XSEDE Happenings.
Register by October 15, 2012 for SC12 Early Registration Rates!
Join us in November for an exciting week of high quality technical papers, presentations, posters and invited speakers coupled with our world-class exhibit floor that uniquely brings together industry, government and academic organizations. Register for SC12 by Monday, Oct. 15, and save up to $250 on the Technical Program as well as up to $305 off Tutorial registration. For more information: http://sc12.supercomputing.org/content/registration
Introduction to Scientific Visualization on Gordon at SDSC
October 24, 2012 – virtual and onsite
Visualization is largely understood and utilized as an excellent communication tool by researchers. This narrow view often keeps scientists from using and developing visualization skillets. This tutorial will provide a grounds-up understanding of visualization and its utility in error diagnostic and exploration of data for scientific insight. When used effectively, visualization can provide a complementary and effective toolset for data analysis, which is one of the most challenging problems in computational domains. In this tutorial, we plan to bridge these gaps by providing end users with fundamental visualization concepts, execution tools, and usage examples. For more information and to register, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/xup/course-calendar.
Hands-on Supercomputing at TACC’s 6th Summer Supercomputing Institute
Almoutaz El Hassan, a researcher from The University of Texas at San Antonio, develops rainfall–runoff modeling tools to help officials manage issues like flood management and water conservation. "The need for accurate hydrologic analysis and rainfall–runoff modeling tools is very necessary especially since population growth, rapid urbanization, and the expansion of agricultural activities have created very complex hydrologic and hydraulic problems," he said. El Hassan was one of 35 researchers from across Texas and around the country who attended the 6th annual Summer Supercomputing Institute (SSI) at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). The weeklong institute introduces researchers to the role of supercomputing in 21st century science, teaches the basics of simulation, modeling and data-driven science, and provides a hands-on experience with TACC's supercomputing resources. To read further, please visit http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/news/feature-stories/2012/ssi,
XSEDE Names First Cohort of Campus Champions Fellows
XSEDE recently selected the first four Campus Champions Fellows, pairing each Champion with a member of XSEDE's Extended Collaborative Support Services (ECSS) staff to work on science and engineering projects for about one year. Campus Champions are volunteers at their respective campuses who advise researchers on the use of high-end computing resources. The fellows program helps Champions increase their expertise while working in partnership with ECSS staff.
The four fellows selected to participate in the first round are:
- Dirk Colbry, a research specialist at the Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research at Michigan State University;
- Nasseer Idrisi, an assistant professor at the University of the Virgin Islands' Center for Marine and Environmental Studies;
- Liwen Shih, professor and computer engineering chair at the University of Houston-Clear Lake;
- Jack Smith, a research staff member with Marshall University and cyberinfrastructure coordinator at the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.
For more information, please visit https://www.xsede.org/ccfellows-july2012.
HPC Call for Participation for Upcoming Workshops
2013 Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference – Call for Participation
February 7-9, 2013 – Washington, DC
Application Deadline – November 25, 2012
• Panel Proposals Submissions- www.tapiaconference.org/2013/participate.html
• BoF Proposal Submissions - www.tapiaconference.org/2013/participate.html
• Workshop Proposal Submissions - www.tapiaconference.org/2013/participate.html
• Doctoral Consortium Submissions – www.tapiaconference.org/2013/dc.html
• Poster Proposal Submissions - www.tapiaconference.org/2013/participate.html
• Scholarship Applications – Available October 15, 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/.
4th Non-Volatile Memories Workshop - Call for Presentations Deadline
March 3-5, 2013 - La Jolla, California
Submission Deadline – November 12, 2012
The 4th Annual Non-Volatile Memories Workshop (NVMW 2013) provides a unique showcase for outstanding research on solid state, non-volatile memories. It features a "vertically integrated" program that includes presentations on devices, data encoding, systems architecture, and applications related to these exciting new data storage technologies. Last year's workshop (NVMW 2012) included 32 speakers from top universities, industrial research labs, and device manufacturers and attracted nearly 200 attendees. (The website for NVMW 2012 can be found at http://nvmw.ucsd.edu/2012.) NVMW 2013 will build on this success. Further details on abstract submission, technical program, tutorials, travel, social program, and travel grant will be provided at http://nvmw.ucsd.edu
Upcoming Conferences and Workshops
SACNAS
October 11-14, 2012 - Seattle, Washington
Registration Deadline – September 12, 2012
The 2012 SACNAS National Conference "Science, Technology, and Diversity for a Healthy World" will take place in Seattle, Washington. Join over 3,500 attendees for four days of scientific research presentations, professional development, networking, exhibits, culture, and community. One of the largest annual gatherings of minority scientists in the country, the interdisciplinary, inclusive, and interactive SACNAS National Conference motivates and inspires. For more information and to register, please visit https://sacnas.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=42
EDUCAUSE
November 6-9, 2012 - Denver, Colorado
The EDUCAUSE Annual Conference is the premiere gathering for higher education IT professionals. It provides content and exploration of today's toughest technology issues facing campuses around the world, and convenes some of the brightest minds in the community. When colleagues from around the world converge with some of the most innovative corporate solution providers, you have an event that creates invaluable networking opportunities and professional development. For more information, please visit http://www.educause.edu/annual-conference.
SC12
November 10-16, 2012 - Salt Lake City, Utah
Exhibition - November 12-15, 2012
For 24 years, SC has been at the forefront in gathering the best and brightest minds in supercomputing together, with our unparalleled technical papers, tutorials, posters and speakers. SC12 will take a major step forward not only in supercomputing, but in super-conferencing, with everything designed to make the 2012 conference the most ‘you' friendly conference in the world. We're streamlining conference information and moving to a virtually real-time method of determining technical program thrusts. No more pre-determined technical themes picked far in advance. Through social media, data mining, and active polling, we'll see which technical interests and issues emerge throughout the year, and focus on the ones that interest you the most. For more information and to register, please visit http://sc12.supercomputing.org/content/exhibitor-prospectus.
Third LinkSCEEM Cross-Sectional HPC Workshop
November 11-15, 2012 - Cairo University, Egypt
The LinkSCEEM-2 FP7 project in collaboration with the American University of Cairo (AUC) and the Faculty of Computers and Information - Cairo University (FCI-CU) are jointly organizing a five-day 2-workshop training event between November 11-15, 2012. Lectures on November 11-12, 2012 will be held at Cairo University and will include introductory courses and hands-on training on parallel computing. On November 13-15, 2012, the LinkSCEEM 3-day Cross Sectional HPC Workshop will be held at the American University in Cairo. Lectures will include four parallel training sessions in selected scientific fields targeted towards participants’ interests. For more information, please visit http://www.linksceem.eu/ls2/news-and-activities/events/events/event/19-third-linksceem-cross-sectional-hpc-workshop.html.
XSEDE Training at a Glance.
Extending High-Performance Computing Beyond its Traditional User Communities
October 8-9, 2012 – Chicago, Illinois
For more information, please visit http://psc.edu/index.php/component/jevents/icalrepeat.detail/2012/10/08/20/53|55/extending-high-performance-computing-beyond-its-traditional-user-communities-.
XSEDE Training: HPC Python Tutorial
October 15, 2012 – 9:00am- 4:00pm CT, webcast
For more information, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/xup/course-calendar/-/training/class/67.
OpenACC GPU Programming Workshop – Onsite at 10 University Locations
October 17, 2012 – 11:00am-5:00pm EDT
For more information and to view the various locations, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/xup/course-calendar.
Introduction to Scientific Visualization on Gordon at SDSC
October 24, 2012 - 1:00pm-4:30 PDT, La Jolla, California and webcast
For more information, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/xup/course-calendar/-/training/class/68.
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 XSEDE and Campus Champion Partners
UC San Diego Computer Scientists Explore Secure Browser Design
University of California, San Diego (UCSD) researchers say they have developed a new approach to secure browsing design. They say previous verification techniques operate on a model of the browser and not its actual implementation, which creates a discrepancy between what is verified and what is implemented and enables hackers to infiltrate a browser even if it has been verified using strong formal methods. Although computer scientists have solved this problem by using formal proofs, the proofs have millions of lines of code and are difficult to create. The UCSD researchers have developed a technique, called formal shim verification, which consists of creating a small browser kernel that mediates access to resources for all other browser components and then formally verifies that the browser kernel is correct in a proof assistant. To read further, please visit http://www.jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/news/news_releases/release.sfe?id=1246
NSF Interdisciplinary Program Takes on Critical National Research Priorities at Purdue University, UC Berkeley
The National Science Foundation's Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program announces 18 new awards to develop transformative interdisciplinary research and training programs for Ph.D. students at institutions across the country. Among the new principal investigators are Thomas Cech, a University of Colorado, Boulder, professor and winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize in chemistry. In addition to the 123 institutions that have hosted an IGERT to date, the program welcomes five new institutions: Tulane University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, University of Connecticut, West Virginia University and the University of Vermont. For more information, please visit http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=125323&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click.
Northwestern University Scientists Create Chemical Brain
Northwestern University researchers have created Chematica, a computer network consisting of 250 years of organic chemical knowledge. The network's software optimizes syntheses of drug molecules and other compounds, combines long syntheses of compounds into shorter and more economical routes, and identifies dangerous chemical equations that could be used for chemical weapons. Chematica consists of about 7 million chemicals connected by a similar number of reactions. It uses algorithms to search and analyze the network, enabling researchers to easily access its vast trove of chemical knowledge. The researchers have demonstrated that the algorithms can find optimal syntheses that lead to drug molecules and other industrially important chemicals. To read further, please visit http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2012/08/scientists-create-chemical-brain-.html.
Computational Social Science: Making the Links
Social science is being transformed by an emerging discipline spawned by the growth of digital data streams that promise to yield a view of individual and group behavior at extremely fine-grained levels of detail and unprecedented scales. Computational researchers verified Stanford scientist Mark Granovetter's theory that weak ties can close the gaps between social cliques and are thus vital to the proliferation of information and to economic mobility, by tapping data on 4 million mobile phone users. Computational analysis of big data also has revealed that some long-cherished assumptions are wrong. For example, researchers used data from some 900 million Facebook users to disprove theories that the spread of ideas in social networks closely follows viral contagion patterns. To read further, please visit http://www.nature.com/news/computational-social-science-making-the-links-1.11243.
Cornell University’s 'Acceleration Noise' Adds Realism to Animated Collisions
New sound-synthesis software developed by Cornell University researchers uses an overlooked bit of physics to produce more realistic sounds for computer-generated events. "We realized that just simulating the vibrations of objects to get the sound was flawed," says Cornell professor Doug James. He says acceleration noise is missing. When rigid objects collide, they briefly accelerate back the way they came, pushing back at the air behind them and creating a pressure wave that people perceive as sound. Physicists have already worked out equations to calculate how much the acceleration pulse would be, as the sound it creates depends on the shape of the object. To read further, please visit http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug12/AccelerationSound.html.
Educator News and Curriculum
Education Leaders See MOOCs, Distance Learning as the Future of Higher Ed
Elon University researchers recently launched the Imagining the Internet project, which presented two scenarios describing higher education in 2020 and asked Internet experts, researchers, observers, and users which of the two they most agreed with and why. Once scenario suggested that it would be similar to the way it is now, and the other suggested it would be very different. Sixty percent of the 1,021 respondents agreed with the statement that by 2020 "there will be mass adoption of teleconferencing and distance learning to leverage expert resources [and] a transition to 'hybrid' classes that combine online learning components with less-frequent on-campus, in-person class meetings." About 39 percent of respondents thought that the change would be more modest, and most universities would still require in-person, on-campus attendance of students and would still feature many traditional lectures. Although most respondents expect greater change and greater dependence on technology in higher education, many also are unenthusiastic about the transition. To read further, please visit http://campustechnology.com/articles/2012/08/20/education-leaders-see-moocs-distance-learning-as-the-future.aspx.
Richard Tapia: Lack of Minority Representation in Science and Engineering Endangering U.S. Economic Health
Many of the "precious few" minority students pursuing science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) degrees are either dropping out or changing majors, says Rice University professor Richard Tapia. He notes that those students who do stick with a STEM major often encounter a "sink or swim" culture and have no support mechanisms from university officials, causing them to lose confidence or migrate to other majors. "We depend too much on minority-serving institutions to solve the under-representation problem, but all universities must be a part of the solution," Tapia says. He notes the problem has been exacerbated by the fact that Hispanics, which currently are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, continue to be the least educated. “Our concern with under-representation today does not stem from moral or ethical issues,” Tapia says. “It’s a simple matter of the nation’s survival." To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2012-07-26/lack_of_minority_representation_in_science_and_engineering_endangering_us_economic_health.html.
CS4HS Workshop for High School Educators
October 27-28, 2012 – Durham, North Carolina
National Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) members are invited to the CS4HS workshop at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Among the topics at the workshop are Exploring Computer Science, Computer Science Principles, App Inventor, Scratch and Alice. Although preference will be given to local teachers it is anticipated that out of state participants will also be able to participate. The great list of speakers includes Gail Chapman and Baker Franke for ECS: Exploring Computer Science, Brook Osborne and Owen Astrachan for Computer Science Principles, Ralph Morelli on App Inventor, and Michelle Chung and Ricarose Roque from MIT on Scratch. A $250 stipend will be given to those completing the workshop. For more information, please visit http://sites.duke.edu/cs4hsduke/. Questions can be addressed to R Brook Osborne at rbo@cs.duke.edu.
Student Engagement Opportunities and Information
Rice University's First Student/Advisor Research webinar - Wed, 10/10, 12pm Central
On Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at 12pm CT, ELA and the XSEDE Scholars Program are co-hosting the first session of its Student/Advisor Research Talk Series. The webinar will feature the research of graduate student and NSF fellow, Paul Delgado and his faculty advisor, Dr. Vinod Kumar who will discuss "Safe CO2 Storage: Developing efficient models of underground fluid flow". To join the session, sign up at https://accounts.google.com/ServiceLogin?service=wise&passive=1209600&continue=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/gform?key%3D0AjNj-uq3VtWKdEY2OVB0cTBtRnBNeXpVVGo2Q04wTXc%26gridId%3D0&followup=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/gform?key%3D0AjNj-uq3VtWKdEY2OVB0cTBtRnBNeXpVVGo2Q04wTXc%26gridId%3D0#edit by Tuesday, October 9, 2012.
The Berkeley Edge Conference 2012
October 25-27, 2012 – Berkeley, California
The Berkeley Edge Conference 2012 is open to interested students in the following disciplines: Mathematical Sciences, Physical Sciences, Computer Sciences, Engineering, Energy/Environmental Science, Public Health, and Toxicology. The Berkeley Edge Conference 2012 offers a great opportunity for students interested in graduate school to meet University of California, Berkeley faculty, graduate students and staff. Increasing access to graduate training for students from groups historically underrepresented in science is a key goal of this conference. For more information, please visit http://ls.berkeley.edu/?q=about-college/l-s-divisions/mathematical-physical-sciences/diversity/bep/prospective-students/confer.
Call for Fellowship Applications for Third LinkSCEEM Cross-Sectional HPC Workshop
November 11-15, 2012 - Cairo University, Egypt
Application Deadline – October 9, 2012
The LinkSCEEM-2 FP7 project would like to announce fellowship opportunities for advanced High Performance Computing (HPC) training during the Third LinkSCEEM Cross Sectional HPC Workshop from November 13-15 , 2012 at the American University in Cairo. The workshop targets young researchers from the region and will address programming training needs of current and prospective HPC users from various computational scientific fields. Access to LinkSCEEM HPC infrastructure will be provided for training purposes. Hands-on guidance in preparing projects for HPC usage will be given during the workshop. Applicants should visit http://cyprusinstitute.limequery.org/56753/lang-en to express their interest in attending the Third LinkSCEEM Cross Sectional Workshop. For more information on the workshop, please visit http://www.linksceem.eu/ls2/news-and-activities/events/events/event/19-third-linksceem-cross-sectional-hpc-workshop.html
The Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Fund 2012 Travel Grant Applications Now Available
Application Deadline – October 15, 2012
This opportunity is for undergraduate and graduate students pursuing studies in fields of space science and engineering.
The Travel Grants, in the amount of $500, enable student recipients to attend professional meetings to present their research. Jerry Soffen, a biologist by training, led a distinguished career in NASA, including serving as the Project Scientist for Viking and as an architect for the NASA Astrobiology Institute. The Travel Grant continues Jerry’s dedication to educating and involving future generations in space science and engineering pursuits. The electronic application materials and instructions are located on the Soffen Fund website:
http://SoffenFund.org.
Questions regarding the application or application process may be sent to
info@SoffenFund.org.
Indiana University InCNTRE Summer of Network Internship Program
May 20 - July 16, 2013 – Bloomington, Indiana
Application Deadline – November 30, 2012
There are two essential elements to starting a successful career in data networking: real-world experience and hands-on training. InCNTRE's Summer of Networking internship program at IU Bloomington provides both in abundance. Each day of the Summer of Networking includes participation in a real-world project (during the morning) and classroom instruction (during the afternoon) from IU's acclaimed network engineering and research staff. In addition to participation in projects and classroom instruction, students will collaboratively build and operate their own dorm room network. For more information, including project areas, eligibility and stipend awards, please visit http://incntre.iu.edu/summer. Questions can be addressed to summer@incntre.iu.edu.
Career Opportunities
West Virginia University is Seeking a Cluster Systems Administrator
Posted September 26, 2012
West Virginia University has position opening for a Cluster Systems Administrator in its HPC and scientific computing program. This will be somewhat of a hybrid position with substantial responsibilities for the support and maintenance of HPC and scientific computing hardware and software. This position will also be involved in supporting research faculty and their research teams in using HPC and scientific computing systems. To learn more about this position and how to apply, please visit https://www6.ultirecruit.com/WES1016/JobBoard/JobDetails.aspx?__ID=*184DEA4A9A0D0F93.
Open Position for Computational Scientist at Rice University
Posted – September 27, 2012
Rice University has a new position open for a Computational Scientist in our Research Computing Support Group. The successful candidate will work with Rice research faculty and staff and their collaborators to maintain, develop, and advance our efforts in high performance computing. The position is particularly focused on supporting complex research applications needs running on scalable high performance computing resources at Rice. The incumbent will engage with world leading researchers on the innovative use of high performance computing and interact with faculty from across Rice engaged in computationally enabled research. The successful candidate in this position will be involved in analysis, design, development, porting, optimization and testing of advanced research software-codes and algorithms. The person is expected to engage and support a variety of research projects and may in some cases be asked to act as a team lead for code development activities with faculty and research staff. The Computational Scientist will have primary responsibility in supporting the computational research needs of the Center for Theoretical Biological Physics, but will support activities throughout the sciences and engineering. For more information and to apply, please visit https://jobs.rice.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/position/JobDetails_css.jsp?postingId=159826.
Tenure-Track Faculty Position at Penn State University
Applicant screening begins November 15, 2012.
The Harold and Inge Marcus Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track position at all levels. This search is part of a Penn State Cyberscience Cluster Hire in Computation and Data- Enabled Science and Engineering (http://www.ics.psu.edu/hire.html). This effort will coordinate multiple faculty appointments to advance and apply data science and engineering and computational modeling and simulation to solve critical problems related to health, environment, energy, and manufacturing. We seek exceptional faculty who can work across disciplines and in a team to develop algorithms and software to exploit “Big Data” for scientific advances, and to simulate, monitor and control complex systems. Applicants must have a Ph.D. in Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, or closely related discipline (or near completion of their doctoral studies) with a demonstrated research potential. Priority will be given to individuals with a strong methodological background in optimization and analytics. They must also possess excellent verbal and written communication skills. Please direct questions and send applications by email to the Faculty Search Committee at IE-FacultySearch@lists.psu.edu.
Last But Not Least – Computational News of Interest
Rutgers University Engineers Design Cell Phone App to Reduce Distracted Driving
Researchers at Rutgers University and the Stevens Institute of Technology have developed a smartphone application that can identify where a cell phone user is sitting in a car and automatically adjust the phone's settings to try to keep the driver's attention on the road. "We're making it easier for people who want to drive less distracted," says Rutgers professor Marco Gruteser. For example, the app can silently forward incoming calls and texts to message boxes for later retrieval. The app also could automatically respond to a caller or texter, saying the owner is currently driving and will reply later. For outgoing communication, the app could disable texting and make placing certain frequent calls less difficult by displaying them as large on-screen buttons. The app works with the car's sound system to distinguish between the driver and passenger, and requires a stereo sound system with Bluetooth connectivity. To read further, please visit http://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/research/rh-2012/rutgers-engineers-de-20120726.
Supercomputers Solve Riddle of Congenital Heart Defects
University of Copenhagen researchers used a supercomputer to analyze millions of data points relating to congenital heart defects and found that a wide variety of risk factors influence the molecular biology of heart development. "The discovery of a biological common denominator among many thousands of risk factors is an important step in health research, which in time can improve the prevention and diagnosis of congenital heart defects," says Copenhagen professor Lars Allan Larsen. The researchers analyzed several thousand genetic mutations and environmental risk factors associated with heart malformations with the goal of finding a pattern. "Our investigations show that many different genetic factors together with environmental factors can influence the same biological system and cause disease," says Harvard University's Kasper Lage. "The results are also interesting in a broader perspective, because it is probable that such interactions are also valid for diseases such as schizophrenia, autism, diabetes, and cancer." To read further, please visit http://news.ku.dk/all_news/2012/2012.8/supercomputers_solve_riddle_of_congenital_heart_defects/.
Darpa Has Seen the Future of Computing…and It’s Analog
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently launched the Unconventional Processing of Signals for Intelligent Data Exploitation (UPSIDE) program, which will investigate building computers without using digital processors. The aim is to build computer chips that are much more power-efficient than conventional processors. "One of the things that’s happened in the last 10 to 15 years is that power-scaling has stopped," says DARPA researcher Daniel Hammerstrom. The UPSIDE chips could be an alternative to normal Boolean logic, in which the voltage in a chip's transistor represents a zero or a one. Hammerstrom wants chipmakers to build analog processors that can do probabilistic math without forcing transistors into an absolute one-or-zero state, a technique that consumes energy. To read further, please visit http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/08/upside/.
