HPC Happenings
Announcing: Scientific Software Days|
December 16-17, 2013 – Austin, Texas
For a complete schedule of events, please visit http://scisoftdays.org/pages/2013_details.html?goback=.gde_4178444_member_5809295392285675520#!.
Heterogeneous Systems Dominate the Green500
HPCWire
This year's Green500 list announced at this week's SC13 Conference in Denver includes a prevalence of heterogeneous supercomputing systems in the top 10 spots, representing a continuation of last year's trend. The list is topped by the Tokyo Institute of Technology's TSUBAME-KFC, with an efficiency of 4.5 gigaflops/watt. All of TSUBAME-KFC's computational nodes are composed of two Intel Ivy Bridge processors and four NVIDIA Kepler graphical processing units (GPUs). The integration of Intel central processing units (CPUs) with NVIDIA GPUs is a model followed by all the systems in the top 10. Among the milestones for this year's Green500 is the first time a supercomputer has exceeded the 4 gigaflops/watt limit, the first time all top 10 systems are heterogeneous, and the first time the average of the measured power consumed by the systems on the Green500 declined with respect to the previous list. To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/two-brains-better-one-heterogeneous-systems-dominate-green500/.
Top500 Shows Growing Inequality in Supercomputing Power
Computerworld
Although the fastest supercomputers are becoming increasingly faster, midlevel systems are not realizing gains at the same pace, according to the most recent Top500 list of high-performance computers. Half of the total 250 petaflop/s (quadrillions of calculations per second) of supercomputing power on the list is attributed to the top 17 entrants, notes Top500 ranking organizer Erich Strohmaier. "The list has become very top heavy in the last couple of years," Strohmaier says. "In the last five years, we have seen a drastic concentration of performance capabilities in large centers." Governments and industry alike are purchasing fewer midsized systems and focusing on developing fewer, larger systems. This trend could gradually reduce the number of administrators and engineers skilled in running high-performance computers, although this might not be an issue because most of the largest systems are shared across multiple users. To read further, please visit http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244219/Top500_shows_growing_inequality_in_supercomputing_power.
Ciena Builds 400G Link and Terabit Switching for SciNet at SC13 (video)
In this video, Rod Wilson from Ciena describes the company’s ongoing collaboration with SC13′s SCiNet to bring leading-edge 400 Gbit ethernet networking technologies to the research community. For more information and to view the video, please video, please visit http://insidehpc.com/2013/12/03/ciena-builds-400g-link-terabit-switching-sc13/#!.
Three Seats Available for Training on HP Vertica
January 21-23, 2014 – La Jolla, California
HP has recently provided a major donation of hardware and software, including HP's Vertica database, to our Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring project (www.teamnetwork.org). They are also providing a three-day training workshop on Vertica at SDSC. If you are interested in attending, please contact Kate Kaya at kate@sdsc.edu.
Introduction to HOOMD-blue
December 10, 2013 - 11:00 a.m. EST
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7757317671635859970
Joshua A. Anderson, PhD, Research Area Specialist Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan
Using HOOMD-blue for Polymer Simulations and Big Systems
January 21, 2014 -11:00 a.m. EST
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1534605225959203329
Dr. Jens Glaser, Research Fellow
Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Michigan
HOOMD-blue is a general-purpose Molecular Dynamics simulation code accelerated on GPUs. This live interactive webinar will offer an introduction to HOOMD-blue, a description of what it does, how to download and install it as well as example simulations of the Lennard-Jones fluid. The target audience is all individuals interested in MD simulation, but prior knowledge is not required. Materials will be introductory, beginning with MD basics and moving into details of HOOMD-blue. A wide range of topics will be briefly covered, giving potential users an idea of how to do all the steps in a
simulation, including defining parameters, executing the simulation and examining the output.
HPC Conference Call for Participation
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/.
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
SC13: Experts Debate Thorny Exascale Memory Issues
Network World
Although addressing the problems posed by modern memory technology are essential to realizing exascale supercomputing performance, an expert panel at this week's SC13 Conference in Denver could not reach consensus on how to go about solving the issues. Intel fellow Shekhar Borkar says the use of the correct memory technology will be key to the exascale breakthrough, and argues that only DRAM and NAND have sufficient maturity. Meanwhile, Micron's Troy Manning cites the growing complexity of memory fabrication as an additional complication, noting that the sale price of memory components has not risen proportionately with the cost of cutting-edge manufacturing facilities. Opinion is divided on more closely combining memory with computer hardware, with ARM's Andreas Hansson arguing for a holistic system design strategy that integrates memory, interconnect, and compute. Notre Dame University professor Peter Kogge and IBM researcher Doug Joseph agree, pointing to hybrid stacked DRAM and non-volatile memories as a viable integration. To read further, please visit http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/112013-sc13-exascale-memory-276152.html.
TACC to Deploy Maverick for Interactive, Remote Visualization and Data Analysis
The Texas Advanced Computer Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin, along with technology partners HP and NVIDIA, today announced that they will deploy Maverick in January 2014, a unique, powerful, high performance visualization and data analytics resource for the open science and engineering community. "Maverick will be deployed for open science research and is designed primarily for interactive, remote visualization and analytics," said Kelly Gaither, the principal investigator on the project and TACC's director of Visualization. "This system will help researchers analyze large scale scientific data, and complement systems like Stampede, by providing a rich, interactive data exploration environment." To read further, please visit https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/news/press-releases/2013/tacc-to-deploy-maverick.
Carnegie Mellon Computer Searches Web 24/7 to Analyze Images and Teach Itself Common Sense
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) researchers have developed the Never Ending Image Learner (NEIL), software that searches the Web for images, attempting to understand them on its own and, as it builds a visual database, develop common sense. The researchers say NEIL utilizes recent advances in computer-vision technology that enables it to identify and label objects in images, to characterize scenes, and to recognize aspects such as colors, lighting, and materials. They say the data NEIL generates will further enhance the ability of computers to understand the visual world. NEIL also makes associations between the objects to obtain common sense information that humans often take for granted. To read further, please visit http://www.cs.cmu.edu/news/carnegie-mellon-computer-searches-web-247-analyze-images-and-teach-itself-common-sense.
Indiana University Digital Archaeologist to Unveil Ancient Roman Emperor's Villa, Virtually
IU News Room (11/19/13) Stephen Chaplin
Indiana University archaeo-informaticist Bernie Frischer and an international team unveiled a virtual recreation of a second century Imperial Roman villa in Washington D.C. on Nov. 22. Frischer and his colleagues from Ball State University, the Italian Ministry of Culture, and several other organizations recreated the villa of the Roman Emperor Hadrian using the Unity gaming engine. It took the team several years to painstakingly recreate the details of the 250-acre estate, which included dozens of buildings, including temples, libraries, banquet halls, and the so-called Maritime Theater, a circular island surrounded by a mote that housed Hadrian's private quarters. Users can explore the virtual villa using several different avatars, taking on the role of anyone from a slave to a senator, and observe the activities of non-player characters recreating historically accurate activities including worship ceremonies and court visits. To read further, please visit http://news.iu.edu/releases/iu/2013/11/hadrians-villa.shtml.
Intel Sheds Light on the “Corner to Landing” Leap
HPCwire
Since the first details about the MIC architecture emerged, Intel has continually harkened back to their vision of offering a high degree of parallelism inside a power efficient package that could promise programmability. With the eventual entry of the next generation Xeon Phi hitting the market in years to come with its (still unstated) high number of cores, on-package memory, ability to shape shift from coprocessor to processor along the x86 continuum, many are wondering about what kind of programmatic muscle will be needed to spring from Knights Corner to Knight’s Landing. To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/2013/12/06/intel-sheds-light-corner-landing-leap/?goback=.gde_4178444_member_5814655065880829952#!.
Educator Opportunities and Information
NSF ITEST Solicitation Information Webinar
December 12, 2013 - 1:00pm – 2:00pm EST
Please join NSF program officers and STELAR staff for an informational webinar on the current NSF ITEST solicitation. To register for this webinar, click here.
After registering, you will receive a follow-up email with webinar access details prior to the webinar.
Synopsis of ITEST Program:
The ITEST program through research and model-building activities seeks to build understandings of best practice factors, contexts and processes contributing to K-12 students' motivation and participation in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) core domains along with other STEM cognate domains (e.g., information and communications technology (ICT), computing, computer sciences, data analytics, among others) that inform education programs and workforce domains. The ITEST program funds foundational and applied research projects addressing the development, implementation, and dissemination of innovative strategies, tools, and models for engaging students to be aware of STEM and cognate careers, and to pursue formal school-based and informal out-of-school educational experiences to prepare for such careers. Questions? Email stelar@edc.org or visit our website: http://stelar.edc.org.
Most MOOC Users Well-Educated, Study Finds
The Wall Street Journal
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) must overcome some barriers to achieve the goal of democratizing education, according to a University of Pennsylvania study published Wednesday. The survey included almost 35,000 students in more than 200 countries and territories who participated in the university's 32 MOOCs provided by Coursera. Most MOOC students are well-educated young men trying to gain new career skills, the survey found. More than 80 percent of the U.S.-based MOOC students already held college degrees, while among the general U.S. population only about 30 percent have degrees. However, in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the "educational disparity is particularly stark," with nearly 80 percent of MOOC students belonging to the richest 6 percent of the population. Men represented 56.9 percent of total MOOC students in the survey, but 64 percent in nations outside the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. To read further, please visit http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304337404579210333924340594.
Education and Outreach Opportunities for TACC’s Vislab
Every day, TACC enjoys the benefits of advanced computing, from more accurate weather reports, to safer automobiles, to smaller, more lightweight computers. TACC's Education & Outreach activities introduce K-12 students, undergraduate and graduate students, and the general public, to the importance of advanced computing as it is used in science, technology, computer science, engineering, and mathematics. As the next generation of Einsteins, Curies, and Hawkings, these students will someday make discoveries that we can't even begin to imagine. To read further, please visit https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/education.
TEALS Program Recruiting New Schools
Technology Education and Literacy in Schools (TEALS) is starting the process of recruiting new partner schools for the 2014-15 school year. TEALS (www.tealsk12.org) is an industry wide nonprofit program with a proven track record that is hosted within Microsoft YouthSpark. TEALS helps high schools build a sustainable computer science (CS) program by integrating industry software engineers into the classroom in a co-teaching model with a classroom teacher. A detailed program description can be found at: http://www.tealsk12.org/docs/TEALS_Program_Description_2014.pdf. For complete information, please visit http://tealsk12.org/contact/contact.html.
Web Seminar with the Authors of STEM Lesson Essentials
December 11, 2013 – 6:30pm EDT
The real power of STEM emerges when students apply concepts and skills from different disciplines to define and solve meaningful problems and find answers to intriguing questions. Find out how you can make this happen in your classroom and throughout your school during an interactive web seminar. Authors Jo Anne Vasquez, Mariel Milano, and Cary Sneider will provide an overview of the tools and strategies in STEM Lesson Essentials. They'll also share examples of integrated STEM programs and illustrate how they can be implemented by one teacher or a team of teachers. To read further and to register, please visit http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/nsta/webseminar29.aspx.
Geek Girls San Diego Tech Conference
June 21, 2014 – San Diego, California
Whether you are a beginner newbie who needs hand-holding on all things computer, to the intermediate self-starter entrepreneur who needs some new tools, to you entirely tuned-in code toads looking to learn jQuery, we have it all for you! To learn more, please visit http://sandiego.geekgirltechcon.com/.
Student Engagement and Information
Tapia Conference Travel Scholarship Opportunity
February 5-8, 2014 - Seattle, Washington.
Application Deadline – December 10, 2013
The XSP scholarship will cover your costs for attending the conference including registration, hotel, and associated travel expenses. We simply ask that you agree to assist us in our efforts to recruit applicants for the XSEDE Scholars Program’s Cohort 4 (this year’s class) by spending a little time (an hour or less) at the XSEDE booth/table at the conference and/or sharing stories about your experience with the program to potential applicants over coffee or lunch. To apply, please visit https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?usp=drive_web&formkey=dHE1SHk3U0VrRF83cWRyYTZXbnU2aVE6MA#gid=0. For more information on the conference, please visit: http://tapiaconference.org/.
Columbia/CUNY's IGERT Fellowship Program "From Data to Solutions"
This program is focused on improving diversity in CS and is primarily for U.S. citizens and permanent residents. The areas covered in SEAS are CS and EE, with partners in psychology, statistics, biomedical informatics, the business and journalism schools. This fellowship/traineeship is open to any U. S. citizen or U. S. permanent resident who is applying to a doctorally-tracked program in one of the participating departments or programs at Columbia University or CUNY. For more information, please visit http://www.cs.columbia.edu/igert/index.shtml.
Blue Waters Graduate Fellowships
Application Deadline - February 3, 2014
The Blue Waters Graduate Fellowship Program is a new and unique program funded by the National Science Foundation. This prestigious program will select graduate students from across the country to immerse themselves in a year of focused high-performance computing (HPC) research. Eligibility: Applicants must be a US citizen or a permanent resident of the US by the time of the application deadline. Women, minorities and people with disabilities are strongly encouraged to apply. This fellowships empowers graduate students to advance their HPC knowledge while also providing time and support to accelerate their research. It is designed to support PhD students who are engaged in a program of study and research that is directly relevant to the use of the Blue Waters supercomputer. Preference will be given to candidates engaged in a multidisciplinary research project that combines disciplines such as computer science, applied mathematics and computational science applications. For complete information on the fellowships, visit https://bluewaters.ncsa.illinois.edu/fellowships. Questions? Contact bwgf@ncsa.illinois.edu.
Google Scholarship Opportunities
All Scholarship Deadlines – January 6, 2014
Google believes that information should be universally accessible, so their education and scholarship programs aim to inspire and help students become future leaders in computing and technology by breaking down the barriers that prevent them from entering these fields. If selected, scholarship recipients will each receive a $10,000 scholarship for the 2014-2015 academic year and be invited to attend the all-expense paid Annual Google Scholars' Retreat at the Googleplex this summer. Scholarships will be awarded based on the strength of applicants' academic background, leadership, and demonstrated passion for computer science. Please see below for a list of open scholarships. For complete details on all of our scholarships, please visit www.google.com/students/scholarships.
UT Austin, TACC Claim ‘Student Cluster Competition’ Win – Again!
Sponsored by Raytheon and coached by staff of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin, Team Texas won the 8th annual Student Cluster Competition this year at the Supercomputing Conference (SC13) in Denver. Tonight, the University Tower will light orange to acknowledge this accomplishment. “The University of Texas team competed against teams from China, Australia, and Germany, as well as teams from Massachusetts, Colorado, Tennessee, and California,” said Carlos Rosales-Fernandez, team lead and a research scientist in TACC’s High Performance Computing (HPC) group. “The students put a lot of work into studying the applications before the competition, which gave our team an edge. They did a great job of working out the best execution strategies for the applications while also communicating with other teams,” he said. To read further, please visit https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/news/press-releases/2013/student-cluster-competition-winners.
On the Lighter Side – Computational Science News on the Edge
New Software to Allow More and Larger Images on Wikipedia
University of Southampton
A pair of British researchers has developed new image-processing software that will dramatically increase Wikipedia's ability to host more and larger image files. Wikipedia had previously banned very large image files because loading them consumed too many resources. That has changed with the introduction of the new Mediawiki extension VipsScaler, created by the University of Southampton's Kirk Martinez and Imperial College London's John Cupitt. Martinez and Cupitt based VipsScaler on the fast, free VIPS image-processing system developed in the early 1990s. Whereas most image-processing systems load an entire image into a system's memory before recreating it in a multi-step process that consumes large quantities of working memory, VIPS chops images into tiles that it passes through a system's processor cores before reassembling them. To read further, please visit http://www.southampton.ac.uk/mediacentre/news/2013/nov/13_205.shtml.
