor_pradeep_khosla#.
Last But Not Least – Computational News of Interest
Data Mining Your Desktop
Hewlett-Packard (HP) Labs has created the Collective Project, a workplace social network that tracks internal documents created or opened by about 10,000 company employees. The Collective Project assigns topic words to each document by mining its content, and then creates knowledge maps and family trees centered on employees and subject areas by computing their similarity. The project aims to show how people within large organizations can automatically be connected based on "inferred expertise," providing a resource that staff can tap into to get answers to queries. "You don't have to update a profile, you don't have to declare your interests or expertise, you don't have to search," says HP Labs Israel director Ruth Bergman. "The tool makes knowledge instantly accessible, rather than being a laborious process of discovery and input." organizations. Users can customize permissions to share the full content of some documents, but prevent its retrieval by others. To read further, please visit http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/40443/.
Apple iPads Could Pick Up on Unique Biological Traits in Individual Hand Gestures
Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly) researchers have developed technology that can biometrically authenticate users' hand gestures with multi-touch sensors. The researchers plan to create an iPad app that replaces the use of text passwords with strokes that a hand can make on a keyboard. The researchers, led by NYU-Poly doctoral student Napa Sae-Bae, developed an algorithm to detect individuals' unique biological traits, such as the shape of their hands, how their fingers move in relation to one another, and the length of their fingers. During testing, the system achieved a 90 percent accuracy rate in verifying that gestures belonged to the individuals who made them. The researchers note the technology could lead to new ways to authenticate users into government systems and to detect malicious attackers. To read further, please visit http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2012/05/ipads-could-pick-unique-biological-traits-individual-hand-gestures/55870/.
Vint Cerf, 'Father of the Internet', Warns Web Freedom Is Under Attack
Governments around the world are trying to use intellectual property and cybersecurity issues to control the Internet, says Google vice president and chief Internet evangelist Vint Cerf. "Political structures ... are often scared by the possibility that the general public might figure out that they don't want them in power," Cerf says. He speculates that the International Telecommunications Union will likely become the global Internet cop, and expects the group to try to lock in mandatory intellectual property protections as a backdoor for easy Web surveillance. The public should view even good-faith efforts at Internet policymaking skeptically because balancing freedom and security "isn't something that government alone is going to figure out," Cerf says. To read further, please visit http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/228561-father-of-the-internet-warns-web-freedom-is-under-attack.
Intel Researchers Plot a Smarter, Personalized Cloud
Intel researchers recently launched a project to populate neighborhoods with sensors that provide a more accurate picture of elements such as pollution and weather. Intel's Terrance O'Shea says the plan involves gathering weather and air quality information from the sensors, finding the user's exact position, and delivering accurate information for that location using a personalized cloud service. Intel has designed a pollution sensor chip that can be installed in stores and other locations in the neighborhood. The stores carrying sensors can make money by delivering advertisements through cloud services. Intel already is planning a future redesign of its chips that will be equipped with near-threshold voltage technology, which enables central processing units to operate at extremely low voltage levels. That technology could help make it practical to include the sensors in mobile devices. Intel also aims to make cities smarter, and the company has several research projects that use sensor kits for energy, traffic light, and gas station management. To read further, please visit http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9226618/Intel_researchers_plot_a_smarter_personalized_cloud.
