HPC in the News
New NAG Service Helps Supercomputer Buyers Make Smarter Decisions
Today the Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) announced plans to launch an impartial HPC technology intelligence and analysis subscription service at SC15. Developed in partnership with Red Oak Consulting, the NAG HPC Technology Intelligence Service will deliver technology insight and risk-reduction to help HPC buyers and users make better decisions and optimize their HPC investments. The service will help customers:
· Discover the right technology to accelerate your modeling, simulation and big data processing needs
· Determine the best time to deploy new technologies to optimize business impact and cost-effectiveness
· Reduce the risks in exploring and exploiting new HPC technologies
· Reduce time, effort and cost in finding the important information among the clutter in the HPC market
· Secure a competitive advantage in computational capability
· Access trusted, independent experience and expertise in support of future HPC plans
The use of HPC promises real and significant benefits to those organizations that can exploit it effectively. However the world of HPC can also be a confusing place – a plethora of technology options, continuous rapid change, ambiguous long terms trends, diverse business models, and disruptive technologies. To read further, please visit http://insidehpc.com/2015/11/new-nag-service-helps-supercomputer-buyers-make-smarter-decisions/.
NEXRAD Archive Data Available on Amazon S3
The Big Data Project (BDP) is an initiative undertaken by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to increase public availability of large volumes of environmental data collected and generated by the agency. As part of the Big Data Project, Unidata is working in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) on a demonstration project to provide access to a more than twenty years of archivedNEXRAD Level II radar data — augmented continuously with new, real-time data — stored in Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3) environment. In addition to assisting AWS with ingesting new data flowing from the NEXRAD sites, Unidata Program Center staff have set up a THREDDS Data Server in the AWS environment to provide services allowing community access to the stored data. About the Big Data Project: According to NOAA's BDP web page, “the Big Data Project is an innovative approach to publishing NOAA's vast data resources and positioning them near cost-efficient high performance computing, analytic, and storage services provided by the private sector.” In practice, this means that NOAA is making selected data assets available for five “Infrastructure as a Service” (IaaS) providers to upload to their cloud systems if they choose: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, IBM, Microsoft, and the Open Cloud Consortium. To read more, please visit http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/blogs/news/entry/nexrad-archive-data-available-on.
XSEDE News from Partners and Friends
NSF Funds ‘Big Data’ Innovation Hub for the Western U.S.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced funding for a ‘Big Data’ Innovation Hub for the Western United States intended to facilitate collaboration among the region’s technology sector and other organizations to address research challenges in areas such as precision medicine, natural resource utilization, hazard management, and metro regional development. The Western Hub is part of an NSF program announced today that includes four awards totaling more than $5 million to establish regional hubs for data science innovation. The consortia are coordinated by top data scientists at Columbia University (Northeast Hub); Georgia Tech and the University of North Carolina (South Hub); the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Midwest Hub); and the University of California, San Diego, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Washington (West Hub). Covering all 50 states, they include commitments from 281 organizations – from universities and cities to foundations and Fortune 500 corporations – with the ability to expand further over time. Building upon the White House National Big Data Research and Development Initiative announced in 2012, the awards are made through the Big Data Regional Innovation Hubs (BD Hubs) program, which creates a new framework for multi-sector collaborations among academia, industry and government. To read more, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR20151102_BigDataHub.html.
UC San Diego Launches Robotics Institute
The Jacobs School of Engineering and Division of Social Sciences at the University of California, San Diego have launched the Contextual Robotics Institute to develop safe and useful robotics systems. These robotics systems will function in the real world based on the contextual information they perceive, in real time. Elder care and assisted living, disaster response, medicine, transportation and environmental sensing are just some of the helpful applications that could emerge from tomorrow’s human-friendly robots. The Contextual Robotics Institute will leverage UC San Diego’s research strengths in engineering, computer science and cognitive science and work collaboratively across the campus and the region to establish San Diego as a leader in the research, development and production of human-friendly robotics systems. More than 40 UC San Diego professors and research scientists have elected to be a part of the Contextual Robotics Institute at its launch. These researchers and their teams are performing $10 million in robotics-related research this year. The UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering is currently working to hire a faculty director for the Institute as well as three additional robotics faculty. This comes on the heels of four robotics hires at the Jacobs School over the last two years. To read further, please visit http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/feature/uc_san_diego_launches_robotics_institute.
SC15 News
SC15 Unveils Emerging Technologies Bound for Austin
The SC15 Emerging Technologies track has an exciting range of exhibits in store for Austin. Ten successful applications were accepted from over thirty submissions after a rigorous peer review process, with every submission receiving three independent reviews. This year’s theme “SoC for HPC”, is particularly appropriate for Austin as the city is home to several of the major semiconductor companies working on future SoC (based products optimized for HPC. SC15 ET submissions fall into three main categories this year: HPC-optimized SoCs, new memory and interconnect architectures, and advanced cooling technologies. Advances in all of these areas are set to revolutionize HPC, and the exhibits chosen for SC15 should offer an insight into the kinds of technologies that should emerge onto the market over the next 5-10 years. Four exhibits present future HPC-optimized SoCs. These include: advanced tools provided by the Co-Design for Exascale (CoDEx) project running on a cloud-based FPGA system (LBNL); GoblinCore-64: An Emerging, Open Architecture for Data Intensive High Performance Computing (Texas Tech University); Automata Processing: A Massively Parallel Computing Solution (Micron Technology); and ExaNoDe: European Exascale Processor and Memory Node Design (CEA-Leti). To read more, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/sc15-unveils-emerging-technologies-bound-for-austin/.
Call for Papers and Participation
Parsocial 2016: The IEEE Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Processing For Computational Social Systems in Conjunction with IPDPS 2016
May 27, 2016 – Chicago, Illinois
Submission Deadline – January 11, 2016
Notification Deadline – February 21, 2016
The 1st IEEE Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Processing for Computational Social Systems. Computational methods to represent, model and analyze problems using social information have come a long way in the last decade. Computational methods, such as social network analysis, have provided exciting insights into how social information can be utilized to better understand social processes, and model the evolution of social systems over time. We have also seen a rapid proliferation of sensor technologies, such as smartphones and medical sensors, for collecting a wide variety of social data, much of it in real time. Meanwhile, the emergence of parallel architectures, in the form of multi-core/many-core processors, and distributed platforms, such as MapReduce, have provided new approaches for large-scale modeling and simulation, and new tools for analysis. These two trends have dramatically broadened the scope of computational social systems research, and are enabling researchers to tackle new challenges. These challenges include modeling of real world scenarios with dynamic and real-time data, and formulating rigorous computational frameworks to embed social and behavioral theories. This workshop provides a platform to bring together interdisciplinary researchers from areas, such as computer science, social sciences, applied mathematics and computer engineering, to showcase innovative research in computational social systems that leverage the emerging trends in parallel and distributed processing, computational modeling, and high performance computing. For more information, please visit http://www.lcid.cs.iit.edu/parsocial/.
Upcoming Conferences, Webinars, and Seminars
EOL Seminar: The Design, Development, and Deployment of the Hiaper Cloud Radar
November 19, 2015
Design, development, and measurement capabilities of novel, airborne pod-based millimeter wavelength radar is described. The millimeter wavelength radar frequency of operation is 94 GHz (3 mm wavelength). The radar has been designed to fly on the NCAR Gulfstream V HIAPER aircraft and is called HIAPER Cloud Radar (HCR). The pod-based configuration occupies minimum cabin space and maximizes scan coverage. The radar system design and its expected performance, as well as techniques for calibrating reflectivity and correcting Doppler velocity for aircraft attitude and motion, are described. The capability of HCR is enhanced by the coordination with High-Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL). The lidar, designed and built by the University of Wisconsin, provides unique measurements of both backscatter and extinction. The HCR measurements and coincident HCR and HSRL measurements are analyzed for their utility to estimate liquid water content (LWC) and mean particle size. Retrievals of LWC and mean particle sizes from remote radar and lidar measurements are shown. For more information and to watch online, please visit http://ucarconnect.ucar.edu/live/details/5.
AGU Fall Meeting
December 14-18, 2015 – San Francisco, California
Welcome to the 2015 Fall Meeting. With nearly 24,000 attendees, AGU Fall Meeting is the largest Earth and space science meeting in the world. Now in its 48th year, AGU Fall Meeting is the best place to present your research; hear about the latest discoveries, trends, and challenges in the field; and network and make connections that can enhance your career. AGU Fall Meeting brings together the entire Earth and space science community for discussions of emerging trends and the latest research. The technical program includes presentations on new and cutting-edge American Geophysical Union - Fall Meting 2012 science, much of which has not yet been published, meaning you’ll return to work with knowledge you can’t get anywhere else. More than 95% of past attendees say their Fall Meeting experience was worthwhile. Why? Attendees say it’s the best place to gain insights and updates on the latest scientific research and network with both luminaries and up-and-coming talent across disciplines. With more than 1700 sessions, AGU Fall Meeting’s scientific program spans the Earth and space sciences, offering something for everyone no matter their scientific discipline. For more information, please visit http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2015/welcome/.
Research News From Around the World
Mysteries of Infant Development
If you wanted to design a robot that could learn and develop like a human infant, to gain the skills and abilities of a human child, you would do well to talk to IU experimental psychologist Linda Smith — as roboticists around the world have done. Among the many questions you would need to answer are two that Smith addresses every day in the lab she has directed for 38 years and counting: What are the building blocks of human cognition? How does human intelligence take shape? For children who are slow to break into language, her answers have led to research on new treatments. (And for roboticists like Angelo Cangelosi at the University of Plymouth in England and Cynthia Breazeal at MIT, Smith’s answers have led to new strides in making the first developmental robots.) Behind this success is a new and groundbreaking perspective on children’s development that Smith has played a major role in shaping and a large body of innovative scientific work to investigate precisely how our cognitive capacities —the ability to think and engage with the world — emerge. To read more, please visit http://research.indiana.edu/2015/10/mysteries-of-infant-development/. VAUGHAN: RSEARCHING SKULL FRACTUR
Patrick Vaughan: Researching Skull Fractures
Patrick Vaughan is an Honors College senior majoring in mechanical engineering. Vaughan is the recipient of the Hymen and Miriam Stein Scholarship, which funds research by a student proposing a substantial, interesting and innovative senior thesis or project. The award funds the recipient's living and research expenses and provides a scholarship during his or her senior year. To read further and watch the video, please visit http://msutoday.msu.edu/360/2015/patrick-vaughan-researching-skull-fractures/.
Grant Funds Computer Simulation to Train Social Work Students, Clinicians
A federal grant of more than $919,000 from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration will fund one new course at the University of Illinois and support training for clinicians at area agencies in conducting early interventions with people who abuse substances. The training will be accomplished using a computer simulation called the Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment protocol, an early intervention often used in hospital emergency rooms and other public health settings to screen people for substance abuse problems. Viewers using the program, developed by the technology company Kognito, must select the correct clinical response based upon the information provided by an onscreen client. The simulation will be used with students in one new and two existing courses in the School of Social Work that address substance abuse disorders. Smith and co-director Liliane Windsor, also a professor in the school, are developing curricula for the new master’s-level course and revising curricula for two other courses, one for undergraduate students and another for students in the master’s program. To read more, please visit https://news.illinois.edu/blog/view/6367/269542.
Educator News, Conferences, and Opportunities
GLOBE Teachers: NASA Wavelength Now Sharing Scientific Research in Blogs
Teachers can now share first-hand stories (blogs) from scientists in the classroom. In order to celebrate Earth Science Week’s theme of Visualizing Earth Systems, NASA scientists, visualizers and others affiliated with NASA Earth science have agreed to share their research and expertise in blog posts, which can be used throughout the year. The blogs, which are written for middle and high school student audiences, highlight the latest in the creation and scientific utilization of visualizations. In addition to the scientific information provided, the blogs also offer personal stories of scientists engaged in the development of scientific knowledge [a Next Generation Science Standard (NGSS) component under Science and Engineering Practices]. NASA also offers a “Reading Strategies Guide” that teachers can use to help teach science. NASA Wavelength is a reviewed collection of Earth and space science education resources for educators: elementary-college levels and in out-of-school programs. To read more, please visit http://www.globe.gov/news-events/globe-news/newsdetail/globe/globe-teachers-nasa-wavelength-now-sharing-scientific-research-in-blogs.
Cybersecurity is Everywhere! Is It in your K-12 CS Program?
Scarcely a day goes by without the mention of cybersecurity in the news—from Edward Snowden breaching security at NSA (and now following NSA on Twitter), to customers of Target and Home Depot having their data compromised, to Hillary Clinton’s private email server and private email account while she was Secretary of State, to hacking of sensitive government data by foreign citizens, cybersecurity is in the news and is newsworthy. One of the more common themes in cybersecurity is the dearth of qualified cybersecurity professionals and how the United States might address that lack in the education system. Several colleges and universities have begun to add cybersecurity programs, and credentialing bodies are developing certificates and credentials for those already in the workforce but perhaps lacking the proper skills and training. To read further, please visit http://blog.csta.acm.org/2015/10/29/cybersecurity-is-everywhere-is-it-in-your-k-12-cs-program/.
Student Engagement and Opportunities
2016-2017 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program Accepting Applications Fellowship
November 19, 2015 – 8:00pm EST and must be submitted through an online application
EducationDIVE
The Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program provides a unique opportunity for accomplished K-12 educators in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics to serve in the national education arena. Fellows spend 11 months working in a federal agency or U.S. congressional office and bring their extensive classroom knowledge and experience to efforts related to STEM education programs and policy.
To be eligible, applicants must be U.S. citizens who are currently employed full time in a U.S. public or private elementary or secondary school or school district. Applicants must have been teaching full time in a public or private elementary or secondary school for at least five of the last seven years in a STEM discipline. Additional information about the program, including eligibility requirements, program benefits, application requirements and access to the online application system may be found at http://science.energy.gov/wdts/einstein/. Please direct inquiries about the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellowship Program to sc.einstein@science.doe.gov<mailto:sc.einstein@science.doe.gov>.
Take Innovative Approaches to Launch K-12 Computer Science
Making the initiatives work requires dialing in everything from teache
Not too long ago, ACM and CSTA released a study that found computer science education was on the decline. Published in 2010, the report, titled "Running on Empty: The Failure to Teach K-12 Computer Science in the Digital Age," found that the number of high schools offering introductory computer science courses had declined 17% between 2005 and 2009. Universities and tech companies had begun to worry publicly about a growing gap between the number of jobs available and the number of people who might be ready to fill them. Today, the picture has started to change. At a time when computer skills are only becoming more important, many cities and states have taken on the problem by expanding their computer science offerings. To read further, please visit http://www.educationdive.com/news/cities-take-innovative-approaches-to-launch-k-12-computer-science/407854/.
NOAA Climate & Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowships
Submission Deadline – January 8, 2016 - Boulder, Colorado
The UCAR Visiting Scientist Programs (VSP) conducts the annual recruitment for the NOAA Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (C&GC). The fellowship program has an outstanding reputation for attracting the best and the brightest PhDs in the sciences relevant to the NOAA Climate and Global Change Program. VSP manages this NOAA-sponsored program, in which each appointed fellow is hosted by a mentoring scientist at a U.S. University or research institution to work in an area of mutual interest. The objective of the program is to help create the next generation of researchers needed for climate studies. It endeavors to attract recent PhDs in sciences that address studies of relevance to the NOAA Climate Program Office. Desired research areas focus on observing, understanding, modeling, and predicting climate variability and change on seasonal and longer time scales. This includes more information, please visit http://www.vsp.ucar.edu/cgc/Recruitment_Announcement.html.
Jack Eddy Postdoctoral Fellowships
Submission Deadline – January 15, 2016 - Boulder, Colorado
Heliophysics embraces all science aspects of the Sun-Solar System, and includes many of the basic physical processes that are found in our solar system, the laboratory, and throughout the universe. These processes generally involve the interactions of ionized gases (plasmas) with gravitational and electro-magnetic (both radiation and DC) fields, and with neutral matter. The physical domain of interest ranges from deep inside the Sun to the Earth’s upper atmosphere. Within this broad science discipline, LWS is a program designed to develop the scientific understanding required for the Nation to address effectively those aspects of the Sun-Earth system that affect life and society. Detailed information on LWS, its science interests, programmatic structure, and space missions can be found at the NASA Living with a Star program. Two major topics of focus for LWS are the science of space weather and of the Sun-climate connection. Preference is given to applicants whose proposed research addresses one of these two foci; but any research program relevant to LWS is considered. For more information, please visit http://www.vsp.ucar.edu/Heliophysics/post-about-generic.shtml.
Young Women's Summer Institute
July 10-16, 2016 – Columbus, Ohio
Application Deadline – April 18, 2016
Notification Deadline – May, 2016
YWSI is designed to encourage girls’ interest in math, science and engineering and improve their participation in science, engineering and technology fields, and in particular, information technology. YWSI introduces girls to exciting careers and job opportunities. Young Women’s Summer Institute (YWSI) is a week-long program sponsored by Ohio Supercomputer Center for middle-school girls in Ohio. It is designed to promote computer, math, science and engineering skills as well as provide hands-on experiences. YWSI helps girls develop an interest in these subjects by allowing them to work on a practical, interesting scientific problem using the latest computer technology. Open to: current Ohio 6th and 7th graders (you must be a 6th or 7th grader in the 2015-2016 school year) and K-12 science and math teachers. There are no tuition fees or charges for materials. Students will be responsible for housing / meal costs which are approximately $250.00 for the week. Limited scholarships may be available. For more information, please visit https://www.osc.edu/education/ywsi.
ICERT REU: Integrative Computational Education and Research Traineeship
June 6 - August 6, 2016 – Austin, Texas
Application Deadline – March 1, 2016
This summer in Austin, 10 undergraduates majoring in science and engineering disciplines will be immersed in training at The University of Texas at Austin to be the next generation of ‘game changers'. Participants will explore grand challenges such as climate modeling, weather forecasting, drug delivery, brain mapping, energy exploration and understanding the human genome, to name a few. Participants will receive a stipend for work, travel stipend, and housing at The University of Texas at Austin. Additionally, travel grants to present research at the annual XSEDE conference will be available to selected participants. ICERT REU activities:
· Computational training in a multi-disciplinary cohort using some of the world's most advanced computational resources. Training led by TACC researchers with expertise in computation
· Integration into a research team including pairing with a mentor/researcher and graduate mentor working on a computational project
· Application seminars, training workshops, and STEM Outreach to K-12 and the public (explaining and demonstrating the contribution of HPC to society)
· Team-building exercises that will prepare participants for the workplace of the future
For more information, please visit https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/icert-reu.
Deep Look at UC Berkeley with KQED Science
November 2, 2015 – San Francisco, California
Explore big scientific mysteries by going incredibly small with the Deep Look short video series produced by KQED Science. Featuring fascinating imagery of butterfly wings, hummingbird flight, the secret lives of newts and more! Meet UC Berkeley scientists, KQED’s producers, and their miniature subjects for a screening, discussion and hands-on experience about the research, technology and processes of catching tiny events on film. For more information, please visit http://www.bayareascience.org/event/deeplook/.
Computational Science News of Interest
Will Candy Crush Deal Leave Activision with a Bitter Taste?
BBC News
Candy Crush describes itself as the "sweetest game around" - but even so there's no guarantee that the $5.9bn (£3.8bn) takeover of King.com won't leave both investors and players with a bitter taste. The big-budget, action-centric PC and console titles that Californian buyer Activision Blizzard is best known for are quite different to the more simple puzzle and role-playing mobile and web-based games its Stockholm and London-headquartered acquisition is skilled at making. Furthermore, the size of the acquisition dwarfs other mega-deals in an industry already prone to consolidation. For comparison's sake, other recent mergers include:
· Microsoft's $2.5bn purchase of Minecraft's developer Mojang
· Facebook's $2bn takeover of virtual reality headset-maker Oculus
· Amazon's $970m acquisition of the games community Twitch
· Electronic Arts' $750m payment for Plants v Zombies developer PopCap
To read more, please visit http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34710511.
Hypersonic Rocket Engine Could 'Revolutionize' Air Travel
CNN
British aerospace giant BAE Systems is betting big on hypersonic travel -- something its potential new partner says could be a reality within two decades. BAE is planning to invest £20.6 million ($31.8 million) in a 20% stake of Reaction Engines, a UK-based engineering firm which has developed what it calls "breakthrough" aerospace engine technology, which could potentially be used for a new generation of reusable space vehicles and, as a commercial offshoot, could revolutionize air travel. Along with hypersonic air travel, Mark Thomas, Reaction Engines' managing director, told CNN's Richard Quest that a reusable space plane that takes off and lands like an aircraft is "one of the concepts that could be made possible by this engine." SABRE, which stands for Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine, is an air-breathing engine, which uses ultra-lightweight heat exchangers to cool very hot air streams -- such as those encountered at hypersonic speeds. Through its ability to use atmospheric oxygen for propulsion, the engine's design negates the need for heavy fuel reserves on board, drastically reducing the weight of a SABRE-powered vehicle. To read further, please visit http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/04/tech/bae-systems-reaction-engines-hypersonic-travel/index.html.
Social Media
Facebook Just Made It Easier to Talk to People You're Not Friends With
Mashable
Chatting with strangers on Facebook just got a bit easier. The social network is launching a new feature for Messenger called Message Requests, that makes it easier for people to receive (or ignore) messages from people they aren't friends with. Previously, messages that were sent by people who weren't friends (or friends of friends) were relegated to the "Other" inbox, a separate section within the messages tab on Facebook's website. The messages were easy to miss since new messages routed to the "other" section didn't surface in notifications. (Users also had the option of paying $1 to bypass the "Other" section.) With Message Requests, which is rolling out over the next several days, Facebook is streamlining how these types of messages are handled. Messages that previously would have been sent to "Other" will now appear within Messenger as a message request. Users can read the message and choose whether or not they want to respond without the other person knowing. To read more, please visit http://mashable.com/2015/10/27/facebook-messenger-message-requests/#LtAoxZceSkqO.
