HPC in the News
MATLAB Selected to Provide HPC Capabilities to Researchers
MathWorks today announced that the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC) has selected MATLAB and MATLAB Distributed Computing Server as vehicles to enable researchers at all Swedish universities to utilize resources at the national data centers for high-performance computing (HPC) and to more effectively collaborate with colleagues across the country. SNIC is a national research infrastructure created to provide a balanced and cost-efficient set of resources and user support for large-scale computation and data storage. With data centers located at six key research universities, SNIC meets the needs of researchers from all scientific disciplines through an open-application procedure to ensure that the best research is supported. To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/matlab-selected-provide-hpc-capabilities-researchers/.
NCSA Visualizations Featured at Adler Planetarium
Data-driven visualizations created by NCSA’s Advanced Visualization Laboratory (AVL) will be featured in the Adler Planetarium’s new live show “Destination Solar System.” Opening May 16, the show takes visitors on a tour “from sizzling solar flares on the Sun to liquid methane lakes on Saturn’s moon.” “We didn’t just want to visit the planets, we wanted to show how dynamic the solar system is and how it has evolved over time,” said Mark Subbarao, director of the Adler’s Space Visualization Lab and co-producer of the show. “Partnering with AVL allowed us to transport our visitors 4.5 billion years in the past to see the solar system form and to the surface of the sun to witness its dramatic activity. All of these are visualizations of state-of-the-art computational simulations.” To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/ncsa-visualizations-featured-adler-planetarium/.
University of Maryland Launches New Supercomputer
The University of Maryland unveils today Deepthought2, one of the nation’s fastest university-owned supercomputers, to support advanced research activities ranging from studying the formation of the first galaxies to simulating fire and combustion for fire protection advancements. Developed with high-performance computing solutions from Dell, Deepthought2 has a processing speed of about 300 teraflops. Deepthought2 is a significant asset of the new Cyberinfrastructure Center – a 9,000-square-foot data facility located in the Rivertech Building in the university’s M Square Research Park. To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/university-maryland-launches-new-supercomputer/.
A Pictorial Approach to Understanding MPI Program Behavior
TACC Technical Report TR-14-03
This technical report is a preprint of a paper intended for publication in a journal or proceedings. Since changes may be made before publication, this preprint is made available with the understanding that anyone wanting to cite or reproduce it ascertains that no published version in journal or proceedings exists. Permission to copy this report is granted for electronic viewing and single-copy printing. Permissible uses are research and browsing. Specifically prohibited are sales of any copy, whether electronic or hardcopy, for any purpose. Also prohibited is copying, excerpting or extensive quoting of any report in another work
without the written permission of one of the report’s authors. To read further, please visit http://tacc-web.austin.utexas.edu/veijkhout/public_html/Articles/mpianalysis.pdf.
Society of HPC Professionals: Cognitive Analytics Webinar
May 21, 2014 – 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM MDT
eXcellence in IS Solutions Inc. (X-ISS), a provider of High Performance Computing (HPC) and Big Data solutions, will present “Cognitive Analytics for HPC Data Centers” during a live webinar hosted by the Society of HPC Professionals (SHPCP). The featured speaker will be Deepak Khosla, X-ISS founder and president. The technical webinar is free and open to all. To register, please visit https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/334133456. For more information on The Society of HC Professionals, please visit http://www.hpcsociety.org/.
SDSC WorDS Center Workflow Hackathon
June 17, 2014 – La Jolla, California
WorDS Center Workflow Hackathons are made for you and your application! Come and taste the spirit of collaborative development while you focus on the workflows for your applications.
* Do you have MATLAB, R, Python and other scripts you are trying to integrate?
* Do you have workflows you are trying to scale on large-scale and cloud-based computational resources?
* Have you taken one of the WorDS Boot Camps and you want to further improve your hands-on experience?
* Are you a Kepler user who is looking for additional hands-on help to develop your application and sharpen your skills?
Centered around your individual usecases, we will help you hack workflow-driven applications from building a prototype of your workflows from scratch, running your workflows on HPC/cloud/cluster resources, making your workflow products reproducible through provenance tracking, and wrapping your workflows as web applications. For registration and details: http://words.sdsc.edu/events/hackathon-june-2014.
NCSA on why #HPCMatters
Why does high-performance computing matter? Because science matters! Discovery matters! Human beings are seekers, questers, questioners. And when we get answers, we ask bigger questions. HPC extends our reach, putting more knowledge, more discovery, and more innovation within our grasp. With HPC, the future is ours to create! #HPCMatters! To view the video, please visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FfYGGeRjD8&feature=youtu.be.
Registration for XSEDE14 Now Open
July 13-18, 2014 – Atlanta, Georgia
Registration is now open for XSEDE14, the annual conference that brings together the extended community of individuals interested in advancing research cyberinfrastructure and integrated digital services for the benefit of science and society. XSEDE14 will take place at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis and will showcase the discoveries, innovations, challenges and achievements of those who utilize and support XSEDE resources and services, as well as other digital resources and services throughout 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. For more information and to register, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/conference/xsede14.
HPC Call for Participation
ACM Richard Tapia 2015 Call for Participation
February 18-21, 2015 – Boston, Massachusetts
Submission Deadline – August 8, 2014
Scholarship Deadline – September 2, 2014
The Tapia Conference brings together undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, researchers, and professionals in computing from all backgrounds and ethnicities to:
- Celebrate the diversity that exists in computing;
- Connect with others with common backgrounds, ethnicities, disabilities, and gender so as to create communities that extend beyond the conference;
- Obtain advice from and make contacts with computing leaders in academia and industry.
For complete information, please visit http://www.tapiaconference.org/.
Call for Papers- March 2015 IEEE Big Data: Management and Applications
White Paper Submission Deadline - June 1, 2014
Full Proposal Deadline - September 1, 2014
With the synergistic confluence of multicore and multiprocessor computers, pervasive sensing and wireless sensor networks, cloud and mobile computing, along with groundbreaking advances in storage devices, we are generating unprecedented levels of data. It is estimated that 90 percent of the world's data has been generated in the past two years. Data too big and complex to capture, store, process, analyze, and interpret — even using state-of-the-art tools and methods — is referred to as big data. The guest editors solicit papers covering all areas of big data management and applications, including big data infrastructure, frameworks, and tools; distributed big data interoperability and standards; big data management practices and analytics; big data privacy and security; and big data applications. Contributions that provide an interdisciplinary view of big data, and work that involves real deployments and novel applications are of particular interest. For more information, please visit http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/cocfp3.
Upcoming Conferences, Workshops and Webinars
The 4th SESAME LinkSCEEM Summer School
June 15-17, 2014 Amman, Jordan
The LinkSCEEM-2 FP7 project is organizing a 3-day school on High Performance Computing (HPC) and its application on the Synchrotron Radiation fields, during June 15-17, 2014 at IMAN1 (Jordan’s National Supercomputing Center), Amman, Jordan. The HPC School is part of the LinkSCEEM-2 project training activities aiming to motivate the scientists in the Middle-East region with topics related to Synchrotron Radiation (SR) and High Performance Computing (HPC) and the applications of these topics in their respective field of research. The 4th SESAME-LinkSCEEM Summer School is targeting the young researcher, MSc and PhD student, fresh graduated is preferable who are interesting in HPC and SR topics. For more information, please visit http://www.sesame.org.jo/sesame/news/337-the-4th-sesame-%E2%80%93-linksceem-summer-school.html.
Virtual School of Computational Science and Engineering (VSCSE) Summer School
Big Data Summer School, June 30 - July , 2014 - U Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma
Harness the Power of GPUs: Introduction to GPGPU Programming, June 16-20, 2014
The Virtual School of Computational Science and Engineering is looking forward to another successful summer school program providing undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, faculty and professionals the skills they need to use advanced computational resources to further their research. These are being offered through one of a kind high-definition videoconferencing delivered simultaneously nationwide to specific sites. For complete information, including summer school site locations and to register, please visit https://portal.xsede.org/course-calendar.
SDSC Offers Virtual Data Intensive Summer School
June 30 – July 2, 2014 -- La Jolla, California
Application Deadline – May 30, 3014
The San Diego Supercomputer Center will be one of 21 sites across the country hosting the Virtual Data Intensive Summer School. It is intended for participants who are local to San Diego or one of the other 20 sites that will be linked using videoconferencing technology. The Data Intensive Summer School focuses on the skills needed to manage, process and gain insight from large amounts of data. It is targeted at researchers from the physical, biological, economic and social sciences that are beginning to drown in data. We will cover the nuts and bolts of data intensive computing, common tools and software, predictive analytics algorithms, data management and non-relational database models. Given the short duration of the summer school, the emphasis will be on providing a solid foundation that the attendees can use as a starting point for advanced topics of particular relevance to their work.
Summer School details: http://www.vscse.org/summerschool/2014/index.html
Registration: https://portal.xsede.org/course-calendar
1st International Conference on Algorithms for Computational Biology - AlCoB 2014
July 1-3, 2014 - Tarragona, Spain
AlCoB aims at promoting and displaying excellent research using string and graph algorithms and combinatorial optimization to deal with problems in biological sequence analysis, genome rearrangement, evolutionary trees, and structure prediction. For more information, please visit http://grammars.grlmc.com/alcob2014/.
TACC Camp C3 for Middle School Students
Monday-Thursday July 28–31, 2014 AND Monday, August 4, 2014
Camp C3 is a one-week, summer program for students entering the eighth grade who have an interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. In Summer 2014, TACC is partnering with UTeach Outreach to support UT PREP 1. Registration is currently open to students from Bedichek Middle School and Martin Middle School. For more information and to register, please visit https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/education/k-12-programs/tacc-summer-camp. Please email us at summercamps@tacc.utexas.edu if you'd like to be on the distribution list for 2015 camps.
Ready, Set, Robots! 2-day Camp at Indiana University
First session: June 12-13, 2014 – Bloomington, Indiana
Second session: June 19-20, 2014 – Bloomington, Indiana
Now in its 9th year this 2-day summer workshop introduces kids to technology-related fields and ideas as they work side-by-side with IU IT professionals. For more information and to register for the camp, please visit http://go.iu.edu/btv (click the + symbol next to the words "See available dates and register for this workshop" To watch a video, please visit http://www.youtube.com/v/SlPskGm4PO0&rel=1&autoplay=1.
SDSC Summer Institute 2014: HPC Meets Big Data
August 4 – 8, 2014 – La Jolla, California
HPC Meets Big Data is the theme of SDSC’s Summer Institute in 2014. SDSC Summer Institute will deploy a flexible format designed to help attendees get the most out of their week. The first half will consist of plenary sessions covering the skills that are considered essential for anyone who works with big data. Topics include data management, running jobs on SDSC resources, reproducibility, database systems, characteristics of big data, techniques for turning data into knowledge, software version control and making effective use of hardware. Followed by a series of parallel sessions that allow attendees to dive deeper into specialized material that is relevant to their research projects, with the exact choice of topics will be based on feedback collected during registration. The Summer Institute is targeted to individuals interested in data science and computational science—especially current and potential users of SDSC's data-intensive resources. To apply, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/Events/summerinstitute/.
Research & Technology Development 2014
September 15-16, 2014 – Missouri University of Science and Technology Rolla Missouri
Missouri S&T will be hosting the fourth annual Research & Technology Development conference (RTD2014) in Rolla, Missouri. In addition to extensive networking opportunities, this year's conference will feature two days of useful workshops and presentations in each of three distinct research pillars:mComputational Science, Large Data Visualization, and Additive Manufacturing. Six universities are joining to lead the coordination of workshops, talks, presentations, and hands-on demonstrations:
* University of Oklahoma and University of Nebraska-Lincoln Computational Science
* Indiana University and University of Texas Visualization
* University of Louisville and Missouri S&T Additive Manufacturing
While admission is free to attendees, registration is required and early registration is encouraged to receive hotel discounts. For more information, please visit https://rtd2014.mst.edu/. To view the two-day schedule, please visit https://rtd2014.mst.edu/attend.
Research Features From Across the Country and Around the World
Extreme Scale Design Automation
CCC Blog
A group of researchers from various universities recently co-organized and held three workshops on Charting the Future of Electronic Design Automation, writes University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professor Josep Torrellas, director of the Center for Programmable Extreme Scale Computing. Torrellas notes device integration in silicon chips is increasing to unprecedented levels, and the trend is expected to continue for several generations. He says existing electronic design automation (EDA) techniques and tools cannot effectively harness the scale possible in today's chips, and are incapable of dealing with the types of systems expected within 10 years. The first two workshops focused on educating students in this field and on collaboration with the semiconductor industry. Intel's Noel Menezes gave a keynote for the second workshop that outlined where the industry is heading and the types of professionals that are needed. To read further, please visit http://www.cccblog.org/2014/04/28/extreme-scale-design-automation/.
PSC, Hopkins Computer Model Helps Benin Vaccinate More Kids at Lower Cost
The HERMES Logistics Modeling Team, consisting of researchers from Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, have used HERMES, their modeling software, to help the Republic of Benin in West Africa determine how to bring more lifesaving vaccines to its children. The team reports its findings this month in the journal Vaccine (The benefits of redesigning Benin's vaccine supply chain, Vaccine, 9 May 2014). Results from the HERMES model have helped the country enact some initial changes in their vaccine delivery system, which may lead to further changes nationwide. To read further, please visit http://psc.edu/index.php/newscenter/42-press-release/948-psc-hopkins-computer-model-helps-benin-vaccinate-more-kids-at-lower-cost.
From TACC: What Makes a Supercomputer? (video)
From South by Southwest 2014
How do engineers build today's supercomputers, and how are the world's fastest computers ranked? We visit the Texas Advanced Computing Center, home of one of the world's top supercomputing clusters, to learn about and how researchers tap into petaflops of processing power. We're talking about a system with 270 Terabytes of RAM and 14 Petabytes of storage! Learn more about TACC's Stampede supercomputer here: https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/stampede/.
GCS Awards Nearly 400 Million Computing Core Hours to Science Projects
The Gauss Centre for Supercomputing just announced that seven outstanding scientific projects will be awarded almost 400 million processor core hours of supercomputing time as part of its 11th GCS Call for Large-Scale Projects. To read further and discover who the winners are, please visit http://insidehpc.com/2014/05/19/gcs-awards-nearly-400-million-computing-core-hours-science-projects/.
Podcast: Radio Free HPC Looks at What Happens When Google Hits the History Erase Button
In this podcast, the Radio Free HPC team looks at a landmark ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling that an individual could demand that “irrelevant or outdated” information be deleted from Google search results. Additional topics include: a new Bull supercomputer coming to DKRZ with a 45 Petabyte filesystem based on Lustre and ClusterStor technology, and a Call for Submissions by the Graph500 and the Green Graph500. To listen to the podcast, please visit http://insidehpc.com/2014/05/15/radio-free-hpc-looks-happens-google-hits-history-erase-button/.
Educator News and Opportunities
Strong Legislative Support for Computer Science
The Code.Org organization is lobbying in Sacramento to allow computer science courses to count as a math credit toward high school graduation requirements. AB 1764, (http://leginfo.ca.gov/pub/13-14/bill/asm/ab_1751 1800/ab_1764_bill_20140214_introduced.htm), co-authored by Assemblywomen Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo, and Kristen Olsen, R-Modesto, passed out of the lower house late last month on a 78-0 vote with bipartisan support. This legislation would authorize the school board of a district that requires more than two math course credits for graduation “to award a pupil up to one mathematics course credit for successfully completing an approved computer science course, as provided. “According to Amy Hirotaka, state policy and advocacy manager at the nonprofit Code.org: “Our lobbying effort has focused on the movement to make computer science count as a credit toward graduation requirements.” Code.org reached out on the issue to Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this month in a letter, signed by 28 education officials, nonprofits and top industry leaders, including salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff and Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey.
Standards for Computer Science Education Need Improvement
U.S. News & World Report
The recent U.S. News STEM Solutions Conference held a panel during which subject matter specialists issued a warning about the state of computer science education in the United States. The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) wants "to draw attention to the fact that there is a crisis in computer science education in our country," said CSTA chair Deborah Seehorn. CSTA has released "Running on Empty," a report that compares and contrasts computer science education on a state-by-state basis. Meanwhile, Oracle Academy's Allison J. Derbenwick Miller said although programs such as code.org have made some progress in advancing computer science education, that success might give people the false impression there is not a computer science crisis in the country. To read further, please visit http://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2014/04/28/standards-for-computer-science-education-need-improvement.
Digital Media Educator Conference
June 12-13, 2014 - College of the Canyons, Santa Clarita California
Digital media is woven into the fabric of the modern workplace thus driving the need for digital literacy for every entry-level job, even those once considered to be strictly vocational. That places you, the Digital Media and ICT faculty, in the center of career learning paths throughout the California Community College system. This is a special event for Information Communications Technologies and Digital Media Faculty in the California Community College system. For more information and to register, please visit http://ict-dm.net/dmec-home. .
Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Lately, Coding
New York Times
Seven-year-old Jordan Lisle, a second grader, joined his family at a packed after-hours school event last month aimed at inspiring a new interest: computer programming. “I’m a little afraid he’s falling behind,” his mother, Wendy Lisle, said, explaining why they had signed up for the class at Strawberry Point Elementary School. The event was part of a national educational movement in computer coding instruction that is growing at Internet speeds. Since December, 20,000 teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade have introduced coding lessons, according to Code.org, a group backed by the tech industry that offers free curriculums. To read further, please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/11/us/reading-writing-arithmetic-and-lately-coding.html?_r=0.
| New Tool Released to Help Educators Assess Alignment of Materials to NGSS |
| To aid the search for re ources that support the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), NSTA and Achieve have been working with science educators across the country to develop a rubric to determine if resources address the letter and spirit of the standards. The Educators Evaluating the Quality of Instructional Products (EQuIP) Rubric for science provides criteria for measuring the alignment and overall quality of lessons and units with respect to the NGSS. The purpose is to provide constructive criterion-based feedback to developers; review existing instructional materials to determine what revisions are needed, and identify exemplars/models to be used by teachers. To view and download the rubric, please visit http://ngss.nsta.org/nsta-products-and-services/. To read more about the rubric and what it means for teachers, please visit http://nstacommunities.org/blog/2014/04/25/equip/. |
Oracle Training for Educators
July 28-August 1, 2014 - Pleasanton, California
Enrollment Deadline - July 18, 2014
Oracle has announced it is offering free trainings to California teachers this summer. The event is open to faculty who meet the following criteria:
- Teach at an accredited non-profit public or private institution (This can be higher education or high school.)
- Are interested in using the Database or Java curriculum in a degree granting program (high school diploma, AA degree, or Bachelor’s degree program.)
There will be two options: Java Fundamentals and Database Design and Programming with SQL, each training is one week. To view the JavaFundamentals flyer, please visit http://www.edsynergy.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/JavaFundamentals_flyer.pdf. To view the Database Design Flyer, please visit http://www.edsynergy.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DatabaseSQL_flyer.pdf. To register, please visit http://www.edsynergy.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ICS_Registration_Enrollment_Steps_Pleasanton_events.pdf.
Problem-Based Learning Workshop for Teachers
August 19, 2014 - 10:30-12:30 in the San Diego Convention Center.
As part of its Optics and Photonics Education Conference, SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, will offer a workshop on engaging STEM students with problem-based learning. Participants will use the curriculum materials developed by the New England Board of Higher Education's PBL Projects (www.pblprojects.org) to solve an open-ended industry-based problem. More details including a link to the registration site can be found here: http://www.lasertechonline.org/pbl_workshop.pdf.
Student Engagement and Opportunities
TACC’s STAR Scholars Program Offers Competitive Internships
The STAR Scholars Internship Program at TACC is recruiting its next round of students for the 2014-2015 academic year. Designed to help students add competitive skills to their resume, the program enables corporations such as BP and Chevron to sponsor students while TACC teaches them applicable skills. Often times, the students who train at TACC have the opportunity to become full-time employees at these international companies. For more information, please visit http://insidehpc.com/2014/05/20/taccs-star-scholars-program-offers-competitive-internships/.
NASA Exploration Design Challenge
Registration Deadline – June 30, 2014
Students from Kindergarten through 12th grade have the opportunity to play a unique role in the future of human spaceflight through participation in NASA's Exploration Design Challenge, or EDC. NASA EDC invites students around the world to think and act like scientists in order to overcome one of the major hurdles of deep space long-duration exploration -- the dangers associated with space radiation. Students taking part in the challenge will discover how to plan and design improved radiation shielding aboard the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, currently being developed by NASA, Lockheed Martin and other partners to carry astronauts to space, venturing farther than humans have ever gone before. Through a series of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, engagement activities, students in grades K-8 will analyze different materials that simulate space radiation shielding and recommend materials that best block radiation and protect astronauts. Students in grades 9-12 will think and act like engineers as they apply what they learn to design shielding to protect a sensor on the Orion crew module from space radiation. For more information and to register online, visit http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/spacelife/explorationdesign/overview/index.html.
2014 NSBRI First Award Fellowship Program
Application Deadline - June 6, 2014
The National Space Biomedical Research Institute, or NSBRI, is accepting fellowship applications for the First Award Program. The two-year fellowships are available in any U.S. laboratory carrying out space-related biomedical or biotechnological research. Applicants are required to submit proposals with the support of a mentor and an institution, and all proposals will be evaluated by a peer-review panel. Selected applicants receive a stipend, allowance for health insurance and travel funds for related scientific meetings. Also, an optional, competitive third year of fellowship support is available. This year's applicants can also request to be considered to spend part of the fellowship in Russia, via a program involving NSBRI and the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Detailed program and application submission information is available at http://www.nsbri.org/FUNDING-OPPORTUNITIES/Current-Announcements/. For more information about NSBRI's First Award Program, please visit http://www.nsbri.org/firstaward/.
2015 NASA MUREP Scholarship
Application Deadline Extended – June 2, 2014
NASA's Office of Education is accepting applications for Minority University Research and Education Program Scholars. The MUREP Scholarship is a competitive opportunity that focuses on underserved and underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, disciplines, to address the critical shortage of qualified STEM professionals that the nation is facing. Eligible students include rising freshman (high school graduating seniors or GED recipients not yet enrolled in college), sophomores and juniors, at the undergraduate level, who will complete their undergraduate degree in spring 2016 or later and Minority Serving Institution community college students with at least two years remaining at the community college. The goal is to address the agency's mission-specific workforce needs and target areas of national need in minority STEM representation. The scholarship includes up to a $9,000 academic scholarship, not to exceed 75 percent of verified tuition, and a $6,000 stipend for a required 10-week internship at a NASA center during summer 2015. The internship provides scholars with a unique NASA research experience and preparation for global competitiveness Applications should be submitted through the NASA One Stop Shopping Initiative at https://intern.nasa.gov/. Applicants should be sure to select “scholarships” for the type of application.
2015 NASA Scholars
Application Deadline – June 2, 2014
The NASA Office of Education is accepting applications for NASA Scholars. The NASA Scholarship is a competitive opportunity that focuses on students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, disciplines, to address the critical shortage of qualified STEM professionals that the nation is facing. The scholarship includes up to a $9,000 academic scholarship, not to exceed 75 percent of verified tuition, and a $6,000 stipend for a 10-week internship at a NASA center during summer 2015. The internship provides scholars with a unique NASA research experience and preparation for global competitiveness. Applications should be submitted through the NASA One Stop Shopping Initiative at https://intern.nasa.gov. Applicants should be sure to select “scholarships” for the type of application.
Summer Study Opportunity: Big Data Visualization and Infographics: The Big Picture
June 16- 27 2014 - New York University
This summer, the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies (NYU-SCPS) will offer rising college seniors and recent college undergraduates the opportunity to live and learn in the heart of New York City, the cultural and financial capital of the world. Two-week, professionally oriented intensive programs of study will allow you to explore career options and to gain the competitive edge when applying for graduate school or looking for that first job. Live in an NYU dorm, * and enjoy the use of NYU facilities, while you take in all that NYC has to offer during the summer. For more information and to apply, please visit http://www.scps.nyu.edu/academics/noncredit-offerings/career-pathways.html.
Carnegie Mellon-Disney Researcher Invents 3D Printing Technique for Making Cuddly Stuff
Science Codex
Researchers at Disney Research Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) have developed a type of three-dimensional (3D) printer that produces 3D objects made of a form of loose felt. "We're really extending the set of materials available for 3D printing and opening up new possibilities for what can be manufactured," says CMU professor Scott Hudson. Similar to other 3D printers, the new system can make objects by working directly from computerized designs. However, CMU's printer feeds out yarn instead of lines of melted plastic. A barbed felting needle attached to the printer head repeatedly then pierces the yarn, dragging down individual fibers into the yarn in the layers below, entangling the fibers and bonding the layers together. Hudson notes the printer does not achieve the same dimensional accuracy as conventional 3D printers because the yarn is much thicker than the layers of plastic deposited in fused deposition modeling printing.. To read further, please visit http://www.sciencecodex.com/carnegie_mellondisney_researcher_invents_3d_printing_technique_for_making_cuddly_stuff-132651.
Faculty News and Opportunities
Call for Proposals: NSF/TCPP CDER Center Early Adopter Awards on Parallel and Distributed Computing Curriculum
Abstract Deadline - June 23, 2014
Proposal Deadline - June 30, 2014
The penetration of parallel and distributed computing (PDC) technology into the daily lives of users via their wireless networks, smartphones, social networking sites, cloud, and more, has made it imperative to impart a broad-based skill set in PDC technology at various levels in the educational fabric. However, rapid advances in computing technology and services challenges educators’ abilities to know what to teach in any given semester. Other stakeholders in the push to cope with fast-changing PDC technology, including employers, face similar challenges in identifying basic expertise. The curricular guidelines developed by the NSF/TCPP working group seek to address this challenge in a manner that is flexible and broad, with allowance for variations in emphasis in response to different institutions and different curricular cultures. Since the release of the preliminary version in 2010 and version I in 2012, we have selected over 100 early adopter institutions from the U.S. and from around the world in order to evaluate the guidelines and to obtain templates on how these topics can be adopted in various courses across the curriculum. To read further, please visit http://www.cs.gsu.edu/~tcpp/curriculum/?q=home.
The Lighter Side – Computational News and Innovations
Apple, Facebook, Others Defy Authorities, Notify Users of Secret Data Demands
The Washington Post
Large U.S. tech firms increasingly are defying federal investigators' mandate that they give them access to users' online data without informing those users in advance. For example, Google already notifies users about federal data requests as a matter of routine, but recently adopted a new policy detailing the circumstances under which notification is withheld. Such practices are being driven by last year's revelation about U.S. National Security Agency surveillance of online services. "It serves to chill the unbridled, cost-free collection of data," notes attorney Albert Gidari Jr. To read further, please visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/apple-facebook-others-defy-authorities-increasingly-notify-users-of-secret-data-demands-after-snowden-revelations/2014/05/01/b41539c6-cfd1-11e3-b812-0c92213941f4_story.html.
Cars That Look and Listen to Find Themselves Parking Spot
IEEE Spectrum
South Korean researchers affiliated with Hanyang University are developing a system to fully automate the parking process, including helping the car find a parking space. The system combines the car's ultrasound sensors, cameras, and odometer to create a completely automated parking system. The researchers say the sensor-fusion system can keep the computational time to just 32 milliseconds, compared with 82 milliseconds for a vision-only system. "These results reveal that the proposed system can surely operate in real time," they say. The odometer tracks the car's position, enabling the system to determine a new angle of observation and use it to update its earlier estimate. The continuously updating system improves accuracy and helps the system handle roads that are not perfectly flat. The system offers a selection of possible parking spots to the driver, who selects one by punching a touchscreen. To read further, please visit http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/advanced-cars/cars-that-find-themselves-a-parking-spot.
