HPC Happenings
Blue Waters Petascale Supercomputer Now in Friendly User Phase
U.S. National Science Foundation-approved science and engineering teams now have access to the full Blue Waters petascale computing system. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and Cray are currently conducting functionality, feature, performance, and reliability testing of the system at full scale. As the tests are completed, a representative production workload of science and engineering applications will run on the full Blue Waters system. The selected users will have access to the entire system during this window in order to help the Blue Waters team test and evaluate the full system. University of Illinois researchers used the system to explore aspects of the HIV capsid's structural properties in a 100-nanosecond simulation. To read further, please visit http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/News/Stories/BWfriendlyuser/.
The Eighth Workshop of the INRIA-ANL-Illinois Joint Laboratory on Petascale Computing|
November 19-21, 2012 - Argonne National Laboratory, USA
The workshop will take place at the MCS Building of the Argonne National Laboratory, IL. The eighth workshop of the INRIA-Illinois Joint Laboratory on Petascale Computing will gather top researchers in HPC from INRIA, ANL and the University of Illinois to explore research problems related to post-petascale supercomputers and present results of their joint work obtained since the previous workshop (6 months ago). The workshop will feature technical sessions on five main topics: Petascale Applications, Parallel Programming (Hybrid, Hierarchical, Heterogeneous), Resilience, Numerical Algorithms and Libraries and I/O. Other potential topics of collaboration will be presented and discussed. A key objective of the workshop is to identify new research collaborations and establish a roadmap for their implementation. The workshop is open to ANL, Illinois and INRIA faculties, researchers, engineers and students who want to learn more about sustained Petascale computing and Exascale. For more information and to register, please visit http://jointlab.ncsa.illinois.edu/events/workshop8/.
The Week in Big Data Research
What has been on the academic and scientific big data radar since the beginning of November? To find out, please visit http://www.datanami.com/datanami/2012-11-10/the_week_in_big_data_research.html?goback=.gde_4178444_member_184450201
Upcoming Conferences and Workshops.
2013 Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference – Call for Participation
February 7-9, 2013 – Washington, DC
Application Deadline – November 25, 2012
The 2013 Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference has issued a call for participation, inviting submissions for panel discussions, student research posters, birds-of-a-feather sessions and workshops. Additionally, applications are now being accepted for the Doctoral Consortium and student scholarships to attend the conference. Confirmed speakers include Vint Cerf (Google VP and ACM President), Armando Fox (UC Berkeley), Anita Jones (University of Virginia), Jeanine Cook (New Mexico State University), Annie Anton (Georgia Tech), and Hakim Weatherspoon, (Cornell University), among others. For more information, please visit the http://tapiaconference.org/2013/.
XSEDE Training at a Glance.
Parallel Computing at TACC: Ranger to Stampede Transition
December 11, 2012- 9:00am- 5:00pm EST – Cornell University
For more information, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/xup/course-calendar/-/training/class/73.
Writing a Successful XSEDE Allocation Proposal - webinar|
December 12, 2012 – 2:00pm- 3:00pm EST
For more information, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/xup/course-calendar/-/training/class/75.
For a complete list of past and future XSEDE training opportunities, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/xup/course-calendar.
Research Features from Across the HPC Community
UCSD Optimizes Popularity Versus Similarity in Networks
University of California, San Diego (UCSD) researchers recently published a paper exploring the concept of popularity versus similarity and how it impacts the growth of networks. The study shows how networks evolve optimizing a trade-off between popularity and similarity. The researchers found that although popularity attracts new connections, similarity is just as attractive. "Popular nodes in a network, or those that are more connected than others, tend to attract more new connections in growing networks, but similarity between nodes is just as important because it is instrumental in determining precisely how these networks grow," says UCSD's Dmitri Krioukov. The researchers developed a model that significantly increases the accuracy of network evolution prediction by considering the trade-offs between popularity and similarity. The model describes the large-scale evolution of technological networks, social networks, and biological networks. To read further, please visit http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/28326. \
TACC Aids Cardiovascular Disease Research With Animation, Computational Efforts
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Computational and Engineering Sciences (ICES), Texas Advanced Computing Center, and Faculty Innovation Center have developed a 14-minute animation to explain the underlying nature of vulnerable plaques and a potential clinical procedure for treatment with the goal of personalizing diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in patients. "Visualization is absolutely essential--there's no question about it," says ICES professor Thomas Hughes. The animation illustrates how engineering and medical approaches can come together to address an unsolved clinical need, says ICES researcher Shaolie Hossain. The researchers used more than 12 software programs, including magnetic resonance imaging viewing applications and computer-assisted design and animation packages, to develop a program that performs some of the file conversions. To read further, please visit http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/news/press-releases/2012/tacc-aids-cardiovascular-disease-research.
Georgia Tech Turns Stale Physics Book into Mobile Experience
Georgia Tech researchers are turning physics textbooks into applications for e-books, making the lessons more interactive and more interesting for students. For example, the researchers have already turned the first chapter of "The Infrared Handbook" into an e-book app. The first chapter of the physics textbook contained radiation theory and static graphs, along with calculator programming and the radiation calculator slide rule. The app allows users to calculate blackbody radiation by changing inputs including temperature, relative humidity, visibility, and range. "That really allows you to understand how the graph changes depending on those input parameters, and just seeing it happen in real time is so much better I think than looking at static images," says Georgia Tech researcher Leanne West. To read further, please visit http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/Georgia-Tech-Turns-Stale-Physics-Book-into-Mobile-Experience.html.
The Internet Remains a Tangle of Issues
Among the Internet-related policy issues President Barack Obama is likely to face in his second term is congressional polarization over regulations limiting the use of personal information online, statutes for protecting critical infrastructure from cyberattacks, policies to contend with online piracy, and pressure from the technology industry to implement tax code reforms and more visas for foreigners with much sought-after math and science skills. The administration will probably continue its push for freeing up wireless spectrum to fulfill the needs of smartphones and tablets to send a variety of information. Obama is expected to resume his campaign for the enactment of cybersecurity legislation to protect critical infrastructure, and the primary hurdle is whether the government should be permitted to regulate how private infrastructure operators shield their systems from cyberattacks. To read further, please visit http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/11/07/business/industry-reactions-to-election.html.
Iowa State, Ames Lab Researcher Developing New Computing Approach to Materials Science
Iowa State University researchers are developing statistical-learning techniques to research and develop new materials. Last year Iowa State professor Krishna Rajan published a paper describing how the process helps researchers improve piezoelectrics, materials that generate electricity when they are bent. "One of the arguments we are trying to put forward in this paper is that although the potential number of variables can in fact be large, data dimensionality reduction and information theoretic techniques can help reduce it to a manageable number," Rajan says. The technique involves developing some rules of thumb about the desired material. Once the most important design rules are set, computing power can be used to search through libraries of compounds and identify promising solutions. To read further, please visit http://www.news.iastate.edu/news/2012/09/10/materialsinformatics.
A Network to Guide the Future of Computing
The European Network of Excellence on High Performance and Embedded Architecture and Compilation (HiPEAC) aims to steer and increase European research in the area of high-performance and embedded computing systems. A new edition of the HiPEAC Roadmap, which has become a guidebook for the future of computing systems research in Europe, will be published later this year. "We didn't really set out doing it with that aim in mind, but the [European Commission] took notice of it, consulted with industry on it, found the challenges we had identified to be accurate, and started to use it to focus research funding," says Ghent University professor Koen De Bosschere. The latest edition of the HiPEAC report concludes that specializing computing devices is the most promising path for dramatically improving the performance of future computing. To read further, please visit http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=OFFR_TM_EN&ACTION=D&DOC=2&CAT=OFFR&QUERY=0139beda6564:e331:261080c3&RCN=9351.
Educator Curriculum and Information
Online Mentors to Guide Women Into the Sciences
Harvey Mudd College president Maria Klawe recently launched the Women in Technology Sharing Online (WitsOn) project, which organizes hundreds of prominent women working in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) industries to become online mentors for college students. The project is part of a six-week program to encourage young women to pursue careers in STEM fields. "Getting more women into STEM is my passion in life, and every institution that’s set up mentorship programs for young women has been successful at increasing their numbers, so I think this can make a real difference," Klawe says. The program aims to connect young students with accomplished women working in STEM fields. Several universities have contributed mentors and publicized the program to students. Klawe has lined up six prominent women to serve as lead mentors, including Mae C. Jemison, the first black female astronaut, California Institute of Technology chemistry chairperson Jacqueline K. Barton, and Cisco chief technology officer Padmasree Warrior, as well as about 300 other mentors. The mentors will answer questions submitted online by students at any of the universities participating in the project. WitsOn could help improve the confidence of women who think differently from their male classmates, says Kettering University professor Jacqueline El-Sayed.To read further, please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/education/online-mentoring-program-to-encourage-women-in-sciences.html?_r=0.
Executives & Academics Partner to Advance STEM Education & Careers
The Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF), a network of executives and college presidents advancing innovation solutions to education and workforce challenges in the United States, is focusing its efforts on facilitating programs in deeper learning and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. "We're looking to create synergies between these two streams of work," says former Gates Foundation officer Steve Barkanic. BHEF thinks that partnerships and pilot programs involving corporations and higher education can help to cultivate a new generation of STEM students and professionals. In its first regional workforce development initiative, BHEF helped the University System of Maryland to develop the Advanced Cybersecurity Experience for Students, which creates a residential honors program focused on cybersecurity skills development. To read further, please visit http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/on_innovation/2012/11/executives_academics_partner_to_advance_stem_education_careers.html.
Student Engagement and Information
Hacking Contest Seeks to Attract Women to Information Security
The Power of Community (POC2012) security conference in Seoul recently held the final round of a hacking contest called the Power of XX, a women-only skills competition intended to spark interest in computer science among young women. The competition included 48 five-member teams that worked to solve challenges in areas such as Web application attacks, programming, system hacking, and cryptography. The challenges were designed with neophytes in mind, compared to other hacking competitions that are generally designed for experts in the field. A perception exists that women are not necessarily as good as men in terms of computer skills, notes a male contest organizer. There are distinct differences between how men and women approach computer science problems, according to POC2012 organizer Jeong-hoon Shin. To read further, please visit http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9233419/Hacking_contest_seeks_to_attract_women_to_information_security.
Computational Science Postdoctoral Fellowship
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - Req #75275
The successful candidate will participate in research activities focused on development and applications of novel algorithms, approaches and software in the area of material informatics. Of particular interest is the development of capabilities 1) enabling enumeration, generation and characterization of defects in crystals, as well as 2) enabling automatic structure analysis and structural descriptor generation for efficient materials screening as well as data mining. The successful candidate will help to integrate the developed software into the Materials Project (http://www.materialsproject.org/), enabling users worldwide to efficiently discover and characterize diverse electronic materials. For more information and to apply, please visit https://lbl.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=75275.
Faculty Grant Opportunities
Silicon Mechanics Grant Program
Proposal Deadline – February 1, 2013
Silicon Mechanics, a leading manufacturer of rackmount servers, storage systems, and high-performance computing solutions, is dedicated to building relationships and collaborating with professors and researchers at universities and other research institutions. This grant program is open to all US and Canadian qualified post-secondary institutions, university-affiliated research institutions, non-profit research institutions, and researchers at federal labs with university affiliations. Further details on the grant rules and the technical specifications of the cluster itself are available at: http://www.siliconmechanics.com/i43822/Research+Cluster+Grant+Information.php. Please reply to research-grant@siliconmechanics.com.
Promoting Research and Innovation in Methodologies for Evaluation (PRIME)|
Proposal Submission Deadline – February 20, 2013
The Promoting Research and Innovation in Methodologies for Evaluation (PRIME) program seeks to support research on evaluation with special emphasis on exploring innovative approaches for determining the impacts and usefulness of STEM education projects and programs; building on and expanding the theoretical foundations for evaluating STEM education and workforce development initiatives, including translating and adapting approaches from other fields; and growing the capacity and infrastructure of the evaluation field. Two types of proposals will be supported by the program: Exploratory Projects that include proof-of-concept and feasibility studies and more extensive Full-Scale Projects. For more information, please visit http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2013/nsf13515/nsf13515.htm?WT.mc_id=USNSF_25&WT.mc_ev=click.
Career Opportunities
Network Engineer
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – Req #75143
Are you a network guru interested in combining your knowledge of Ethernet with supercomputers? If so, then we want to talk to you. We need a Network Engineer to help drive one of the world’s fastest supercomputer centers! NERSC has just installed 100G Ethernet and needs networking expertise to utilize this resource across the data center. You will be working with scientists to understand their computing and data challenges and develop leading-edge solutions that fit their needs. It takes world-class support to create world-class science! For more information and to apply, please visit http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=4159293&trk=eml-anet_dig-b_premjb-ttl-cn&ut=3GgmvUtPpb2Rw1.
Infrastructure and Middleware Support Group Lead
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - Req #75270
The successful candidate will lead the strategy, architecture, standards, design, implementation, availability and reliability of critical middleware applications and infrastructure systems supporting Berkeley Lab’s Business Systems and Collaboration Services. The candidate will also provide stellar supervision and leadership to a group of 10-15 IT professionals responsible for the implementation, maintenance and operations of a range of information technology systems; tracking emerging technologies; researching new products; and planning for future systems. For more information and to apply, please visit http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=4126527&trk=eml-anet_dig-b_premjb-ttl-cn&ut=3xvgjO3xvr2Rw1.
High Performance Computing Consultant for High Energy and Nuclear Physics|
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory – Req #7488
The NERSC consultants are responsible for enhancing the scientific productivity of users through: problem management; code and workflow optimization, debugging and scaling; strategic project support; documentation; training; third-party applications and library support; resource and workload analysis; user communication and requirements gathering. Consultants also play a key role in establishing center direction through evaluating and recommending high-end computing technology and software. For more information and to apply, please visit https://lbl.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=74885.
Computational Science Postdoctoral Fellow
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - Req #75276
Application Deadline – November 26, 2012
The successful candidate will participate in research activities related to computational mathematics in large-scale scientific applications that are relevant to DOE and LBNL. Of particular interest is the development of numerical algorithms for multi-scale fluid simulations, using finite volume methods in complex geometries. The research activities will include the analysis of the accuracy and performance of existing computational approaches; the improvement of the efficiency and accuracy of existing algorithms; and the development of novel computational algorithms on high performance computers for related scientific applications. For more information and to apply, please visit
https://lbl.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=75276.
Last But Not Least – Computational News of Interest
The Computer That Beat Two Million Humans at Fantasy Football
University of Southampton researchers Sarvapali Ramchurn and Tim Matthews and Technical University of Crete researcher Georgios Chalkiadakis recently discussed their paper, "Competing with Humans at Fantasy Football: Team Formation in Large Partially Observable Domains." The paper deals with artificial intelligence, computer vision, language translation, and artificial speech. Ramchurn says they used a Bayesian approach, which involves starting "with formulating a 'prior' over what you believe the state of the world is and what is going to happen with respect to certain variables in the environment, and then you keep updating those based on what observations you get." However, in the case of fantasy football, the researchers used the performances of actual players in real games, instead of controlled observations. To read further, please visit http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/robotics/artificial-intelligence/the-computer-that-beat-two-million-humans-at-fantasy-football/.
Talking Cars Help Each Other See Around Blind Corners
A communication system for autonomous vehicles would eliminate blind corners by enabling robotic eyes to perceive any unseen obstacle or person. With CarSpeak, developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, human drivers approaching blind corners would not need to slow and prepare for the unexpected. CarSpeak is designed to provide an autonomous vehicle with a continuous three-dimensional (3D) view of the area based on information captured by other cars, or by a sensor fixed in place to help with the blind spot. The 3D view would consist of a cloud of millions of points generated by onboard laser-mapping equipment, but the system would allow cars to request specific sections of the area they are unable to see themselves. To read further, please visit http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21528825.400-talking-cars-help-each-other-see-around-blind-corners.html.
Vanadium Oxide Bronze: A New Material for the Computing Industry?
University at Buffalo researchers have found that vanadium oxide bronze, which contains unusual electrical properties that increase the speed at which information is transferred and stored, could one day replace silicon to make computing faster. The researchers created nanowires made from vanadium oxide and lead, which when exposed to an applied voltage near room temperatures, transform from insulators that are resistant to carrying electricity to metals that more easily conduct electricity. "The ability to electrically switch these nanomaterials between the on and off state repeatedly and at faster speeds makes them useful for computing," says Buffalo professor Sambandamurthy Ganapathy. However, the researchers caution that although the nanomaterial holds great promise, its environmental impact still needs investigating. "Silicon computing technology is running up against some fundamental road blocks, including switching speeds," says Buffalo professor Sarbajit Banerjee. To read further, please visit http://www.buffalo.edu/news/13667.
