Upcoming XSEDE Conferences and Workshops
University of Tennessee and ORNL Partner to Host Linux Clusters Institute
July 4-6, 2012 - Montpellier, France
HPC@LR is organizing this workshop in partnership with IBM, Mount Sinai Medical School, the Joint Institute of Computational Sciences of the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The workshop is offered to bring participants up to date on the state-of-the-art in the field. It will cover the basic motivations behind High Performance Computing (HPC), examine accelerator computing in depth, look at cloud computing and big data, and end the workshop with what HPC has done for the environment. Tutorials will allow participants to have hands on experience with HPC equipment, including accelerators. For more information and to register, please visit https://www.hpc-lr.univ-montp2.fr/en/lci-2012/presentation-lci-2012-128.
Extreme Scaling Workshop – Early Registration Ends June 15, 2012
July 15-16, 2012 – Chicago, Illinois
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.
XSEDE12 Early Registration Extended to June 19, 2012 – Register Today!
Registration is now open for XSEDE12, the inaugural conference of the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) project, which is supported by the National Science Foundation. The conference runs July 16-20, 2012, at the InterContinental hotel, 505 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago.
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.
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
SDSC to Host Summer Institute for Geosciences August 6-10
Application Deadline – June 15, 2012
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, will host its ninth annual Cyberinfrastructure Summer Institute for Geoscientists (CSIG'12) August 6-10. Since 2004, CSIG has been funded each year by a grant from the Earth Science Division (EAR) of the National Science Foundation (NSF). 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 initiatives. As in prior years, CSIG'12 will cover a broad cross-section of information technology areas and their impact on science and education, while also providing in-depth presentations on selected technical topics. For more information and to register, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/Events/summerinstitute/index.html.
News at 11:00: XSEDE Partners and Staff in the News
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Scientist to Study Next-Generation Advanced Reactor
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a three-year $875,000 grant for a team of Pittsburgh scientists, including Anirban Jana of the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), to develop computational models for turbulent mixing in the VHTR (Very High Temperature Reactor), a Generation IV nuclear reactor. Generation IV reactors offer significant advances in sustainability, safety, reliability and economics. Their designs are currently undergoing study through the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), comprised of 12 countries including the United States, and are expected to be available commercially after 2030. To read further, please visit https://www.xsede.org/doe-grant.
Research Features from Across XSEDE and Campus Champion Partners
Optical Exchange Connects XSEDE and Penn State via PSC Networks
Mountains of genomics data that had to work their way through a bottleneck of network connections now have a direct, high-speed link to the world’s most powerful data-processing resources — thanks to network engineering at the Three Rivers Optical Exchange (3ROX). 3ROX, a high-performance Internet hub operated and managed by the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), has put into place a high-bandwidth link from Galaxy, a data-intensive bioinformatics program at Penn State, to the network backbone of the National Science Foundation’s XSEDE (Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment) program. This link opens the high-performance computing (HPC) resources of XSEDE to a research community that has not traditionally been a big user of HPC but, with emerging genomics technologies, will benefit greatly from using it. To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2012-05-29/optical_exchange_connects_xsede_penn_state_networks.html.
ORNL, Yale Take Steps Toward Fast, Low-Cost DNA Sequencing Device With the Help of University of Tennessee’s Kraken
Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Yale University have developed a new concept for use in a high-speed genomic sequencing device that may have the potential to substantially drive down costs. "The low cost--if it can be achieved--would enable genomic sequencing to be used in everyday clinical practice for medical treatments and preventions," said Predrag Krstic, project director and former ORNL physicist now at the University of Tennessee-ORNL Joint Institute for Computational Sciences The research is part of a nearly decade-long drive by the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health to support the science needed to bring the cost of sequencing a human genome down to $1,000. To read further, please visit http://www.ornl.gov/info/press_releases/get_press_release.cfm?ReleaseNumber=mr20120424-00.
University of Virginia’s Humanities Project Aims to Build Online Hub for Archival Materials
The Social Networks and Archival Context Project (SNAC), developed by Daniel V. Pitti at the University of Virginia's Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities, seeks to build an online central clearinghouse for archival records. SNAC's prototype Web site permits visitors to search for the names of individuals, corporate entities, or families to find related archival context records. SNAC's radial-graph feature enables researchers to probe an individual's social and cultural environment by generating a manipulable web of a subject's links as revealed in archival records, which fits with the project's core goal of visualizing social networks within which archival records were created. To ensure that its data is good, SNAC in its first phase tapped thousands of finding aids from various sources. The second phase of the project will involve 13 state and regional archival consortia and more than 35 U.S., British, and French university and national repositories contributing records. The Encoded Archival Context-Corporate Bodies, Persons, and Families standard was applied to SNAC's records, which "provides connections to this wealth of material that's out there," says the California Digital Library's Rachael Hu. To read further, please visit http://chronicle.com/article/Building-a-Digital-Map-of/131846/.
Educator Curriculum, News and Opportunities
Center Seeks to Transform Teaching Practices Through Partnerships with Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania
Although spatial reasoning is a great predictor of talent in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, these skills are not taught adequately in the educational system, says Temple University professor Nora Newcombe. She is principal investigator for the Spatial Intelligence and Learning Center, which was established to develop the science of spatial learning and to find new ways to help children and adults acquire spatial skills in order for them to be successful in STEM fields. The center consists of research partners from Temple University, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Pennsylvania. Researchers at the center want to encourage classroom teaching that incorporates methods that "spatialize" information, such as using diagrams in science instruction. "Understanding how external symbol systems function in human cognition is crucial to using them effectively in education," Newcombe says. For more information, please visit http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2012/05/17/science-of-spatial-learning.
Student Engagement Opportunities and Information
CMD-IT Student Professional Development Workshop
August 17-18, 2012 – University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
The workshop will provide in-depth professional development for undergraduate and masters level students in computing, with a focus on students from the following underrepresented groups: African-American, Hispanic, Native American, and People with Disabilities. Workshop sessions will include speakers and panelists from industry discussing resume writing, interviewing skills, effective communication, professionalism, and how to take advantage of the first year on the job. Students will also participate in mock interview and resume writing sessions in addition to networking. For more information, please visit https://apply2.cse.tamu.edu/gts/SPDWorkshop/applicant/.
SC Conference: Student Opportunities
November 10-16, 2012 – Salt Lake City, Utah
What’s available? A multitude of opportunities await students in high school through graduate school. The following opportunities are available:
SC12 Student Job Fair
SC12 Student Volunteers
SC12 Student Cluster Competition
SC12 Doctoral Showcase Program
SC12 Experiencing HPC for Undergraduates
SC12 Mentor/Protege Program
For more information on program specifics, please visit http://sc12.supercomputing.org/.
'March Madness' of Coding Contests Highlights Two Trends: Increase in Female Contestants, Career Choice
ACM's International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is used by the top software companies as a tool to find talented recruits, with the main event being a rigorous five-hour programming competition in which three-person teams solve problems at a single workstation. This year's ICPC highlighted a number of trends, including a dearth of female participants, which emphasized the general shortage of women selecting computer science as a study path and career choice. Accompanying the ICPC's expansion to include international teams has been a decline in North American teams' performance. The last time a North American school won the top spot was 1999, and in recent years Chinese and Russian teams have dominated the event. Underlying this trend are deep cultural differences between North Americans and their Asian counterparts, with the former subscribing to a view of computer programming as geeky and socially undesirable. In Asia, and China in particular, programming is taken very seriously, reflecting Asian schools' competitiveness. In fact, the Chinese contestants have fans supporting them in their native country, which demonstrates profoundly dissimilar attitudes to computer science between the Asian and North American regions. To read further, please visit http://www.itworld.com/software/277584/march-madness-coding-contests-highlights-two-trends.
Faculty Opportunities
NASA Seeks Early Stage Innovations for Space Technologies From US Universities
Notices of intent Deadline - June 21, 2012
Proposal Deadline - July 12. 2012
NASA is seeking proposals from accredited U.S. universities focused on innovative, early-stage space technologies that will improve shielding from space radiation, spacecraft thermal management and optical systems. NASA expects to make approximately 10 awards this fall, based on the merit of proposals received. The awards will be made for one year, with an additional year of research possible. The typical annual award value is expected to be approximately $250,000. Second year funding will be contingent on the availability of appropriated funds and technical progress. Only accredited U.S. universities may submit proposals to this solicitation. To view the Early Stage Innovation NASA Research Announcement and submission guidelines, please visit: http://go.usa.gov/P31.
Last But Not Least – Items of Interest
Revenge of the Nerds: Tech Firms Scour College Campuses for Talent
The recent technology boom has created a severe shortage of engineers and software developers, and the technology industry has responded by identifying promising students and wooing them with large salaries and nice perks to leave college and join the professional ranks early. Starting salaries at leading companies for average computer science graduates from top schools range from $75,000 to $100,000, plus signing and relocation bonuses worth $5,000 to $15,000. New hires also can receive small equity grants, with top performers getting additional cash bonuses or larger grants worth as much as one percent of the company. Smaller startups also are boosting their recruiting efforts. Companies often take students to expensive restaurants to discuss internships and jobs, and provide free limo rides to bars, $500 cash giveaways, and raffles for iPads, says Brown University senior computer science major Stephen Poletto. Although it may make sense for some students to take a leave of absence from school to join a startup, most students are better off getting their degrees, says Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science assistant dean Mark Stehlik. For more information, please visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303360504577408431211035166.html.
Why Google Will Soon Answer Your Questions Directly
Google recently launched its "knowledge graph," which displays facts and services in response to search queries. The graph is the most recent step in a process in which search engines are changing into vast brains that respond directly to natural language questions. Google and Microsoft have been compiling vast knowledge databases to help them provide direct answers to search terms. The databases have been built up from publicly available information, such as Wikipedia pages, as well as prices from retail Web sites and user reviews. Google's graph contains 500 million entities linked by tens of thousands of different types of relationships, according to Google researcher Shashidhar Thakur. "Search does a good job of returning pages," Thakur says. "But we can go beyond that and return knowledge." Microsoft's knowledge graph, known as the Satori database, contains 350 million entities, according to Bing Search director Stefan Weitz. Microsoft's Snapshot service will use its knowledge graph to display links to services associated with the search item. Weitz says Snapshot's aim is to guess the real-world action that a user is interested in when they search and to return links that enable them to carry out those actions. To read further, please visit http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21428676.400-why-google-will-soon-answer-your-questions-directly.html?.
MIT Creates Amazing UI From Levitating Orbs
Jinha Lee from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab's Tangible Media Group has been experimenting with developing a tactile user interface (UI) in which floating objects are manipulated in three-dimensional (3D) space. Lee's prototype ZeroN UI harnesses electromagnetism so that a user can place a metal ball in midair. The orb can be repositioned manually by a computer, it can be animated on a path, and it can function as a virtual camera or light source in a 3D scene with the assistance of software. The interface features a 3D actuator housing an electromagnet, which keeps the ball stable by creating a perfectly tuned magnetic loop. The actuator repositions itself to drag the ball around lateral space, moving in tandem with the object and tracking its position with 3D infrared cameras. To read further, please visit http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669799/mit-creates-amazing-ui-from-levitating-orbs
