XSEDE Happenings

An XSEDE12 Thank You from John Towns

“I want to express to everyone involved in XSEDE12 from planning, support, execution and participation for a wonderful experience.  This year we had a noticeably different and much more exciting atmosphere throughout the conference.  The caliber of our speakers and contributor via tutorial, papers and poster was fantastic and sets a high bar for next year.  Many folks at the conference provided unsolicited comments to me invariably echoing these same sentiments. A little noted item that I think is indicative of the expanding recognition of the conference is that participation on the conference committee by folks not directly funded by the XSEDE project.   I have seen our Campus Champions getting more involved and our friends from partner projects such as Chander Sehgal from OSG.  To me this is another important indicator as to how the meeting is valued by the larger community.”

Upcoming Conferences and Workshops

SDSC Summer Institute: Big Data Supercomputing
August 6-10, 2012 – La Jolla, California

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/.

Workshop on Managing Systems Automatically and Dynamically (MAD)
At the USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI October 8-10, 2012 – Hollywood, California

The complexity of modern systems makes them extremely challenging to manage. From highly heterogeneous desktop environments to large-scale systems that consist of many thousands of software and hardware components, these systems exhibit a wide range of complex behaviors are difficult to predict. As such, although raw computational capability of these systems grows each year, much of it is lost to (i) complex failures that are difficult to localize and (ii) to poor performance and efficiency that results from system configuration that is inappropriate for the user’s workload. The MAD workshop focuses on techniques to make complex systems manageable, addressing the problem’s three major aspects: For more information please visit http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=132162306&gid=4178444&trk=eml-anet_dig-b_nd-pst_ttle-cn&ut=377CZVOKV4n5k1.

8th IEEE International Conference on eScience
October 8-12, 2012 – Chicago, Illinois

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, please visit http://www.ci.uchicago.edu/escience2012/

XSEDE Training at a Glance

TACC Summer Supercomputing Institute 2012
July 30- August 3, 2012 – Austin, Texas
For more information, please visit http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/summer-institute.

SDSC Supercomputing Summer Institute
August 6-10, 2012 – La Jolla, California
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

UC Berkeley’s Reimer Perfects New Techniques for Spintronics and Quantum Computing


Researchers the University of California, Berkeley and the City College of New York are developing techniques to overcome the physical limitations of computer chips in order to create the next generation of faster and smaller electronic devices. The researchers are using lasers to control the fundamental nuclear spin properties of semiconductor materials to speed the creation of spintronic devices that use electrons' spin state to control memory and logic circuits. "Our laser techniques can allow quantum computing to become far more practical and inexpensive," says Berkeley's Jeff Reimer. He notes that spintronics enables computer chips to operate more quickly and with less power. "Now we want to use this knowledge to develop better spintronic devices," Reimer says. The researchers have found they can use circularly polarized laser beams to control spin states in gallium arsenide. To read further, please visit http://chemistry.berkeley.edu/publications/news/2012/reimer-perfects-new-techniques-for-spintronics-and-quantum-computing.php.

Carnegie Mellon Researchers Develpp Smart Headlights that Make Rain and Snow 'Disappear'


Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed a car headlight system that detects raindrops and snowflakes and then "dis-illuminates" them as they fall by adjusting the light beams, making it easier for the driver to see the road. The system works by lighting the raindrops for a few milliseconds with a digital projector so a camera can capture a set of images, which are then processed with an algorithm that analyzes their location to predict where the raindrops will fall. The headlights then emit a binary light pattern, with black for where the system does not want to illuminate the rain and white to illuminate the space around the rain. The process takes 13 milliseconds, according to Carnegie Mellon researcher Srinivasa Narasimhan. "Demonstration of the prototype system with an artificial rain drop generator is encouraging, making the falling rain disappear in front of the observer," the researchers note. To read further, please visit http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-07/04/headlights-make-rain-disappear.

Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center’s MARC Program Builds Bioinformatics Expertise at Minority Universities

A training program of the National Resource for Biomedical Supercomputing (NRBSC) at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) has taken a unique pro-active role toward filling the gap in scientific training at minority-serving institutions (MSIs). Since 2001, with funding from NIH’s National Institute of General Medical Sciences, PSC’s MARC (Minority Access to Research Careers) program has evolved from providing individual training in what was at first a newly emerging discipline, bioinformatics, to a focus on the development of curricula and research programs at partner universities. “We’ve implemented a multi-disciplinary course in sequence-based bioinformatics at more than 10 universities,” says PSC scientist Hugh Nicholas, who directs the MARC program. As of 2011, with renewal of the program from NIH for five years, the effort of Nicholas and his PSC colleagues, Troy Wymore and Alex Ropelewski, in working with five partner MSIs — North Carolina AT & T; University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez; Johnson C. Smith University; Tennessee State University; and Jackson State University — is to build a concentration or minor in bioinformatics. This expanded outreach reflects dramatic changes in bioinformatics, a field that over the last few years has exploded, because of powerful new sequencing technologies, with data to be analyzed and opportunities to do important research. To read further, please visit http://psc.edu/index.php/newscenter/71-2012press/700-pscs-marc-program-builds-bioinformatics-expertise-at-minority-universities.

First Fellows Named for XSEDE’s Campus Champions Program

The National Science Foundation’s Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) program has named the first Fellows for its Campus Champions (CC) program, pairing a Champion with a member of XSEDE's Extended Collaborative Support Services (ECSS) staff to work on real-world science and engineering projects for about one year. Campus Champions are volunteers who advise researchers on the use of high-end cyberinfrastructure (including XSEDE resources) at their respective campuses. The goal of the CC Fellows program is to increase expertise on campuses by including CCs as partners in XSEDE's ECSS projects. To read further, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR071012_xsede.html.

Educator Curriculum, Opportunities and Information

Doing Apps and Start-Ups While Still in High School

Palo Alto High School students recently founded the Paly Entrepreneurs Club, an extracurricular group for students who want to create start-ups and develop future technologies. The group meets weekly during the school year to discuss their ventures and ideas, explore issues such as money-raising strategies and new markets, and host guest speakers. “I want to build something that is tied to what is happening next,” says Paly member Matthew Slipper. Club members have been working on several projects, such as a social network to help teenagers organize study groups, and a trading network for Bitcoin, a virtual currency. “The goal here is inspirational,” says Aaron Bajor, one of the group's founders. "A great idea can hit you any time. Even if you do not have a great idea yet, if you have capabilities and passion others will want you on their team.”  To read further, please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/technology/palo-alto-high-club-fosters-would-be-tech-moguls.html.

STEM Fields And The Gender Gap: Where Are The Women?


The STEM fields have always had a problem attracting females, and that is leading many to consider new strategies for getting more women into computer science jobs. Most troubling is the fact that, since 2000, women have seen no employment growth in STEM jobs. Today, women hold only 27% of all computer science jobs, and that number isn't growing. The article considers a number of factors accounting for this gender imbalance - such as the relatively low percentage of women completing a bachelor's degree in computer science - before suggesting several broad changes that could help to reverse the trend. Many attribute the difference to a lack of female role models in STEM fields. It's a vicious circle: the reason there aren't more women computer scientists is because there aren't more women computer scientists. The problem starts as early as grade school, where young girls are rarely encouraged to pursue math and science. In addition, there exists an unconscious bias that science and math are typically "male" fields while humanities and arts are primarily "female" fields. Popular culture plays a role, as well. Girls grow up seeing women in powerful positions as doctors and lawyers on TV, but the media continues to promote stereotypes when it comes to programmers. To read further, please visit http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml.

Student Engagement Opportunities and Information

How to Fix the Gender Gap in Tech


At a time when women continue to lag behind men within the computer science field, what can be done to bridge the gender gap in technology? Today, women hold 27% of all computer science jobs, down from 30% a decade ago. In addition, they account for just 20% of undergraduate CS majors, down from 36% in 1986. Even among the new generation of tech companies, fewer than 10% of all computer programmers are women. Narrowing the gender gap will impact earnings and career enrichment for women. Over the past decade, three times as many jobs have been created in STEM fields than in non-STEM fields, and STEM workers have been far less likely to experience unemployment. Women who work in STEM also earn more than other female workers, with the wage gap between the genders smaller than in other fields. To read further, please visit http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/06/gender_gap_in_technology_and_silicon_valley_.html.

Faculty Opportunities

NSF Call for Proposals: Computer and Network Systems (CNS): Core Programs
Submission Dates - September 20- October 9, 2912

CISE’s Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS) supports research and education projects that develop new knowledge in two core programs:

• Computer Systems Research (CSR) program; and
• Networking Technology and Systems (NeTS) program.

Proposers are invited to submit proposals in three project classes, which are defined as follows:

• Small Projects - up to $500,000 total budget with durations up to three years;
• Medium Projects - $500,001 to $1,200,000 total budget with durations up to four years; and
• Large Projects - $1,200,001 to $3,000,000 total budget with durations up to five years.

 For more information and submission guidelines, please visit http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2012/nsf12582/nsf12582.htm?WT.mc_id=USNSF_27&WT.mc_ev=click.

News at 11:00: XSEDE Partners, Students and Staff in the News

SDSC Mourns the Loss of Allan Snavely

Dr. Allan Snavely, a widely recognized expert in high-performance computing whose innovative thinking led to the development of the Gordon supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego, died of an apparent heart attack on Saturday, July 14. He was 49. Dr. Snavely joined SDSC in 1994 and held a variety of leadership positions, serving as associate director of the center before joining the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as Chief Technical Officer earlier this year. He was part of LLNL’s Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program. While at SDSC Snavely also was an adjunct professor in computer science and engineering at UC San Diego. To read further, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR071612_snavely.html.

UCSD’s Larry Smarr: The Measured Man


California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) computer scientist Larry Smarr envisions the development of "a distributed planetary computer of enormous power," one that comprises 1 billion processors and that can generate a working computational simulation of each person's body, within a decade. This model will supply data that software will mine to produce guidance about diet, medication, and other individual health strategies based on real-time bodily file://localhost/message/%253C1342530226340.166160833081600709393023004391921027042.87220902.digest_daily_USNSF.nsf-update@nsf.gov%253Ereadings. "By 2030, there is not going to be that much more to learn [about one's body] ... I mean, you are going to get the wiring diagram, basically," Smarr predicts. He believes this system will allow constant monitoring of one's bodily functions and genome decryption so that incipient disease, or even the genetic tendency for disease, can be identified and addressed with designed treatments. To read further, please visit http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/the-measured-man/9018/.

Purdue e-pubs Reach Milestone: 2.5 Million Downloads

The Purdue e-Pubs digital repository (www.purdue.edu/epubs) is an open access software platform, which provides access to full-text publications as well as unique previously unpublished scholarly content. In June, its 2.5 millionth download took place. With over 26,194 publications uploaded to date, this puts Purdue e-Pubs among the most popular university repositories in North America. Purdue University Libraries began providing the Purdue community access to Purdue e-Pubs in 2006, as a solid platform for publishing. It provides online publishing support for original publications as well as hosting for Purdue-affiliated articles, technical reports, white papers, conference proceedings, student scholarship, and more. To read further, please visit http://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/2012/07/16/purdue-e-pubs-reaches-milestone-2-5-millionth-download/

TACC Works with Industry to Spur Innovation

TACC's Science & Technology Affiliates for Research (STAR) program offers industry access to the center's powerful computing and visualization systems and to support research & development and boost industrial competitiveness. TACC also offers unique and valuable expertise across the full landscape of advanced computing, which provides the foundation for strong relationships that may result in innovative discoveries, faster time-to-solution, and increased market share for our partners. STAR partners can access TACC systems and consult with our expert staff; participate in training courses in programming, applications, and visualization; and recruit from a pool of talented, well-trained graduate and undergraduate students from UT Austin. To read further, please visit http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/newsletter/1207/star.

Last But Not Least – Computational News of Interest

White House Official Calls for Broad Regulations on Internet Use

 White House Office of Science and Technology deputy chief technology officer Daniel Weitzner is calling for a broad and flexible regulatory framework for Internet use, leaving the specifics of implementation to the individual industries. "We think the flexibility of having a broad sense of principles but then tuning them to a particular business context is critical, and provides ... what we think the Internet needs," Weitzner says. He says the U.S. Federal Trade Commission would ensure that industries comply with the broad framework, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's recent set of proposals could act as guidelines for broad Internet regulation. Weitzner says the basis of these guidelines should fit three main principles. The first involves the large scale of the Internet, which indicates that regulatory structures cannot mimic those in other industries. Second, Internet public policy must accommodate and encourage the speed of the rapidly developing Internet medium. Finally, there needs to be international cooperation in regulating the Web, and global standards to fill the void left by a lack of treaties, according to Weitzner. He notes the Obama administration is having extensive dialogues with other countries to encourage their governments to allow Internet freedom. To read further, please visit http://cdn.nextgov.com/nextgov/interstitial.html?rf=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nextgov.com%2Fcio-briefing%2F2012%2F07%2Fwhite-house-official-calls-broad-regulations-internet-use%2F56713%2F.

USC Researchers Digitize AIDS Quilt to Make It a Research Tool

The AIDS Quilt and a tabletop browser were on display at the recent Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C. In 2010 the University of Southern California's Anne Balsamo launched an effort to digitize the quilt in an attempt to make the memorial more accessible via photos. The quilt consists of 48,000 panels sewn into blocks of eight panels each, and a digital version enables people to easily find blocks and zoom in and out of different areas of a project that covers more than 1.3 million square feet. Users can currently search only by name, but a grant from the U.S. National Endowment of the Humanities could enable the NAMES Project Foundation to expand the digital database of the quilt to make it searchable by parameters such as city, birth, and death dates. Crowdsourcing could be used to make the database searchable by individual panel instead of block, relying on volunteers to identity features such as materials, images, and dates to make it a comprehensive research tool. To read further, please visit http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/researchers-digitize-aids-quilt-to-make-it-a-research-tool/37783.

Software for Managing Microcredits for Higher Education Students

Technical University of Madrid researchers have developed Uburyo, software for managing microcredits awarded to university students in developing countries. The software includes a grant manager and an employment office, which are supervised by an international committee that assures the credit award and repayment system is transparent and trustworthy. Universities can use the system to administer grants in order to grow financially and provide underprivileged students with access to higher education. Attempts at funding higher education in developing countries from development cooperation funds or donations have been held up by problematic funding mechanisms and the loss of invested capital because the loaned money could not be retrieved. In order for the system to work, the university must award grant holders paid technical jobs. The educational microcredits system does away with aid dependence, and students take responsibility for the grant that they receive. To read further, please visit http://www.fi.upm.es/?id=tablon&acciongt=consulta1&idet=1129.