HPC Happenings
SDSC’s CAIDA Internet Research Group Awarded Cybersecurity Contract
The Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA), based at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, has been awarded a contract for cybersecurity research and development by the Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate (DHS S&T). The award to CAIDA is one of 34 contracts recently announced by the DHS S&T to 29 academic and research organizations for research and development of solutions to the nation’s cybersecurity challenges. The contracts were awarded by the department’s Cyber Security Division (CSD) under Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) 11-02, which solicited proposals covering 14 technical topic areas aimed at improving security in federal networks and across the Internet, while developing new and enhanced technologies for detecting, preventing, and responding to attacks on the nation’s critical information infrastructure. To read further, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR120712_caida.html.
Purdue and Tuskegee Universities Begin New Effort to Create Green Electronics, Workforce
Purdue University News
Researchers at Purdue and Tuskegee universities are leading an international campaign to replace conventional electronics with more sustainable technologies and train a workforce of experts to make the transition possible. "We want to create materials that will allow computer components to be disassembled, recycled, and reused," says Purdue professor Carol Handwerker. The program, called the Global Traineeship in Sustainable Electronics, will work closely with the International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative, a group of electronics manufacturers, suppliers, associations, government agencies, and universities. "Being linked to industry leaders and to research experts will offer us an opportunity to understand business challenges and provide impactful research solutions," says Purdue's Ananth Iyer. The targeted workforce will include engineers, scientists, economists, anthropologists, managers, and political scientists. "We will bring together all of these disciplines and people to address the complex set of issues related to sustainable electronics," Handwerker says. To read further, please visit http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2013/Q1/new-effort-to-create-green-electronics,-workforce.html
Research Experience for Undergraduates in High Performance Computing
University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC)
Application Deadline – February 15, 2013
The REU program at UMBC provides an introduction to all these and applies them to interdisciplinary research projects. Some background in programming is expected, but the program has been successful for students with only a sophomore class standing. Unique features of the program include projects in both mathematics and statistics; 12 participants working in teams with graduate TA/RA support; and access to state-of-the-art distributed-memory cluster in HPCF. For full details, including examples of past summers and a detailed description of the mechanics from a student perspective, please visit http://www.umbc.edu/hpcreu/.
HPC Call for Participation
EAPF/Intel Lightning Round for Curriculum Innovation at SIGCSE2013 - Call for Presenters
March 7, 2013 – Denver, CO
Winning Submission Notification – February 22, 2013
Do you have a great idea about how to introduce parallel, embedded and security concepts into the computer and computational science
classroom? Submit your idea and you might be selected to make a five minute presentation at the EAPF/Intel Lightning Round session at SIGCSE.. For more information, to see videos from 2012 and to submit your idea, please visit http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-eapf-curriculum-lightning-rounds-sigcse-2013.
Research Data Management Implementations Workshop
March 13-14, 2013 - Westin Arlington Gateway, Arlington, VA
Submission Deadline – February 20, 2013
The Research Data Management Implementations Workshop organizers are inviting the submission of position and experience papers that describe implementations of discipline-based data management infrastructure and services, and the ways in which those solutions leverage resources within and outside institutions. Papers about implementations that are in their infancy as well as well-tested implementations will be considered and are encouraged. Papers should be between 2 – 5 pages in length. For more information, please visit http://rdmi.sites.uchicago.edu/.
Hawaii University International Conferences 2013 Education, Math & Engineering Technology – Call for Participation
June 10 - 12, 2013 – Honolulu, Hawaii
Extended Submission Deadline - March 15, 2013
Hawaii University International Conferences (HUIC) are specifically designed to address the latest developments and advancements in academic studies. The Arts and Humanities conference is dedicated to academicians and individuals from all disciplines to discover, to nurture, to create and to inspire, providing opportunities to discuss and explore recent findings in related fields of studies and research. For more information and submission guidelines, please visit http://www.huichawaii.org/.
Upcoming Conferences and Workshops.
2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
February 14-18, 2013 - Boston, Massachusetts
The Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the most important general science venue for a growing segment of scientists and engineers who are interested in the latest advances as well as multidisciplinary topics and the influence of science and technology on how we live today. Thousands of leading scientists, engineers, educators, and policy-makers interact with one another and with hundreds of members from national and international media. In fact, the growing number of international attendees attests to the growing international nature of this gathering. More than 150 sessions spread across about a dozen tracks are usually presented at the Annual Meeting. For mire information, please visit http://aaas.confex.com/aaas/2013/cfp.cgi.
LittleFe Buildout at SIGCSE 2013
March 6-9, 2013 – Denver, Colorado
Thinking of attending SIGCSE13 in Denver this year? The LittleFe group (http://LittleFe.net) will be hosting a buildout as a set of two workshops (sessions 24 and 25) at the conference. If you're accepted for the SIGCSE LittleFe buildout, then during the workshop, you will assemble your LittleFe, install the Bootable Cluster CD (http://BCCD.net) and learn how to setup and use it for teaching parallel programming and distributed computing. At the end you and your partner will be able to take the LittleFe back to your institution for use in your classes. Both you and your partner must register for and attend both workshop 24 and workshop 25 to be eligible to receive the free LittleFe unit. For more information on the conference, please visit http://www.sigcse.org/sigcse2013/. For more information on LittleFe, please visit http://LittleFe.net.
Research Features From Across the Country and Around the World
Award-Winning Unconventional Visualizations From RDAV and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
An art project created using XSEDE resources has won the jury prize for the Distributed Microtopias exhibition at the 15th Annual Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF). Performed by the Remote Data Analysis and Visualization Center (RDAV) and University of Tennessee (UT), Knoxville, artist Evan Meaney, the collaborative work entitled “Null_Sets” is a collection of artwork that visualizes the size and structure of data. The artwork was created using an open-source script developed at RDAV, an XSEDE-sponsored resource, allowing for whole bodies of text to be exported as digital images. To read further, please visit https://rdav.nics.tennessee.edu/2013/01/project-aimed-at-exploring-gap-between-data-and-information-through-unconventional-visualization-method-wins-jury-prize-at-media-festival/.
Novel Studies of Gene Regulation in Brain Development at UCSD May Mean New Treatment of Mental Disorders
A team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego and the Institut Pasteur, Paris has come up with a novel way to describe a time-dependent brain development based on coherent–gene-groups (CGGs) and transcription-factors (TFs) hierarchy. The findings could lead to new drug designs for mental disorders such as autism-spectrum disorders (ASD) and schizophrenia. In the paper, published November 22 as an online-first publication in the journal Genes, Brain and Behavior, the researchers identified the hierarchical tree of CGG–TF networks that determine the patterns of genes expressed during brain development and found that some “master transcription factors” at the top level of the hierarchy regulated the expression of a significant number of gene groups. To read further, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR113012_brain.html.
University of Delaware Taking 'Multi-Core' Mainstream
University of Delaware UDaily
University of Delaware researchers are developing algorithms and tools for the parallelization of large-scale programs. The work involves using a combination of automatic and profile-driven techniques to address fundamental issues in creating parallel programs. The researchers, led by Delaware professor John Cavazos, will use machine learning to create a system that enables a compiler to analyze a program, assess which parallelization technique is appropriate, and then automatically apply that technique to the program. The research complements Cavazos' recent work with the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to construct an extreme-scale software framework that can automatically partition and map application code to multicore systems and generate applications that can reconfigure underlying hardware to save power. "This research will enable a greater percentage of programs to benefit from multicore processors by providing feedback to programmers so that they can improve the code, and by integrating adaptability so that a broader range of programs can achieve increased speed," Cavazos says. To read further, please visit http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2013/jan/multicore-processors-011413.html.
Using Open Grid Computing to Understand Brain Function at the University of Pittsburgh
The Brain Trauma Research Center (BTRC) at the University of Pittsburgh is using XSEDE to realize the full potential of brain mapping with the hopes to improve outcomes following brain injury. Brain function is mediated by electrical current within populations of neurons, and Magnetoencephalography (MEG) samples the fluctuating magnetic fields produced by these currents with an array of sensors positioned outside a patient’s head. To optimize MEG recordings, BTRC's functional brain mapping method uses a “referee consensus” metric, which multiplies the information provided by more than 1,000. Each instance runs independently of all others and is short lived (about four hours), requiring about 500,000 CPU hours to handle a 20-minute data set from each volunteer. This makes the application ideally suited for grid computing, and without XSEDE and the Open Science Grid (OSG), BTRC's effort would have stalled. To read further, please visit https://twiki.grid.iu.edu/bin/view/Management/Dec2012Newsletter#Harnessing_OSG_resources_to_real,
Educator News and Opportunities
California to Give Web Courses a Big Trial
New York Times
Online education startup Udacity has unveiled a partnership with San Jose State University to offer remedial and college-level algebra and introductory statistics courses, in a deal that is the first of its kind to involve classroom instructors in a massively open online course (MOOC). Students will watch videos and receive help from mentors online, but also physically come into the classroom to work with a professor. Udacity's offerings address a problem facing the California State University System as more than half of entering students fail to meet basic requirements. To discourage dropouts, the course will offer support such as regular mentoring checkpoints, assistance for students encountering difficulty, and automated encouraging email messages. Open online courses face a major challenge with dropout rates at a staggering 90 percent. "The students sign up and are highly motivated--and MOOCs will only succeed if they make normally motivated students successful," says Udacity co-founder Sebastian Thrun, a renowned Stanford University artificial intelligence (AI) researcher. To read further, please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/technology/california-to-give-web-courses-a-big-trial.html?_r=0
Student Engagement and Information
Computer Science Postdocs - Best Practices
Computing Research Association
The computer science community must cultivate a clear understanding of the best practices related to pursuing, hosting, and nurturing postdocs, according to a new report from Anita Jones, University of Virginia, and Erwin Gianchandani, currently with the NSF. The postdocs themselves should know what to expect, take responsibility for their own career, and gently push for the exercise of best practices. Individuals seeking a postdoc should carefully consider the purpose of the postdoc, and ensure that the future postdoctoral position will enable them to gain experiences needed for career advancement, and contribute to the intellectual advancement of their adviser's program. Postdocs also should proactively solicit and take the opportunity for open and frequent engagement with their advisers and/or mentors. Meanwhile, postdoctoral advisers should behoove themselves to make the transition to mentor so they are responsible for guiding, challenging, and supporting their postdocs. The key to this is fostering mutual respect and trust, and once advisers clarify their expectations for postdocs, both parties should collaborate on an individual development plan aligned with the postdoc's professional goals. To read further, please visit http://cra.org/resources/bp-view/best_practices_memo_computer_science_postdocs_best_practices/?utm_source=Computing+Research+News&utm_campaign=e4a5b3cf78-Computing_Research_News1_9_2013&utm_medium=email.
Switzerland Is Latest to Partner With NSF Through Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide (GROW)
National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Subra Suresh and Swiss State Secretary for Education, Research and Innovation Mauro Dell'Ambrogio has announced a new research partnership with Switzerland through Graduate Research Opportunities Worldwide (GROW). The agreement was signed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. GROW is a coordinated effort that enhances international collaborative research opportunities for NSF Graduate Research Fellows. There are currently GROW agreements between NSF and science agencies in nine countries. GROW was announced in Dec. 2012, at the 60th anniversary celebration of the Graduate Research Fellowship Program, NSF's flagship program for graduate students in the science and engineering fields within NSF's mission. To read further, please visit http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=126693&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click.
Career Opportunities
Computational Science Postdoctoral Fellow in Computer and Data Sciences
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - Req # 75198
The Future Technologies Group (FTG) has an immediate opening for two postdoctoral researchers to work on research in projects to develop, optimize, and deploy optimized, communication avoiding sparse linear solvers. This project will couple traditional performance analysis and optimization arenas with newly developed variants of the Conjugate Gradient (CG) and BiConjugate Gradient Stabilized (BiCGSTAB) sparse linear solver algorithms that minimize data movement and will target supercomputers built from multi- and manycore processors solving the systems of linear equations found in AMR Multigrid bottom solvers. As such, the performance benefits of matrix-free implementations will be evaluated. Concurrently, this project will parallelize and optimize a newly developed variant of sparse LU based on a hierarchically semiseparable representation of the matrix. Deliverables will include both prototype software distributions as well as publications targeted at top-tier research conferences. For more information and to apply, please visit https://lbl.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=75198.
On the Lighter Side – Computational News of Interest
City Living: There's an App for That
Computerworld
U.S. citizens increasingly are developing mobile applications that rely on a wealth of publicly available municipal data. For example, Portland, Ore., has developed PDX Bus, a free open source iPhone app that delivers bus and train arrival times by tapping transit data, including global positioning system data that is built into city buses. This movement was sparked in 2008 by the Obama administration's Open Government Initiative, which led to the release of vast amounts of federal data. Many state and local governments have followed the federal trend. "Those municipalities that have made strides in making data sets available are moving in the right direction, and that's worth applauding," says National Freedom of Information Coalition director Kenneth Bunting. Chicago citizen activists recently launched CivicLab, a nonprofit dedicated to building, distributing, and encouraging the use of new tools for civic engagement and government accountability. One of the group's first projects is the Tax Increment Finance Report, which aims to apply visualization tools to government data. Meanwhile, Code for America teams volunteer developers with municipalities looking to create new apps and services for their data. Code for America so far has partnered with 11 U.S. cities to develop and brainstorm new apps. To read further, please visit http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9234904/City_living_There_s_an_app_for_that.
U.S. Library of Congress Saving 500 Million Tweets Per Day in Archives
IDG News Service
The U.S. Library of Congress expects to finish the initial stage of building a Twitter archive by the end of January. In April 2010, Twitter agreed to provide an archive of every public tweet since the company went live in 2006. The initial four-year archive contained about 21 billion tweets that take up 20 terabytes when uncompressed, including data fields. The Library of Congress is storing 500 million tweets a day, and has added a total of about 170 billion tweets to its collection. The focus will now shift to making the collection accessible to lawmakers and researchers. "It is clear that technology to allow for scholarship access to large data sets is lagging behind technology for creating and distributing such data," the library says. The full archive now requires 133.2 terabytes for two compressed copies, which are stored on tape in separate locations for safekeeping. The library already has received 400 inquiries from researchers studying citizen journalism, vaccination rates, stock market trends, and other topics. To read further, please visit http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/010813-us-library-of-congress-saving-265607.html.
