HPC Happenings
Intel Etches HPC Niche with Xeon E7 V2
HPCwire
Intel has finally pulled the lid off their Westmere-followup processors with the new Xeon E7 v2 series, which while generally targeting enterprise big data and analytics workloads, offers far more for HPC than might meet the eye. Despite the range of targeted application areas, the 22 nanometer process, memory capabilities, robust AVX instruction capabilities, and unique reliability features make this well suited for HPC. Intel has managed to slice a sizable piece of performance to create a 120-core “HPC cluster in a box” that while higher in price than the previous Ivy Bridges that rolled out last September, could be a suitable fit for a wide swath of technical computing workloads. To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/2014/02/18/intel-carves-hpc-niche-xeon-e7-v2/.
Daily Scientific and Technical Computing Podcast
Recent topics on the daily HPCwire Podcast include: HPC Clouds; Supercomputing and Cyclone Research; Massive Scale Middleware; Nanoscale Simulations on Kraken Supercomputer; Pushing Cosmos Research on NERSC HPC Clusters and more.. tune in each day for something new from the world of high performance computing... To access the archive, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/soundbite/.
White House Launches Big Data, Privacy Review
InformationWeek
The White House recently launched a comprehensive review of the growing use of big data analytics and its impact on the future of privacy. The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) will conduct a study examining the technological dimensions of big data and privacy, according to President Barack Obama's counselor John Podesta, who is leading the review. The working group will reach out to privacy experts, technologists, and businesses to examine "how challenges inherent in big data are being confronted by both the public and private sectors, whether we can forge international norms on how to manage this data, and how we can continue to promote the free flow of information in ways that are consistent with both privacy and security," Podesta says. The PCAST study will focus on discussions with think tanks, academic institutions, and other organizations. To read further, please visit http://www.informationweek.com/government/big-data-analytics/white-house-launches-big-data-privacy-review/d/d-id/1113576.
Cray Goes Back to the Future for Weather Forecasting
HPCwire
Weather forecasting has come a long way since June of 1977, when the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) first contracted Cray to deliver one of its early Cray-1A systems across the pond. This was the first time a Cray found its way to the old country—an installation that set the stage for a number of new deployments of both vector and shared memory systems to power European weather prediction over the next several decades. To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/2014/02/16/cray-goes-back-future-weather-forecasting/.
XSEDE14 - Call for Participation
July 13-18, 2014 – Atlanta, Georgia
The 2014 XSEDE conference will showcase the discoveries, innovations, and achievements of those who use, build, and support XSEDE resources and services, as well as those involved in related digital resources endeavors around the world. The theme of XSEDE14 is Engaging Communities, to engage both traditional users of digital resources and people who have not traditionally used digital resources but would benefit from their usage. From experts in the field, to people who are novices to the applications of digital resources, the XSEDE14 Conference will provide a range of formal and informal opportunities for people to interact and address their diverse needs and interests. Please consider submitting to one or more of the following categories in the XSEDE “Call for Participation.” Full details are available on-line at https://conferences.xsede.org/xsede14/call-for-participation..
Larry Smarr Honored with Golden Goose Award
Larry Smarr, a physicist whose work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on calculating black hole collisions led him to champion a federal commitment to dramatically enhance U.S. computing power – which in turn led to the development of NCSA Mosaic, the precursor to web browsers – was named today as the first 2014 recipient of the Golden Goose Award, which goes to three or four winners annually. To read further, please visit http://www.calit2.net/newsroom/release.php?id=2298.
HPC Conference Calls for Participation
5th Production Access Call for Proposals
Submission Deadline – March 2, 2014
Scientific research in a growing and diverse number of disciplines is becoming increasingly dependent on large-scale computational resources. It is recognized by governments of regional countries and by the EU that to remain competitive, scientists in the Eastern Mediterranean area must be provided with High Performance Computing (HPC) recourses sustained by technical expertise and know-how. Cy-Tera and the EU-funded project LinkSCEEM allows researchers from the Eastern Mediterranean to apply for time on high-end high-performance computers via a peer review process. Production access allows researchers to apply for production level access to Cy-Tera and LinkSCEEM-2 resources. 00000P0roduction access for projects to implement a scientific research project. In general, such a call is for experienced users where the codes necessary for the project are available on the system requested and/or, in case of codes developed by the applicants, have been sufficiently tested for efficiency, scalability, and suitability (either via proposals for preparatory access or in systems similar to the LinkSCEEM-2 systems). The upper limit for allocations for such projects is 100,000 to 200,000 core hours and there must be a verifiable work plan for resource usage included in the proposal. For more information, please visit http://linksceem.eu/ls2/user-resources/how-to-apply/howto-apply-production.html.
8th Intelligent Systems and Agents Conference
July 13-17, 2914 - Lisbon, Portugal
Submissions Deadline – March 3, 3014
Part of the Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (MCCSIS 2014) taking place July 15-19, 2014 The Intelligent Systems and Agents conference addresses in detail two main aspects: Intelligent Systems and Agents. These main areas are divided into more detailed areas, The conference has the intention to provide a contribution to academics and practitioners. So, both fundamental and applied researches are considered relevant. This is a blind peer-reviewed conference. Authors are invited to submit their papers in English through the conference submission system. Submissions must be original and should not have been published previously. For more information, please visit http://www.isa-conf.org/.
The 2014 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Network Analysis and Mining – Call for Participation
August 17-20, 2014 - Beijing China
Paper Submission Deadline – April 9, 2014
The IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Network Analysis and Mining (ASONAM) provides a premier interdisciplinary forum to bring together researchers and practitioners from all social networking analysis and mining related fields for presentation of original research results, as well as exchange and dissemination of innovative, practical development experiences. ASONAM 2014 seeks to address important challenging problems with a specific focus on the emerging trends and industry needs associated with social networking analysis and mining. The conference solicits experimental and theoretical findings along with their real-world applications. General areas of interest to ASONAM 2014 include the design, analysis and implementation of social networking theory, systems and applications from information science, mathematics, communications, business administration, sociology, psychology, anthropology, applied linguistics, biology and medicine. For more information, please visit http://www.asonam2014.org/.
IEEE HiPC 2014 - Call for New Workshops / Call for Paper
December 17-20, 2014 - Goa, India
Submission Deadline – May 16, 2014
HiPC 2014 will include a strong single track technical program of peer reviewed papers and three invited keynote lectures. Day 1 will be devoted to workshops aimed at broadening the technical scope of the conference focused on current trends. In addition, day 1 will also feature a student research symposium for fostering student research and providing an international forum to highlight student research accomplishments. HiPC receives strong industry support from companies operating globally and also established in India. In addition to the two days of industry exhibits, the sponsoring partners to the conference hold industry symposiums to bring together providers and users of HPC in a forum for presenting state-of-the-art in HPC platforms and technologies, for discussing best practices, and for exchanging experiences. To find out more about the conference, please visit http://www.hipc.org/hipc2014/index.php. For details on submitting papers to the main conference, please visit http://www.hipc.org/hipc2014/call-for-workshops.php.
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
IEEE Women in Engineering Leadership Conference
May 1-3 2014 - San Francisco, California
This year our theme is Lead Beyond. Developing Inspirational Women Who Change the World. Please join us as we create communities that fuel innovation, facilitate knowledge sharing and provide support through highly interactive sessions designed to foster discussion and collaboration. Participate in four incredible tracks to inspire, engage and advance women in engineering...
* Empowerment: skills to help women advance in their careers
* Engagement: hands-on skills development workshops
* Inspiration: presentations/skills to inspire women to achieve their goals
* Enjoyment: work/life balance, reducing stress, enjoying life
For more information, please visit http://ieee-wie-ilc.org/.
ACM HPDC 2014
June 23-27, 2014 - Vancouver, Canada
The ACM International Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing (HPDC) is the premier annual conference for presenting the latest research on the design, implementation, evaluation, and the use of parallel and distributed systems for high-end computing. For more information, please visit http://www.hpdc.org/2014/.
Research Features From Across the Country and Around the World
Georgia Tech Researchers Develop Novel Collaborative Software Helps Systems Engineers Link Performance and Cost
Georgia Tech News Center
Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed the Framework for Assessing Cost and Technology (FACT), a Web-based tool that lets physically separated participants collaborate on model-based systems engineering projects. FACT utilizes open source software components to enable users to visualize the system's potential expense, performance, reliability, and other factors. "The FACT framework lets multiple users work together online to create entire systems, including complex technology systems," says Georgia Tech researcher Tommer Ender. FACT has the capacity to consider cost and performance factors, as well as the adaptability to a wide range of systems engineering problems. The researchers note the system also can track the entire collaborative process, has advanced security and configurability features, and can collaborate among any systems engineering platforms with Web access. To read further, please visit http://www.news.gatech.edu/2014/01/21/novel-collaborative-software-helps-systems-engineers-link-performance-and-cost.
Crowdsourcing a Living Map of World Health
UCSD News
In an interview, University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Ph.D. student Andrew Huynh discussed the role of machine learning in a project that uses crowdsourcing to create maps of large-scale health problems and environmental damage. UCSD and the Qualcomm Institute are developing a tricorder that could monitor both individual and environmental health. Using smartphones and cloud technology, citizens will transmit data such as the concentration of heavy metals in drinking water to a central server for analysis. Huynh serves as lead data scientist on the project, and helped develop the cloud analytics and storage platform that will be used to identify large-scale trends in data from sensors, individuals, and the environment. Using machine learning, Huynh is training the computer to differentiate accurate from inaccurate data. He notes that although the research value of crowdsourcing is increasingly recognized, data quality is an important issue to address. To read further, please visit http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=1470.
TACC: Data is the New Oil
“More data don’t guarantee better decisions. … The right data, however, do,” said Dr. Michael Hasler, program director for the business analytics Master's program at the McCombs School of Business. The idea of “Big Data” is ubiquitous, and companies often believe they need to become part of the big data push without necessarily understanding why or how. But on Jan. 22 at the Texas Enterprise Speaker Series, Hasler reminded the audience gathered at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus that data’s real value isn’t in merely being collected, but in how it helps us make better decisions. “Data is the new oil,” explained Hasler. “And just like oil, data in its unrefined state is really difficult to use. In its unrefined state, it’s a bunch of zeros and ones. We have to clean it and organize it in order to use it.” To read further, please see “More data don’t guarantee better decisions. … The right data, however, do,” said Dr. Michael Hasler, program director for the business analytics Master's program at the McCombs School of Business. The idea of “Big Data” is ubiquitous, and companies often believe they need to become part of the big data push without necessarily understanding why or how. But on Jan. 22 at the Texas Enterprise Speaker Series, Hasler reminded the audience gathered at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus that data’s real value isn’t in merely being collected, but in how it helps us make better decisions. “Data is the new oil,” explained Hasler. “And just like oil, data in its unrefined state is really difficult to use. In its unrefined state, it’s a bunch of zeros and ones. We have to clean it and organize it in order to use it.” To read further, please visit http://www.texasenterprise.utexas.edu/2014/02/06/innovation/data-next-frontier.
SDSC/UC San Diego Researchers Hone in on Alzheimer’s Disease
Researchers studying peptides using the Gordon supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego have found new ways to elucidate the creation of the toxic oligomers associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Igor Tsigelny, a research scientist with SDSC, the UCSD Moores Cancer Center, and the Department of Neurosciences, focused on the small peptide called amyloid-beta, which pairs up with itself to form dimers and oligomers. The scientists surveyed all the possible ways to look at the dynamics of conformational changes of these peptides and the possibility that they might organize into the oligomers theorized to be responsible for the degenerative brain disease. In the February 14 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, the researchers suggest their results may generate new targets for drug development. To read further, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR021814_alzheimers.html.
Educator News and Opportunities
Getting Ready for Computer-based Assessments
State Superintendent Tom Torlakson released information today to help schools prepare to field test computer-based assessments in California’s schools. Schools and students who participate in field testing will be better prepared to take, and do well on, the test next year. The California Department of Education is providing two videos to inform high school and middle school students about the upcoming test and to emphasize the important role they’re playing in helping prepare the operational tests for the 2014-15 school year. The videos are posted at the following links: High school video: http://youtu.be/DXXd451e580. Middle school video: http://youtu.be/YKerb7NsDUE. Field testing begins March 18 and runs through June 6. More information about practices tests is available at http://sbac.portal.airast.org/Practice-Test/.
NASA/NSTA Open Online Course: Teaching Tomorrow's Engineers
Module 1 Begins – March 24, 2014 -
Module 2 Begins – April 24, 2014
Are you curious about engineering design? With a new open online course developed by NASA and NSTA, you can find out how to engage and inspire middle school students and prepare them to become the next generation of innovative engineers. The course will show teachers how to guide students in NASA engineering design challenges and discuss practical approaches for implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).There is no charge to participate in this open online course. For more information and to register, please visit http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/online_courses/NEScourse.aspx.
Northern California Forestry Institute Summer Opportunity for Teachers
The Forestry Institute for Teachers is a multi-day residence workshop developed by the Northern California Society of American Foresters, University of California Cooperative Extension, Shasta County Office of Education, The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and Project Learning Tree. The FIT Program is underwritten by a consortium of public and private sources. Since 1993, over 2,100 teachers have graduated from the program. The goal of FIT is to provide K-12 teachers with knowledge, skills and tools to effectively teach their students about forest ecology and forest resource management practices. The program brings together natural resource specialists and teachers from rural and urban settings for one week, working side by side to gain a deeper understanding of forest ecosystems and human use of natural resources. For more information, please visit http://www.forestryinstitute.org/.
Student Engagement and Opportunities
Netflix-Like Algorithm Drives New College-Finding Tool
Chronicle of Higher Education
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities computer science doctoral student Daniel Jarratt has developed a recommendation algorithm to help guide high school students in their choice of colleges. Using data from the U.S. Department of Education's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, Jarratt studied which data to use to compare institutions and arrived at 80 variables, ranging from the number of National Merit Scholars to the types of majors. He then wrote an algorithm that compares the attributes of a collection of colleges and points to other, similar institutions. "We're using the characteristics of colleges to get at the nascent preferences of students," Jarratt says. The algorithm has been incorporated into the PossibilityU website, which helps high school students with their college choice. PossibilityU takes three colleges that a student is interested in and generates a list of 10 similar colleges to consider. In addition, PossibilityU asks students to provide data about themselves, such as grade-point average and standardized test scores, to predict a student's chances of being admitted to and receiving merit-based financial aid at specific schools. To read further, please visit http://chronicle.com/blogs/data/2014/01/23/netflix-like-algorithm-drives-new-college-finding-tool/.
Buick Achievers Scholarship Application
Application Deadline – February 28, 2014
This is the fourth year the Buick Achiever Scholarships will be awarded to students who excel in the classroom and give back to the community. To be eligible for the program, high school seniors or current undergraduate students must be looking to obtain a college degree in science, technology, engineering, math, also known as STEM, or other eligible fields related to the auto industry. Created in 2011, the Buick Achievers Scholarship Program has awarded $16.5 million to students across the U.S. This year, the program will award 100 scholarships of up to $25,000 per year, renewable for up to four years, or up to five years for qualified engineering programs. For more information and to apply, please visit http://www.buickachievers.com/.
SDSC Announces 2014 Internship Opportunities for High School Students
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, will once again offer its Research Experience for High School Students (REHS) summer program, in which students will be integrated into multidisciplinary research teams to help them gain experience in particular areas of computational research. Now expanded to eight weeks, the program will be held June 23 through August 15, 2014 at SDSC. Internship hours, which typically range from 15 to 25 hours a week, will be coordinated with SDSC principal investigators who serve as mentors in the program. Specific research opportunities will be posted to the SDSC Education website on February 18. The application deadline for students is March 14, with final PI-student selections to be completed by April 15. To read further, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR012214_rehs.html.
On the Lighter Side – Computational Science News on the Edge
UC San Diego Professor Speculates on New Facebook Feature
CSE Prof. Yoav Freund (pictured) was quoted in the Feb. 6 issue of the San Diego Union-Tribune, in a piece by science editor Gary Robbins, about the new Facebook feature to mark the social networking giant's 10th anniversary. Users can click on "A Look Back" and Facebook compiles a 60-second slideshow about the user. For Robbins, the portrait was so uncannily accurate, that he wanted to know how Facebook could do it so well and so quickly. Facebook doesn't divulge such secrets, so the reporter turned to Freund, who pointed out that Facebook "can easily use algorithms to spot words that are common on one user's newsfeed, but not on others. This helps reveal what's important to a specific user. To read further, please visit http://cse.ucsd.edu/node/2434.
