HPC Happenings

 

XSEDE Distributes New Tools to Help Researchers and Campus Cluster Administrator

Sharing national cyberinfrastructure and managing local campus resources just got easier. The Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) announced today that it is releasing a new set of software resources. These tools are designed to allow campus system administrators to install current open-source XSEDE cluster software on their local campus or lab cluster. XSEDE is a National Science Foundation-funded project that provides the infrastructure, support services and technical expertise researchers need to address some of today's most complex and challenging research issues. When research grows bigger than what can be accomplished in the lab, XSEDE makes it easier for researchers to use larger systems – like powerful supercomputers Big Red II, Kraken, or any number of others across the nation – to get their research done. To read further, please visit https://www.xsede.org/xsede-distributes-new-tools-to-help-researchers.

XSEDE, PRACE Call for Requests of Joint Support
Application Deadline – January 31, 2014

XSEDE and PRACE, major research infrastructures, providing peer-reviewed access to high-end HPC resources and services in the United States and Europe, respectively, are now exploring options to extend collaborative efforts to other activities that effectively support research teams spanning the US and Europe. One of these options is the provisioning of interoperable services; this is a call to invite research teams that are using both infrastructures--or will be interested in doing so in the future--to express their requirements for such interoperable services. Resource allocations are not part of this call, however allocations for testing purposes will be possible. The XSEDE Senior Management Team and the PRACE Board of Directors invite requests for support for such joint activities by XSEDE and PRACE. The request should target the enhancement of the interoperability between XSEDE and PRACE. The selected proposals will receive support both from XSEDE and PRACE-3IP project in order to improve the interoperability. For testing the implemented solutions on the XSEDE and PRACE systems time can be requested. Requests for Support should be submitted to prace-xsede@prace-ri.eu or prace-xsede@xsede.org. 

Building it Big in Texas: Community College Program Trains Biotech Workforce

Biotechnology companies such as Genentech, Ambion and Life Technologies rely on specially trained workers to keep their research and development (R&D) labs and their manufacturing processes running smoothly. Biotechnicians may grow cells for use in drug development, analyze DNA or monitor biofuel production. The unique equipment and techniques used in the biotech field has often required companies to provide on-the-job training to new employees. However, an innovative center at the City College of San Francisco in California called Bio-Link has created a network of community college partners throughout the country that tailor their biotechnician training programs to the needs of local biotech industry. Students successfully completing these two-year programs can walk into a job ready to perform essential techniques and operate state-of-the-art equipment.  To read further, please visit http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=129672&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click.

Argonne Lab Taking Next Steps to Exascale Computing
InformationWeek

Scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory's Mathematics and Computer Science Division working on the Argo project are creating prototype exascale operating system and runtime software that would reach the exaflop mark. Scientists from the Lawrence Livermore and Pacific Northwest National Laboratories and several universities are collaborating with the Argonne team on the project, which is funded through a $9.75-million Department of Energy Office of Science grant. Computer chips are no longer making performance gains, says Argo program manager Pete Beckman. "We've been turning up the clock every year, but we got to this point at about 3 gigahertz where it really hasn't gotten any faster," Beckman says. "Instead, now companies are making them more parallel." Massive parallel processing requires both hardware and software changes, which Argo will address by developing an open source prototype operating system that can run on various architectures. To read further, please visit http://www.informationweek.com/government/enterprise-architecture/argonne-lab-taking-next-steps-to-exascale-computing/d/d-id/1112813.

 

HPC Conference Calls for Participation

 

Call for Papers - ACM HPDC 2014
June 23-27, 2014 - Vancouver, Canada
Abstract (required) Deadline – January 20, 2014
Full Proposal Deadline – January 27, 2014

Submissions are welcomed on high-performance parallel and distributed computing topics including but not limited to: clouds, clusters, grids, Big Data, massively multicore, and global-scale computing systems. New scholarly research showing empirical and reproducible results in architectures, systems, and networks is strongly encouraged, as are experience reports of operational deployments that can provide insights for future research on HPDC applications and systems. All papers will be evaluated for their originality, technical depth and correctness, potential impact, relevance to the conference, and quality of presentation. Research papers must clearly demonstrate research contributions and novelty, while experience reports must clearly describe lessons learned and demonstrate impact. For more information and submission guidelines, please visit http://www.hpdc.org/2014/papers/call-for-papers/#!.

Call for Papers: Workshop on Clusters, Clouds and Grids for Health (CCGrid-Health 2014)
In conjunction with CCGrid 2014 - 14th IEEE/ACM International Symposium
May 26-29, 2014 – Chicago, Illinois
Paper Submission Deadline – February 1, 2014
Notification Date – February 28, 2014

Medical research is currently facing the Big Data wave. High resolution digital images, genomics data, and the vast amount of medical data resources on-line (medical reports, clinical tests, biology samples, large amounts of structured and unstructured text data...) lead to an unprecedented demand for large-scale data management and analysis. This workshop aims at bringing together developers of medical applications and researchers in the field of distributed IT systems. On the one hand, it addresses researchers who are already employing  distributed infrastructure techniques in medical applications, in particular scientists developing data- and compute-intensive medical applications that include multi-data studies, large-scale parameter scans or complex analysis pipelines. On the other hand, it addresses computer scientists working in the field of distributed systems interested in bringing new developments into medical applications. For complete information and submission guidelines, please visit http://lsgc.org/ccgrid-health/.

Call for Participation – IEEE Cluster 2014
September 22-26, 2014 – Madrid, Spain
Abstracts Submission Deadline – April 24, 2014
Full Paper Deadline – May 2, 2014

Clusters have become the workhorse for computational science and engineering research, powering innovation and discovery that advance science and society. They are the base for building today's rapidly evolving cloud and HPC infrastructures, and are used to solve some of the most complex problems. Cluster 2014 welcomes paper submissions on innovative work from researchers and practitioners in academia, government, and industry that describe original research and development efforts in cluster computing.  For more information, including topics of interest and submission guidelines, please visit http://www.cluster2014.org/?goback=.gde_4178444_member_5819103751662755843#!.

Upcoming Conferences, Workshops and Webinars

 

Rice University 2014 Oil & Gas HPC Workshop
March 6, 2014 – Houston, Texas

The Oil and Gas HPC Workshop, hosted annually at Rice University, is a premier meeting place for engaging in discussion focused on high performance computing and computational science and engineering for the oil and gas industry. The program committee is pleased to invite you to participate in the 7th annual workshop and encourages you to submit abstract(s) for consideration for the technical program. For more information, please visit http://rice2014.og-hpc.org/?utm_source=Oil+%26+Gas+HPC+Workshop+Community&utm_campaign=6928632946-Rice_2013_OG_HPC_Call4Abstracts&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_59170dce43-6928632946-31504533..

 

Research Features From Across the Country and Around the World

 

Purdue University’s Geospatial Data Project Will Let Almost Anyone Put Almost Anything on Map
Purdue University News

Purdue University researchers want to develop a powerful Web-based system that enables people around the world to better predict natural disasters. The project will add geospatial data hosting, processing, and sharing capabilities to Purdue's HUBzero, a platform for building future-rich websites enabling research and education. The researchers say that if the project is successful, it could lead to the easy development of a variety of Web-enabled tools for probing and presenting geospatial data in ways that can help address pressing issues around the world. "We want to have tools where people can integrate multiple data sets in the way they want and extract information based on these multiple data sets," says Purdue professor Venkatesh Merwade. The project should open geospatial data and sophisticated analysis tools to almost anyone, and enable ready sharing of data and results, as well as collaboration among users. To read further, please visit http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2013/Q4/geospatial-data-project-will-let-almost-anyone-put-almost-anything-on-map.html.

UC San Diego Shake Table, Robot Win Best of What's New Awards from Popular Science

The biggest outdoor shake table in the world and a robot designed to move along utility lines have received Best of What’s New awards from Popular Science, the world’s largest science and technology magazine. The two projects are featured in the magazine’s December issue, now on newsstands. The Large High Performance Outdoor Shake Table can handle structures weighing up to 2200 tons without height restrictions. The table’s powerful hydraulic actuators—piston-like devices—can move at up to six feet per second, creating realistic simulations of the most devastating earthquakes ever recorded. SkySweeper, designed in the Coordinated Robotics Lab at the University of California, San Diego, is a robot made of off-the-shelf electronics and plastic parts printed with an inexpensive 3D printer. The prototype could be scaled up for less than $1,000, making it significantly more affordable than the two industrial robots currently used to inspect power lines. To read further, please visit http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=1443.

Region’s First 100-Gigabit-per-Second Network Opens in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) has upgraded the Three Rivers Optical Exchange (3ROX) Internet2 connection to 100 gigabits per second (GE, or gigabit Ethernet). The new connection puts 3ROX at the leading edge of academically based networks, offering users speeds 10 times those of the highest-bandwidth academic and industrial connections in the region. The new connection is about 5,000 times faster than typical home broadband Internet.  “The new 100-GE connection will be a boon to the next round of research and development by the research and academic community served by 3ROX,” says Gwendolyn Huntoon, director of advanced networking at PSC. “In particular, it will aid ‘Big Data’ projects requiring movement of vast amounts of data.” To read further, please visit http://psc.edu/index.php/newscenter/42-press-release/897-psc-activates-regions-first-100-ge-network.

Nation’s Researchers Invited to Apply for Blue Waters Resources
Proposal Deadline – March 10, 2014

In 2013, a new NSF-funded petascale computing system, Blue Waters, was deployed at the University of Illinois.  The goal of this project and system is to open up new possibilities in science and engineering by providing computational capability that makes it possible for investigators to tackle much larger and more complex research challenges across a wide spectrum of domains.  The purpose of this solicitation is to invite research groups to submit requests for allocations of resources on the Blue Waters system. Proposers must show a compelling science or engineering challenge that will require petascale computing resources. Proposers must also be prepared to demonstrate that they have a science or engineering research problem that requires and can effectively exploit the petascale computing capabilities offered by Blue Waters.  Proposals from or including junior researchers are encouraged, as one of the goals of this solicitation is to build a community capable of using petascale computing. To read further, please visit http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503224&org=CISE&from=home.
 

Educator News and Opportunities

 

Too Few Women in Fed Tech Jobs; Too Many Challenges for Them
NextGov.com

Women remain underrepresented in information technology (IT) and other science and math fields, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) Women's Work Group report. For example, the report found that women account for just 31 percent of federal IT positions. The gender disparities in the federal government are in part a result of women earning substantially fewer degrees in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. "The lower percentage of women receiving STEM degrees results in substantially fewer women than men available in the applicant pool to recruit to federal STEM positions, which presents a formidable challenge to efforts to increase women's representation in federal STEM occupations," the EEOC report says. In addition, the report notes that even for women who hold STEM-related degrees, many still encounter challenges in being hired, promoted, and supported compared to their male colleagues. The report recommends that agencies increase scholarship programs and partnerships with universities to stimulate STEM interest, create internship programs that encourage the participation of women, and provide STEM employees with mentors. To read further, please visit http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/wired-workplace/2013/12/there-are-too-few-women-federal-tech-jobs-and-too-many-challenges-them/75548/?oref=ng-voicestop.

Study: Black Women Falling Behind in STEM Fields
New Pittsburgh Courier

Women of color, especially black women, are significantly underrepresented in academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) positions, even as the U.S. focus on STEM education intensifies, according to a study by the Institute for Women's Policy Research. In 2010, minority women professors accounted for 2.1 percent of STEM faculty at four-year colleges and universities in the United States, although they represent 13 percent of the U.S. working-age population. The study also found that 6,400 women of color with STEM doctorates hold assistant, associate, or full professorships, compared with 19,800 white women, 20,500 men of color, and 65,100 white men. The life sciences field employed the largest number of underrepresented minority women faculty, while computer science and mathematics employed the least. The report cites hostile work environments, insufficient mentorship, difficulty with work-life balance, and the lack of a multicultural perspective in many academic departments as factors that limit women of color in academic STEM careers. To read further, please visit http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2013/12/01/study-black-women-falling-behind-in-stem-fields/.

 

Robotutor Marks the Homework of a Class of Thousands

New Scientist

 

Although the scale and reach of massive open online courses (MOOCs) is growing every year, a human teacher cannot guide, correct, and give feedback to thousands of students all working at the same time. To address this problem, Stanford University researchers have developed Codewebs, an artificially intelligent tutor for online students that can analyze and assess submitted code. The researchers say Codewebs also can give students fast, tailored feedback and guidance. Codewebs runs machine-learning algorithms on a database of code submissions from thousands of students in courses offered by Coursera. The software breaks down the students' attempts at coding into small pieces and indexes them, enabling the system to compare the submissions with the database and cluster them according to their similarity with one another. The index lets a human instructor pick one submission, write feedback, and then have it automatically sent out to all of the students who wrote similar solutions. To read further, please visit http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22029444.400-robotutor-marks-the-homework-of-a-class-of-thousands.html#.UsX8v_YW2nA.

 

Save the Date: National Science Teachers Association Conference
April 3-6, 2014 – Boston, Massachusetts

This is one date you want to go ahead and put on your 2014 calendar. NSTA will be coming to Boston to put on the premier event for science education. Top-notch professional learning opportunities, fresh ideas for your classroom teaching, and more await you this spring. For more information and to register, please visit http://www.nsta.org/conferences/national.aspx.

Klobuchar Bill Would Expand STEM Across the Country

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar has introduced a bill that would expand STEM education nationwide by creating 100 high schools, adding computer-science teachers and building new opportunities for undergraduate research. Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, announced the legislation Wednesday. The idea, she said, is to give students more opportunities to succeed in an increasingly skilled and specialized workforce while making the country’s economy more competitive. “From the pacemaker to the Post-it Note, Minnesota has always led the way in creating the innovative products that fuel our economy,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “This legislation ensures that our businesses can invest in research and our workers have the skills they need to thrive in today’s competitive global economy.”

To read further, please visit http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/article_5fcf6028-62ce-11e3-9fb9-0019bb2963f4.html.

Behind America's Decline in Math, Science and Technology
US News and World Report

America has fallen far from its place as a leader in math and science, experts said during a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Diversity Symposium on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. "International comparisons place the U.S. in the middle of the pack globally," said Debbie Myers, general manager of Discovery Communications. Myers said in order for the U.S. to compete in the global market, we need to a do a better job of inspiring children to develop that desire for discovery and encourage minorities and girls especially to get involved in STEM. For both students and up-and-coming professionals, tests and studies continue to confirm that the U.S. is losing its competitive edge when it comes to math, technology and science. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which surveyed more than 150,000 people age 16 to 65 in 24 different countries, America's results for literacy were disappointing, but mathematics and problem solving proved to be especially embarrassing for a nation that has formerly reigned as a leader of innovation and technology. The U.S. ranked 21 out of 23 countries in math and 17 out of 19 countries in problem solving in the October study. To read further, please visit http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/11/13/behind-americas-decline-in-math-science-and-technology.

 

Student Engagement and Opportunities

 

Meteor Aims to Make JavaScript Programming Fun Again
InfoWorld

The Meteor open source JavaScript platform, released in 2012 with the goal of streamlining Web application development, is moving toward its 1.0 release in early 2014, says Meteor Development Group's Matt Debergalis. Debergalis, who co-wrote Meteor, says the program is designed to simplify Web programming to make it more fun and inclusive for a wider range of programmers. He notes that Meteor's developers were motivated by a move toward thick client applications, in which most of the code runs within the Web browser rather than in a data center, resulting in programs that are more interactive and engaging. Because of this shift, Meteor offers a live page updates feature that enables developers to write templates that automatically update when the database changes. Debergalis says older frameworks such as PHP and Rails were designed to send one page at a time from development to the browser, and lack the infrastructure to create today's interactive apps. Meteor also includes a real-time wire protocol called Distributed Data Protocol that, unlike HTTP, allows the server to publish data into the client to provide continuous information updates. To read further, please visit http://www.infoworld.com/t/javascript/meteor-aims-make-javascript-programming-fun-again-232659.

The White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities Presents: 2014 All-Star Student Nominations
Application Deadline – January 10, 2014

The White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) works to promote HBCU excellence, innovation, and sustainability. In 2014 the Initiative will recognize current HBCU student for their dedication to academics, leadership and civic engagement. For more information and eligibility requirements, please visit http://www.ed.gov/edblogs/whhbcu/2013/12/16/whi-hbcu-presents-2014-hbcu-all-star-students/.

2014-15 Virginia Space Grant Consortium Graduate STEM Research Fellowship
Application Deadline – February 10, 2014

The Virginia Space Grant Consortium's Graduate STEM Research Fellowship Program provides fellowships of $5,000 in add-on support to graduate students to supplement and enhance basic research support. The objective of this science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, research fellowship opportunity is to encourage talented individuals to pursue careers in STEM industries that support NASA's mission. Participants in the Graduate STEM Research Fellowship Program must take part in an active faculty‐mentored research experience that aligns with the aerospace sector and meets NASA's mission. This is a competitive fellowship program, and awards are based on merit recognizing high academic achievement and promise. Underrepresented minority students, female students and students with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Applicants must be U.S. citizens and enrolled at one of the five Virginia Space Grant member universities: The College of William and Mary, Hampton University, Old Dominion University, University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. For more information about this opportunity and to apply online, visit http://vsgc.odu.edu/sf/gradfellow/. Please email any questions about this opportunity to rkashiri@odu.edu.

2014-15 Virginia Space Grant Consortium Undergraduate STEM Research Scholarship
Application Deadline – February 10, 2014

The Virginia Space Grant Consortium is offering undergraduate research scholarships of up to $8,500 to encourage talented individuals to conduct research in science, technology, engineering or mathematics, or STEM, fields. Applicants must participate in an active faculty-mentored research experience that aligns with the aerospace sector and meets NASA's mission. Student stipends and research support totaling $4,000 during the academic year and $4,500 during a summer semester are available. These one-year awards are nonrenewable and based on student academic merit, quality of the research proposal and alignment of research with the goals of NASA and the aerospace sector. Underrepresented minority students, female students and students with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Applicants must be U.S. citizens and enrolled at one of the five Virginia Space Grant member universities: The College of William and Mary, Hampton University, Old Dominion University, University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. For more information, visit http://vsgc.odu.edu/sf/undergrad/. Please email any questions about this opportunity torkashiri@odu.edu.

 

Faculty Proposal News and Information

 

NSF Campus Cyberinfrastructure - Infrastructure, Innovation and Engineering Program (CC*IIE) Solicitation Announcement
Full Proposal Deadline - March 17, 2014

The "Campus Cyberinfrastructure - Infrastructure, Innovation and Engineering (CC*IIE)" program invests in improvements and re-engineering at the campus level to support a range of data transfers supporting computational science and computer networks and systems research. The program also supports Network Integration activities tied to achieving higher levels of performance, reliability and predictability for science applications and distributed research projects. CC*IIE awards will be made in six areas. Data Driven Networking Infrastructure for the Campus and Researcher awards will be supported at up to $500,000 total for up to 2 years. Network Design and Implementation for Small Institutions awards will be supported at up to $350,000 total for up to two years. Network Integration and Applied Innovation awards will be supported at up to $1,000,000 total for up to 2 years. Identity and Access Management Integration awards will be supported at up to $300,000 total for up to two years. Campus CI Engineer awards will be made at up to $400,000 total for up to 2 years. Regional Coordination and Partnership in Advanced Networking awards will be made at up to $150,000 for up to 2 years.

 

On the Lighter Side – Computational Science News on the Edge

 

Magnetic Tape to the Rescue
The Economist

Magnetic tape is being revived as a viable storage medium for the vast volume of data generated, which doubles every two years at its current rate. The European Organization for Nuclear Research's (CERN) Alberto Pace says magnetic tape has several advantages over hard disks for long-term data preservation, including speed, reliability, zero power consumption for storage, and security. For example, a broken tape can be spliced back together and only lose a few hundred megabytes of information, while deleting 50 petabytes of CERN data on magnetic tape would take years, rather than minutes for disk-based data. IBM Zurich research lab's Evangelos Eleftheriou cites tape's lower cost compared to disks, and much greater longevity of the stored data. However, the looming flood of data is too much even for modern tape cartridges to handle, and higher densities are required. To read further, please visit http://www.economist.com/news/technology-quarterly/21590758-information-storage-60-year-old-technology-offers-solution-modern.

Wave Fingers, Make Faces: The Future of Computing at Intel
CNet

Intel is developing perceptual computing technology that will sense a user's emotions and body language. Perceptual computing uses gestures, facial recognition, and voice recognition to make devices more "natural, intuitive, and immersive," says Intel's Anil Nanduri. He says Intel aims to obtain "sensory inputs that make [computers] more human like." Cameras, for example, will enable devices to sense emotion and detect a person's biometric data. Computers also will be able to hold conversations and comprehend general, rather than specific, commands, taking context into account. Intel intends to teach devices to recognize depth using three-dimensional (3D) cameras, and has teamed with Creative to integrate 3D cameras into devices such as PCs and tablets in the second half of 2014. To spur developer interest in perceptual computing, Intel last year released a software development kit, which has been downloaded more than 26,000 times, and has sponsored perceptual computing contests. To read further, please visit http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-57614001-92/wave-fingers-make-faces-the-future-of-computing-at-intel/.

Japanese Robots Earn Their Kee
Financial Times

Japanese researchers have developed Kirobo, a robot designed to provide assistance and companionship to human astronauts who spend months working in space. Kirobo is programmed to communicate in Japanese and recognize voices and faces. It also is capable of holding a conversation by improvising basic responses. Although Japanese roboticists have come under scrutiny for making robots that entertain rather than serve practical purposes, Kirobo's developers think it can do both. "I believe robots will be the next smartphone just like Google believes Google Glass will be the next smartphone," says Kirobo's creator Tomotaka Takahashi, a robotics engineer at Tokyo University. Kirobo recently was sent to the International Space Station in an unmanned rocket. "Interest in space robots is growing more quickly now than 10 years ago," notes the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ron Diftler, manager of the Robonaut project, which seeks to build the first humanoid robot that can help humans work and explore in space. To read further, please visit http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7e7f488a-5045-11e3-9f0d-00144feabdc0,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F7e7f488a-5045-11e3-9f0d-00144feabdc0.html%3Fsiteedition%3Duk&siteedition=uk&_i_referer=#axzz2pMKT7kfM