HPC Happenings
Blue Waters Supercomputer Available for Educational Projects
As part of the Blue Water project, up to 1 percent (or 1.8 million node-hours) per year of the system's computational capacity is available for educational uses, including semester-long courses, workshops, and institutes. These Education Allocations are intended to broaden the impact of Blue Waters and contribute to the development of a national workforce with expertise in petascale computing. The allocation is to enable projects that advance petascale computational and data analysis knowledge and skills, foster projects that are visionary and/or are national in scope, integrate research and education activities among national science and engineering communities, and proactively engage under-represented groups and individuals in science, engineering and scholarly research. The Blue Waters Education Allocations Committee anticipates that up to 20 allocations will be supported at a time. Projects may be for at most one year but will typically cover a one- to two-week period or a semester. For complete details and to submit a proposal, visit: https://bluewaters.ncsa.illinois.edu/education-allocations.
Delivering a Campus Data Service (webinar)
November 7, 2013 – 11:00am- 12:00pm CDT
Second in a series of webinars presented by Globus Online and ESnet
HPC administrators working at laboratories, colleges and universities are invited to join this webinar tackling the problems and solutions to managing big data in academic settings. The webinar participants will describe how research computing administrators can deliver a campus data service that provides researchers with flexible and easy-to-use data management capabilities. Learn how peers at Cornell and the University of Michigan use these advanced services to enhance their users abilities' to move and share data on campus with collaborators around the world. For more information and to register, please visit http://goo.gl/GXKqvB. Details on how to join the webinar will be sent to registered attendees prior to the event.
SDSC, Indiana University, University of Texas to Build Science Gateway Service Platform
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $5 million grant for a collaborative five-year project under which researchers at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego will help develop and build a Science Gateway Platform (SciGaP) as a service to advance scientific discovery by providing researchers improved access to a variety of hosted or cloud services. The project will be led by Indiana University’s (IU) Marlon Pierce and Suresh Marru, with IU’s Science Gateways Group. Science Gateway group leaders Mark Miller and Amit Majumdar will lead SDSC’s participation in the project, joined by Borries Demeler from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA). To read further, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR101813_scigap.html.
Visit XSEDE in Booth 422 at SC13`
At SC13, XSEDE will be located in Booth 422, just a row over from a main aisle and XSEDE partner, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). XSEDE will promote XSEDE14 and all partners, especially those also on the exhibit floor. We encourage XSEDE partners in attendance at SC13 to also help promote the project. For those of you who attended XSEDE13 in San Diego, this is also a time to hear about XSEDE14 in Atlanta taking place July 13-18 of next year. For more information, please visit http://sc13.supercomputing.org/.
HPC Conference Call for Participation
Call for Abstracts - Rice University 2014 Oil & Gas HPC Workshop
March 6, 2014 – Houston, Texas
Submission Deadline – December 6, 2013
Notification of Abstract Acceptance – January 10, 2014
Submission Deadline for Student Poster Abstracts – January 17, 2014
Notification of Student Abstract Acceptance – January 31, 2014
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.
HASTAC 2014 Annual Conference - Call for Proposals/Papers
April 24-27, 2014 - Ministerio de Cultura, Lima, Peru
Submissions Deadline: November 15, 2013
The challenges facing the Western hemisphere are multidimensional and complex. Urban agglomeration, economic development, ecological crisis, military conflict, digital privacy, impediments to advanced learning, negotiations of multiple cultural and historical perspectives—these are problems with scientific and human factors that must be considered together. HASTAC 2014 challenges participants to consider the interplay of science, technology, the social sciences, the humanities, and the arts in the context of addressing the urgent contingencies facing the evolving hemisphere. For more information including submission guidelines, please visit http://hastac2014.org/.
Upcoming Conferences, Workshops and Webinars
SC13
November 17 - 22, 2013 - Denver, Colorado
SC13, the premier annual international conference on high-performance computing, networking, and storage, will be held in Denver, Colorado. The Technical Papers Program at SC is the leading venue for presenting the highest-quality original research, from the foundations of HPC to its emerging frontiers. The conference committee solicits submissions of excellent scientific merit that introduce new ideas to the field and stimulate future trends on topics such as applications, systems, parallel algorithms, and performance modeling. For more information, please visit http://sc13.supercomputing.org/content/papers.
BigData@UCSD Workshop
November 25, 2013 – La Jolla, California
This exciting workshop will be an opportunity for researchers from every ndiscipline to briefly present what they are doing, the tools and resources they have to offer, as well as areas where they can benefit from collaboration. The goal of the workshop is to foster new collaborations across disciplines at UC San Diego, and thus make us even more competitive for the many Big Data funding opportunities likely to appear in the near future. Details of this event, including how to register, how to submit annabstract, and how speakers will be chosen can be found at http://bigdata.ucsd.edu/.
International Symposium on Network Analysis and Mining for Health Informatics, Biomedicine and Bioinformatics Net-HI-BI-BI 2013
December 18-21, 2013, Shanghai, China
In conjunction with BIBM 2013
The advancement in technology and computational science influenced a wide range of fields, including research in clinical leading to health informatics as emerging vital research area, which is attracting more attention in academia and industry. Health informatics combines computational science and the clinical world for better treatment of patients. The target of this research track is to bring together professionals, researchers and practitioners in the area of health informatics to present, discuss, share the latest finding in the field, and exchange ideas that address real-world problems with real-world solutions. For more information, please visit http://health-informatics.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/.
Research Features From Across the Country and Around the World
An Early Report Card on Massive Open Online Courses
The Wall Street Journal
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) could help transform education, but face several challenges to realize their full potential. More than 90 percent of students who enroll in a MOOC drop out, as many feel isolated or disengaged. "In large part, the experience is very good, but we see that there are problems, and there are a number of things that can be done that have promise," says edX president Anant Agarwal. "We are not even close to the kinds of conclusions we want." Interpersonal interaction and support help online students to complete courses, and MOOCs are beginning to experiment with different formats to improve the student experience. For example, some instructors record audio comments on assignments instead of writing them to better engage students, or offer motivational messages. Coursera sends students emails to congratulate them on accomplishments and encourage them to reach the next milestone, and Udacity used mentors in trials with San Jose University to coach students and remind them of assignments. To read further, please visit http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303759604579093400834738972.
Small TACC Cluster Set to Shatter IOPS Ceiling
HPCwire
The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) has been in the habit of spinning up some rather interesting machines these days, including the hybrid Stampede system. In early 2015, the center will be home to another notable resource—Wrangler, a data analysis and management cluster aimed at aiding the data-intensive need of the open science community. Taking its place along Stampede’s side in the space that’s been left open from the retired Ranger machine, the new NSF-supported “big data” driven system will provide TACC and the communities it caters to with a Hadoop-ready Dell-supplied 120 node cluster. But that's not the real story here; what sets this apart is the anticipated high performance NAND flash side, supplied by the (still stealth) company, DSSD. To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2013-10-18/small_tacc_cluster_set_to_shatter_iops_ceiling.html?featured=top#!.
National Engineering Forum Held in San Diego, California
The National Engineering Forum (NEF) was in San Diego a few weeks ago to foster actionable discussions on sustaining America’s engineering enterprise. Partnering with NEF, the University of California, San Diego and Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla brought together executives from industry, academia, government and other sectors to celebrate the city’s engineering leadership and participate in an outcome-oriented NEF dialogue on the challenges facing American engineering. “UC San Diego is proud to host this event and have a leadership role in this national discussion on how we can advance America’s interests through engineering,” said Khosla, an internationally renowned engineer. “Universities play an important role in addressing the National Engineering Forum’s 3C’s – the capacity, capability and competitiveness of our engineering workforce. UC San Diego is working to ensure our next-generation leaders have the knowledge, skills and visionary leadership to tackle complex global challenges and increase our competitiveness on the world stage.” To read further, please visit http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=1426.
Educator Opportunities and Information
Georgia Tech College of Computing Seeks Volunteer Participants to Teach Python
Intent to Participate Deadline – January 30, 2014
The Georgia Tech College of Computing is developing new approaches to teaching computer science at a distance. In collaboration with researchers at Luther College, they have created a new kind of electronic book for learning Python. The book is entirely web-based and cross-platform, with special features, including programming within the book, program visualizations, videos, multiple-choice questions, and Parson's problems. If you are interested in participating, please fill out the consent form at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ParsonsConsent. If you have any questions please contact Barbara Ericson, at ericson@cc.gatech.edu.
Is Massive Open Online Research the Next Frontier for Education?
A team from UC San Diego is launching a new course on the Coursera online learning network that breaks ground on several fronts. In “Bioinformatics Algorithms – Part 1,” UC San Diego computer science and engineering professor Pavel Pevzner and his graduate students are offering a course that incorporates a substantial research component for the first time. “To our knowledge, this is the first major online course that prominently features massive open online research, or MOOR, rather than just regular coursework” said Pevzner. “All students who sign up for the course will be given an opportunity to work on specific research projects under the leadership of prominent bioinformatics scientists from different countries, who have agreed to interact and mentor their respective teams.” To read further, please visit http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=1421.
The Hour of Code is Coming During Computer Science Ed Week
December 9-15, 2013
Registration Deadline – November 1,2013
To celebrate Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 9-15), Code.org and dozens of supporting partners are organizing the largest initiative of its kind: a campaign to get 10 million students of all ages to try computer science for one hour. I’m writing to ask your help. What is the Hour of Code? No experience needed It’s a one-hour intro to CS -- on a browser, smartphone, or unplugged. We expect teachers from all disciplines to host it in classrooms, and we’ll provide tutorials that require no prior experience. We’ll announce an amazing list of partners over the coming weeks, but we need your help. Recruit your entire school to participate. Start planning now and help make a difference. For more information and to register, please visit http://csedweek.org/.
Session and Workshop Proposals for K-12 Computer Science
July 14-15, 2014 - St. Charles, Illinois
Submission Deadline - November 15, 2013
In addition to 3-hour workshops and 1-hour sessions, this year's conference will include a limited number of 20-minute mini-sessions that focus on pedagogy and best teaching practices. Proposals for all three session types must include:
· the names and contact information for all presenters
· an overview of the session
· a description of the intended audience (level, knowledge, …)
· a description of session activity (in sufficient detail for an informed decision)
· presenter background and presentation experience
All proposals must be submitted through the online symposium submission system. For more information, please visit https://www.softconf.com/d/csta2014/.
Building a District Culture to Foster Innovation
In the 13,200-student Albemarle County school district in Virginia, many students spend their summers in “maker spaces,” building spaceships out of cardboard or participating in computer-programming workshops to learn how to code. Teachers spend big chunks of their time imagining how learning environments can be transformed to improve academic performance, turning in proposals with their ideas to the superintendent. For her part, Superintendent Pamela R. Moran reaches out to partners in the business community to determine what initiatives can help drive innovation in the district, which encompasses the area outside the city of Charlottesville. To read further, please visit http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/10/02/06el-culture.h33.html?tkn=QNOFQSc07XnY3H6gt0I9dIBfNWM0OPjvkxdD&cmp=clp-edweek&intc=es.
Free Online Course on LEGO NXT Robot Programming
The Rowan University Laboratory for Educational Robotics has developed a new course designed to give K-12 educators a gentle introduction to the NXT-G programming language. NXT-G is a scratch-like visual programming language that (combined with the physicality of a robot and the familiarity that most people have with LEGO) we hope will be attractive to people who are new to programming. Each lesson in this five-week course consists of a series of short (typically 5-10 minute) video clips, self test questions, and robot projects. The course will be starting in a few weeks. Preregister now and we'll send you an email when we're ready to begin. To preregister, as well as to see our video “trailer” and get the answers to frequently asked questions please visit: http://cs4hsrobots.appspot.com/. If you have further questions, please contact Jennifer Kay, kay@rowan.edu
Student Engagement and Information
Deadline Extension for NASA LARSS Spring Internships - Online Application Still Accessible
Submission Deadline – October 31, 2013
The National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) invites students at your university (who meet eligibility requirements) to apply to the prestigious NASA Langley Aerospace Research Student Scholars (LARSS) internship program. During the government shutdown, we understand there is a lot of confusion about what is operational and what is not. For more information, please visit http://nia-cms.nianet.org/LARSS-2012/index.aspx.
2014 San Diego Mayors' Cyber Cup Challenge – Register Your Team Today!
Challenge Final Round – March 16, 2013 – La Jolla, California
The San Diego Mayor’s Cup invites all San Diego high schools to participate in a three-phase cyber defense competition. The first two rounds (qualification and preliminary) will use the distributed game mode, where they can train and then compete simultaneously via the Internet. The eight winners of the qualification round will then participate in a head-to-head comprehensive final round, where each team will have its own CyberNEXS environment. [CyberNEXS provides a live exercise environment consisting of Windows and UNIX operating systems, network and security devices, as well as other information resources.] For more information, please email barnold@ucsd.edu.
Verizon Innovative App Challenge for Middle and High School Students
Submission Deadline – December 3, 2013
The Verizon Innovative App Challenge is an exciting, creative and collaborative competition that offers $20,000 grants for winning middle schools and high schools and Samsung Galaxy Tabs for students on the winning teams. Designed to ignite students’ interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), the Challenge shows students exciting new possibilities for their futures, opening doors they may never have known were there. The Verizon Innovative App Challenge offers a unique opportunity for students around the country to participate in a rich, project-based learning experience that fosters teamwork and encourages them to explore new ideas and consider future careers in STEM. For more information and to register, please visit http://appchallenge.tsaweb.org/.
Career Opportunities
Exascale Computing Postdoc
Exascale Technology and Computing Institute, Argonne National Laboratory
Argonne National Laboratory is leading a new computer science research project called Argo. The multi-institutional effort aims to design and prototype a new extreme-scale operating system and runtime. We are looking for postdocs to join our project team at Argonne to explore and develop OS kernels and very lightweight run-time systems on advanced yet-to-be-released hardware prototypes. Join our team (http://www.mcs.anl.gov/group/extreme-computing) and help create the next generation of system software for the world's fastest computers. Apply here: http://goo.gl/GMy9ot. If you have questions, send email to argojob@mcs.anl.gov,
Domain Specialist
Office of Technology and Security, South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota
SDSU actively seeks to increase social and intellectual diversity among its faculty and staff. Women and persons underrepresented in higher education are encouraged to apply. The successful candidate will engage the university research community with efforts that include planning, coordination, and implementation of HPC solutions to support the computational needs within grant research. Preference will be given to those with experience with research grant submissions, a PhD in a computational field and/or computational experience in a higher education research environment. For more information, please visit https://yourfuture.sdbor.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1382630466543
On the Lighter Side – Computational Science News on the Edge
Your Car Is About to Go Open Source
Computerworld
Automakers are working to standardize a Linux-based operating system for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems that would make cars act more like smartphones. "Today, automakers are having a hard time getting their customers to buy informatics systems because they only can do 10 percent of what a mobile phone can do," says Linux Foundation's Rudi Streif, who leads the Automotive Grade Linux workgroup. "We're leveraging essentially an $11-billion investment already made in Linux by many other companies including IBM and Intel." An open source IVI operating system would create a reusable platform made up of core services, middleware, and open application layer interfaces that eliminate the redundant efforts to create separate proprietary systems. IVIs can require up to 40 million lines of programming and are a car's largest software system. One major reason automakers want to adopt open source IVI platforms is because of the cost and complexity of maintaining their own systems over time. To read further, please visit http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9243075/Your_car_is_about_to_go_open_source.
Wireless Networks That Follow You Around a Room, Optimize Themselves and Even Talk to Each Other Out Loud
Network World
Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate students recently demonstrated research on software-defined MIMO, machine-generated TCP optimization, and a localized wireless networking technique that works through sound. For example, Swarun Kumar presented OpenRF, a Wi-Fi architecture designed to enable multiple access points to avoid mutual interface and focus signals on active clients. OpenRF can automatically apply its optimal settings across multiple access points, distributing the computational workload across the access points rather than having to rely on a central controller. Kumar says the system can boost TCP throughput by a factor of 1.6. Meanwhile, Keith Winstein presented Remy, an algorithm that enables networks to determine the best ways to configure themselves on their own. "Computer-generated end-to-end algorithms can actually outperform human-generated in-network algorithms, and in addition, human-generated end-to-end algorithms," To read further, please visit http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/100813-mit-wireless-274615.html. ."
