HPC Happenings
PRACEdays14 - PRACE Scientific and Industrial Conference 2014
May 20-22, 2014 – Barcelona, Spain
In 2014, PRACE will organize its first Scientific and Industrial Conference – the first edition of the PRACE days - under the motto HPC for Innovation – when Science meets Industry. The conference combines the previously separate PRACE Scientific Conferences and PRACE Industrial Seminars and will bring together experts from academia and industry who will present their advancements in HPC-supported science and engineering. The program will include invited keynotes, scientific presentations and a poster session. For more information, registration and the Call for Contributions, please visit
http://www.prace-ri.eu/pracedays14.
Register Today: HPC Advisory Council Exascale Workshop 2014
February 3-5, 2014 - Stanford, California
he HPC Advisory Council, together with Stanford University, will hold the HPC Advisory Council Stanford Conference and Exascale Workshop 2014 on February 3-5, 2014, at Stanford, California. The conference will focus on High-Performance Computing (HPC) usage models and benefits, the future of supercomputing, latest technology developments, best practices and advanced HPC topics. The conference is open to the public and will bring together system managers, researchers, developers, computational scientists and industry affiliates. Click here to view the current agenda. the conference is free to attendees and will include coffee breaks and lunch courtesy of the HPC Advisory Council and Stanford University. Registration is required. For registration information, please visit, http://hpcadvisorycouncil.com/events/2014/stanford-workshop/register.php.
SURA Releases Report on Dataverse Network Implementation Pilot
SURA has announced the findings of a collaborative project to explore the capabilities of the Dataverse Network software, an open source application that assists with publishing, referencing, extracting and analyzing research data. This pilot implementation of the Dataverse Network software was conducted as part of SURA’s larger Research Data Management (RDM) initiative, an on-going collaboration between SURA member library and IT professionals. The press release and links to the full report can be found at
http://www.sura.org/news/2014/DVNPilot10814.pdf
.
Upcoming Student Opportunities Presentations
Registration Deadline – January 17, 2014
There will be two XSEDE Minority Research Community calls this month. The goal of the calls are: (1) to ensure you are aware of the XSEDE and Blue Waters opportunities for students; (2) can identify great candidates; and (3) you can assist them in developing competitive and compelling applications.
· January 24th: Presentation and Q&A for those of you who have students applying or considering applying to the Blue Waters fellowship program. The application deadline is February 3rd. The full description of this program is at the end of this email. The call will only be held if we have interest. Please RSVP for this call to Linda Akli akli@sura.org if you plan on attending.
· January 31st: Presentations and Q&A on XSEDE Scholars, XSEDE Summer Internship, and students @XSEDE14.
Feel free to invite your colleagues to the call. Call in information will be sent out in the reminder emails.
Using HOOMD-blue for Polymer Simulations and Big Systems (webinar)
January 21, 2014, 11:00 a.m. EST
In this webinar, Dr. Glaser, Research Fellow, University of Michigan, will demonstrate how real-world computational research in soft matter physics can be accelerated on a GPU-equipped desktop computer with the HOOMD-blue molecular dynamics software. A presentation of how to set up a simulation of a dense polymer liquid, and how to analyze and visualize the results is provided. There will be a demonstration of how self-assembled ordered structures of block copolymers emerge out of an initially disordered configuration. With external potentials, an artificially ordered phase can be produced as well. HOOMD-blue’s easy-to-use scripting interface and plug-ins are used to create a productive workflow and extend its capabilities. As an advanced topic, there will be a discussion of how the upcoming version of HOOMD-blue can be used on compute clusters running on ten to hundreds of GPUs in parallel, to boost simulations of long polymer chains or large-scale systems. To register for this webinar, please visit https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1534605225959203329.
SC14 Call for Workshops Proposals
November 16-21, 3014 – New Orleans, Louisiana
Submission Deadline – February 7, 2014
SC14 will include nearly 30 full-day and half-day workshops that complement the overall Technical Program events, expand the knowledge base of its subject area, and extend its impact by providing greater depth of focus. These workshops are geared toward providing interaction and in-depth discussion of stimulating topics of interest to the HPC community. Following the example of last year, in SC14, workshop submissions and acceptance dates are early in the year to accommodate the expanded focus on peer review. SC’s continuing goal is to provide an informative, high-quality technical program that meets the highest academic standards. Workshop submissions will be reviewed in a rigorous academic and competitive review process. Submitters should ensure to provide convincing arguments for the value of the workshop to the academic community. For more information and submission guidelines, please visit http://sc14.supercomputing.org/program/workshops?goback=.gde_1775643_member_5826707576301047810#!.
HPC Conference Calls for Participation
10th Annual MidSouth Computational Biology & Bioinformatics Society Conference – Call for Participation
March 7-8, 2014 – Stillwater, Oklahoma
Submission Deadline – January 22, 2014
The Conference Program Committee invites you to submit an abstract for either a poster or oral presentation. Abstracts are limited to 250 words in length. Participants presenting either a poster or a talk will be eligible to submit a manuscript for publication in the Conference Proceedings. As in previous years, we plan to publish the proceedings in BMC Bioinformatics, a highly ranked open-access journal. For complete conference information, including submission guidelines, please visit http://www.mcbios.org/.
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 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#!.
2014 Federated Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (FedCSIS) - Call for Papers
September 7-10, 2014 - Warsaw, Poland
Paper Submission Deadline – April 14, 2014
The FedCSIS Multiconference consists of Events (conferences, symposia, workshops, special sessions). Each Event may run over any span of time within the conference dates (from half-day to three days). The FedCSIS Events provide a platform for bringing together researchers, practitioners, and academia to present and discuss ideas, challenges and potential solutions on established or emerging topics related to research and practice in computer science and information systems. Since 2012, Proceedings of the FedCSIS conference are indexed in the Thomson Reuters Web of Science. For more information including submission guidelines, please visit https://fedcsis.org/.
Call for Papers – The Third International Conference on Communications, Computation, Networks and Technologies (INNOV 2014)
October 12 - 16, 2014 - Nice, France
Submission Deadline – May 16, 2014
The topics suggested by the conference can be discussed in term of concepts, state of the art, research, standards, implementations, running experiments, applications, and industrial case studies. Authors are invited to submit complete unpublished papers, which are not under review in any other conference or journal in the following, but not limited to, topic areas. All tracks are open to both research and industry contributions, in terms of Regular papers, Posters, Work in progress, Technical/marketing/business presentations, Demos, Tutorials, and Panels. Before submission, please check and conform with the Editorial rules: http://www.iaria.org/editorialrules.html. To submit, please visit http://www.iaria.org/conferences2014/SubmitINNOV14.html.
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
Computational Biology: Ten Simple Rules for Reproducible Computational Research
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are Replication is the cornerstone of a cumulative science [1]. However, new tools and technologies, massive amounts of data, interdisciplinary approaches, and the complexity of the questions being asked are complicating replication efforts, as are increased pressures on scientists to advance their research [2]. As full replication of studies on independently collected data is often not feasible, there has recently been a call for reproducible research as an attainable minimum standard for assessing the value of scientific claims [3]. This requires that papers in experimental science describe the results and provide a sufficiently clear protocol to allow successful repetition and extension of analyses based on original data [4]. To read further, please visit http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.1003285.
Data Mining Reveals the Secret to Getting Good Answers
Technology Review (12/03/13)
Although question-and-answer websites are hugely popular and can be very helpful, they often have trouble dealing with the massive amount of questions and answers that get submitted daily. To help filter the information, many websites allow users to rank both the questions and the answers, gaining a reputation for themselves as they contribute. Still, it can be difficult to weed out off topic and irrelevant questions and answers. However, State Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology researchers have developed an algorithm that completes the task. "To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to quantitatively validate the correlation between the question quality and its associated answer quality," says State Key researcher Yuan Yao. The researchers started the study by examining 2 million questions from 800,000 users who produced more than 4 million answers and 7 million comments on the Stack Overflow website. To read further, please visit http://www.technologyreview.com/view/522171/data-mining-reveals-the-secret-to-getting-good-answers/.
University of Missouri Researcher Develops Virtual Wall Which Could Stop the Spread of Oil and Could Help Build Invisible Barrier for Oil Spills
MU News Bureau
A study from the University of Missouri should benefit researchers who need to control tiny oil droplets on microdevices. A Missouri team has devised a way to form a virtual wall that will confine oily liquids to a certain area. Professor Jae Kwon and colleagues have developed oil-repellent surfaces that help keep oil in predetermined pathways. The technique is based on micro/nanoelectromechanical systems. The researchers demonstrated invisible virtual walls that block the spreading of such low-surface tension liquids at the boundary line with microscopic features already created in the device. "Our newly developed surface helped keep oil, which is normally unmanageable, in predetermined pathways making it controllable," Kwon says. "To read further, please visit http://munews.missouri.edu/news-releases/2013/1202-mu-researcher-develops-virtual-wall-which-could-stop-the-spread-of-oil-and-could-help-build-invisible-barrier-for-oil-spills/,
Can You Read My Mind? University of Cincinnati Researchers Engineer the Framework for Helpful Robots With Human Intuition
WCPO.com
Robots are expected to play an increasingly large role in daily life over the next 50 years, and the University of Cincinnati (UC) is preparing for this future by advancing the field of human-computer interaction. "In my opinion, UC's human-centered robotics research is unique--not just in the Tri-State area, but across the country," says UC master's student Guarav Mukherjee. "We have a very active collaboration among the engineering, medical, and nursing communities." The UC College of Engineering and Applied Science in November hosted the International Human-Centered Robotics Symposium, at which participants shared ideas for future developments in human-centered robots. The symposium was co-chaired by UC computer science professor Anca Ralescu, who is studying brain-computer interfaces (BCI), and aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics assistant professor Grant Schaffner, who is working on a mind-controlled robotic exoskeleton to help people with mobility problems. UC's BCI research could improve the exoskeleton's responsiveness, enabling robotics technology to directly support people. To read further, please visit http://www.wcpo.com/news/technology/can-you-read-my-mind-uc-researchers-engineer-the-framework-for-helpful-robots-with-human-intuition.
National Computer Science Principles Education Summit
July 16, 2014 - St. Charles, Illinois
Registration Deadline - February 1, 2014
to be held in conjunction with the CSTA 2014 annual conference
CSTA invites teachers and administrators to apply to attend a special summit aimed at broadening understanding and creating capacity for the wide-scale adoption and on-going support of the Computer Science Principles course. This summit will explore the pathways to CS Principles for the entire community (middle school and high school) and provide teachers and administrators with a context and strategies for implementing CS Principles in their high schools. Funding may be available for accommodation and travel. Attendance is limited to 50 participants. The online application can be found at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1wTTzMABNSNeZvMkE_sNVbDG5HyLBpudaXr3AeT5_9hE/viewform. For more information, please visit http://csta.acm.org/ProfessionalDevelopment/sub/TeacherWorkshops.html.
Minnesota Compass and Boston Scientific to Launch Innovative STEM Cradle-to-Career Data Portal
STEMblog
Over the past several months, I have had the pleasure of serving as lead researcher on an initiative to develop an innovative STEM cradle-to-career data and research portal for supporting STEM education and workforce needs in Minnesota. Boston Scientific provided support for the project to better understand the state of Minnesota’s STEM continuum and help target resources most effectively. On Oct. 1, we launched the new STEM section of Minnesota Compass, a community indicators project of Wilder Research. The website helps us understand how Minnesota is faring on key measures of STEM success from PreK-mid career, best practices that can inform action, and whether we are making progress over time. Data are provided at the statewide, regional, and county levels. For example, data from ACT, Inc. on high school graduates’ interest in pursuing a STEM major is provided down to the county level. We have striking disparities in Minnesota, and another key goal of the project is to provide data and resources for addressing gaps by race/ethnicity, gender, and income status. To read further, please visit http://blog.stemconnector.org/minnesota-compass-and-boston-scientific-pleased-launch-innovative-stem-cradle-career-data-portal.
Big Race, Gender Gaps In Participation On AP Computer Science Exam
A new analysis of test-taking data finds that in Mississippi and Montana, no female, African American, or Hispanic students took the Advanced Placement exam in computer science. In fact, no African-American students took the exam in a total of 11 states, and no Hispanic students took it in eight states, according to state comparisons of College Board data compiled by Barbara Ericson, the director of computing outreach and a senior research scientist at Georgia Tech. The College Board, which oversees AP, notes on its website that in 2013 about 30,000 students total took the AP exam for computer science, a course in which students learn to design and use computer programs. Less than 20 percent of those students were female, about 3 percent were African American, and 8 percent were Hispanic (combined totals of Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and other Hispanic). To read further, please visit http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2014/01/big_race_gender_disparities_discovered_on_ap_computer_science_exam.html.
Obama Uses Press Event to Tout 'ConnectEd' Program
President Obama's ConnectEd proposal, which he announced in June, calls for providing virtually all American students with "next-generation broadband and high-speed wireless in their schools and libraries," as well as provide technology training for teachers and promote personalized education software and devices. The president's plan specifically proposes changes to the federal E-rate program, which provides supports technology services and connectivity in public schools and libraries, particularly in disadvantaged communities. Relying on funding from small fees on telephone bills, the program generates about $2.4 billion a year. Obama has asked the Federal Communications Commission to consider rechanneling and increasing funding through the program, with the goal of giving 99 percent of the nation's schools access to high-speed broadband and wireless Web connections within five years. To read further, please visit http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2013/12/obama_touts_connectEd_digital_education_program.html.
Global Perspectives: Lessons from Switzerland’s VET System Offers Good Ideas About Internships and Transition to Work (video)
Betsy Brown Ruzzi recently sat down with Nancy Hoffman, Vice President and Senior Advisor at Jobs for the Future, and Bob Schwartz, Francis Keppel Professor of Practice in Educational Policy and Administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, to discuss what they have learned from their recent visits to countries with high performing vocational and technical education systems (VET). This excerpt of their longer video interview focuses particularly on what they have learned in Switzerland, a world-leader in ensuring the majority of young people in that country have a smooth transition from school to work. A full transcript of this video follows. To view the video, please visit http://www.ncee.org/2013/10/global-perspectives-lessons-from-switzerlands-vet-system/.
Student Engagement and Opportunities
Genomics Summer Research Program Now Accepting Applications
Application Deadline – January 31, 2014
The Broad Institute is a cutting-edge, deeply collaborative biomedical research institute dedicated to transforming human health through genomic science. Located in Cambridge, Mass., our research partners include Boston's leading universities and research hospitals, as well as Harvard and MIT. The Broad's Diversity Initiative is now accepting applications for our highly innovative undergraduate summer research opportunity, the Summer Research Program in Genomics (SRPG). The SRPG program is designed for students with a commitment to biomedical research and an interest in genomics. SRPG is specifically designed to support young scientists from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in the biomedical sciences. For more information, please visit https://www.broadinstitute.org/partnerships/education/diversity-initiatives/srpg/applying-summer-research-program-genomics.
Liane B. Russell Distinguished Early Career Fellowship
Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Knoxville, Tennessee Area
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) invites applications for the Liane Russell Distinguished Early Career Fellowship. This fellowship, named for Dr. Liane Russell, ORNL’s groundbreaking female geneticist, is an integral part of ORNL’s diversity recruiting effort, helping to attract a diverse workforce of scientists and engineers to pursue a path of scientific excellence with substantially contributing to ORNL and the US Department of Energy (DOE) missions and goals. This fellowship provides funding support over a period of three years for candidates with proven exceptional talent, along with formal mentorship and guidance designed to facilitate successful long-term integration and alignment of their research activities with DOE programs. Fellows are expected to conduct research of the highest quality and impact, aim to pursue long-term careers with ORNL, elevate the reputation of the Laboratory, and become scientific leaders in their field. To read further, please visit http://www.linkedin.com/jobs2/view/10373401?trk=eml-anet_dig-b_premjb-ttl-cn.
Faculty Proposal News and Information
UPenn Research Study: After Setbacks, Online Courses Are Rethought
The New York Times
A recent University of Pennsylvania study of a million users of massive open online courses (MOOCs) found that, on average, only about 50 percent of those who registered for a course ever viewed a lecture, and only about 4 percent completed the courses. Although MOOCs were started with the goal of providing courses for students in poor countries with little access to higher education, the study found that about 80 percent of those taking MOOCs had already earned a degree of some kind. In response to some of the initial shortcomings of several MOOC programs, their designers are making changes to broaden their appeal. For example, edX is producing videos to use in some high school Advanced Placement classes, and Coursera is experimenting with using its courses, along with a facilitator, in small discussion classes at some U.S. consulates. In addition, Udacity is revamping its software so future students could have more time to work through the courses. TO READ FURTHER, PLEASE VISIT http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/11/us/after-setbacks-online-courses-are-rethought.html?_r=0.
On the Lighter Side – Computational Science News on the Edge
Google Researchers: Crackdown Successfully Reduces Spam
CNet (12/06/13) Seth Rosenblatt
Two Google security researchers report that a pair of authentication standards designed to help combat spam and phishing attacks are being widely adopted. Industry players and standards organizations began working in 2004 to get email providers to adopt a number of authentication standards, such as DomainKey Identified Email (DKIM) and Sender Policy Framework (SPF), which would help prevent email address impersonation. Google researchers Elie Bursztein and Vijay Eranti say adoption of both DKIM and SPF is rising, and they estimate that 91.4 percent of the nonspam email sent to Gmail users now comes from authenticated senders. The researchers note that more than 3.5 million domains are using the SPF standard, accounting for 89.1 percent of email sent to Gmail, and more than 500,000 domains are using DKIM, accounting for 76 percent of email sent to Gmail. To read further, please visit http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57614849-83/crackdown-successfully-reduces-spam/.
Running Shoe Warns of Injury Danger
The Engineer
The European Union is backing the development of a running shoe that would help reduce injuries by providing feedback on running form and the workout routine. The RUNSAFER system would measure the biomechanical data of the user in real time. The measurement system consists of a microcontroller, a radio frequency module, and batteries, as well as accelerometers and global positioning system sensors that capture the biomechanical signals from the body and the running pace and transmit them via Bluetooth to the runner's smartphone. An app uses algorithms to evaluate the data and then make suggestions, and the data is transferred to a website for further processing, evaluation, and display. To read further, please visit http://www.theengineer.co.uk/electronics/news/running-shoe-warns-of-danger/1017636.article.
