XSEDE Happenings.

SDSC Gordon: Announcing Availability of "Bigflash" Compute Nodes

SDSC Gordon now has four compute nodes available with the “bigflash” property. Each of these nodes have access to a separate 4.4TB SSD filesystem. This capability is in addition to the fast flash storage already available on both the native (non-vSMP) compute nodes and the vSMP nodes. Most of the native compute nodes mount a single 300 GB SSD (280 GB usable space). The vSMP nodes have access to one or more RAID 0 devices each built from sixteen 300 GB SSDs (4.4 TB usable space). The latency to the SSDs is several orders of magnitude lower than that for spinning disk (<100 microseconds vs. milliseconds) making them ideal for user-level check pointing, staging of data files that are accessed multiple times through the course of a job and applications that need fast random I/O to large scratch files. Good use cases include: analysis and processing of large numbers of files; analytics using applications such as R, Octave, and Weka; and commercial codes like Gaussian, and Abaqus. More details on accessing the SSD storage are provided at http://www.sdsc.edu/us/resources/gordon/gordon_storage.html.

New Purdue University  HUBzero Version Has Extensive Research Team Coordination, Collaboration Features

The latest version of HUBzero, an open source “cyberinfrastructure in a box,” with new capability to create collaborative “project” areas within a hub, federated identity management, email integration, design improvements, and dozens of other new features will be released at HUBbub 2012, the annual HUBzero users conference. “There are more than 40 hubs based on the HUBzero toolkit serving many areas of science and engineering and other research fields, from nanotechnology and cancer treatment to earthquake engineering and the bonds between human and companion animals,” says Michael McLennan, chief architect of HUBzero at Purdue. “They will all benefit from this.” To read further, please visit http://www.rcac.purdue.edu/news/detail.cfm?NewsID=546.

Upcoming Conferences and Workshops

HUBbub 2012: The HUBzero Conference
September 24-25, 2012 – Indianapolis, Indiana

HUBzero is a platform for creating web sites that support scientific research, education, and collaboration. Released as open source during HUBbub 2010 and a new version being released this year at HUBbub 2011, the HUBzero Platform is the basis of nanoHUB.org and 25 other sites, delivering hundreds of scientific tools and seminars to more than 450,000 visitors each year. HUBzero is supported by a consortium of universities including Purdue, Indiana, Clemson, and Wisconsin. See how the unique HUBzero solution has empowered a wide spectrum of projects in nanotechnology, healthcare research, and other areas of engineering and science. Learn through hands-on tutorials how to set up your own hub using HUBzero's open source software, how to create and publish scientific tools on your hub, how to connect the tools to computing clusters and other Grid resources, and how to add new capabilities to the platform For more information and to register, go to: http://hubzero.org/hubbub.

The Second IEEE Conference on Healthcare Informatics, Imaging and Systems Biology (HISB)
September 27-28, 2012 – La Jolla, California

Computation in healthcare, imaging, and systems biology has evolved independently in the past decades, developing into disciplines and scientific communities that have not yet fully explored synergies and collaborations. As biomedical sciences and these independent computational fields advanced, science and data became “big”, leading to an increasing realization that it is important to connect the dots and offer opportunities for experts in these disciplines to understand what their counterparts are doing, how each other’s developments can benefit one’s research agenda, avoid duplication, and develop means for collaboration that directly address challenges related to biomedicine. For more information and to register, please visit http://hisb2012.org/index.php.

8th IEEE International Conference on eScience
October 8-12, 2012 – Chicago, Illinois

Researchers in all disciplines are increasingly adopting digital tools, techniques and practices, often in communities and projects that span disciplines, laboratories, organizations, and national boundaries. The eScience 2012 conference is designed to bring together leading international and interdisciplinary research communities, developers, and users of eScience applications and enabling IT technologies. The conference serves as a forum to present the results of the latest applications research and product/tool developments and to highlight related activities from around the world. Also, we are now entering the second decade of eScience and the 2012 conference gives an opportunity to take stock of what has been achieved so far and look forward to the challenges and opportunities the next decade will bring. A special emphasis of the 2012 conference is on advances in the application of technology in a particular discipline. Accordingly, significant advances in applications science and technology will be considered as important as the development of new technologies themselves. Further, we welcome contributions in educational activities under any of these disciplines. For more information, please visit http://www.ci.uchicago.edu/escience2012/

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.

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.

XSEDE Training at a Glance.

International Conference on Parallel Processing
September 10-13, 2012 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
For more information, please visit http://psc.edu/index.php/component/jevents/icalrepeat.detail/2012/09/10/28/53|55/international-conference-on-parallel-processing.

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-.

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

Climate Science Triggers Torrent of Big Data Challenges, ORNL Researchers Discover

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) supercomputers running models to assess climate change ramifications and mitigation tactics are rapidly generating a wide variety of big data in vast volumes. ORNL's Galen Shipman says climate researchers have significantly boosted the temporal and spatial resolution of climate models as well as their physical and biogeochemical complexity, contributing to the amount of data produced by the models. Shipman notes it often takes weeks or months to analyze the climate models' data sets with traditional analysis tools, and the Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Biological and Environmental Research (BER) is striving to address this challenge through multiple projects that have yielded parallel analysis and visualization tools. Shipman also says substantial efforts have been made to deliver the infrastructure to support the geographically distributed data, especially between DOE supercomputing centers, while DOE BER continues to invest in the software technologies needed to maintain a distributed data archive with multiple petabytes of climate data stored worldwide through the Earth System Grid Federation project. To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2012-08-15/climate_science_triggers_torrent_of_big_data_challenges.html.

University at Buffalo, TACC Receive Funding to Evaluate XSEDE Clusters

A National Science Foundation (NSF) grant is funding the University at Buffalo and the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin to evaluate the effectiveness of high-performance computing (HPC) systems in the NSF Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) program and HPC systems in general. Today's high-performance computing systems are a complex combination of software, processors, memory, networks, and storage systems characterized by frequent disruptive technological advances. In this environment, service providers, users, system managers and funding agencies find it difficult to know if systems are realizing their optimal performance, or if all subcomponents are functioning properly. To read further, please visit http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/news/press-releases/2012/funding-to-evaluate-xsede-clusters.

SDSC, TACC, ECSU, IU, Purdue and Michigan Awarded NSF Planning Grant for Science Gateways Institute

he San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego is the lead institution on a National Science Foundation (NSF) planning grant for a Science Gateway Institute that would offer a complete range of services aimed at connecting numerous individual groups developing domain-specific, user-friendly, Web-based portals and tools that enable scientific research. Partner institutions include the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin; Elizabeth City State University; Indiana University; Purdue University; and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Through a one-year, $500,000 conceptualization award, the team has been asked to develop a strategic plan for a much larger Science Gateway Institute as part of the NSF's Software Institutes program. The Institute will provide a full support system for those developing gateways – from technical expertise to licensing advice to long-term planning and project management. For more information, please visit http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/news/press-releases/2012/science-gateways-institute.

NCSA Visualizations Offers Tantalizing Glimpses of Science

Visualization has been an integral part of NCSA since its beginning. That tradition continues with the Blue Waters project. While the early visualization work is mostly concerned with testing software functionality and performance, says Dave Semeraro, Blue Waters visualization team leader, it is providing tantalizing glimpses of the science. As Petascale Computing Resource Allocations (PRAC) teams exercise the Blue Waters Early Science System (BW-ESS), NCSA staff members are performing application tests to ascertain system and application performance. These tests, done in collaboration with BW-ESS users, have produced datasets that are, in turn, being used by the Blue Waters visualization staff to test scalable visualization tools. Such tools enable science teams to explore the very large volumes of data they will produce on the full system. To read further, please visit http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/News/Stories/BWvizteam/.

Carnegie Mellon Professor Dubbed Robot Master

Carnegie Mellon University professor Manuela Veloso has spent her career developing autonomous collaborative robots (CoBots). The CoBots run a combination of C++, Python, and Java, and consist of a camera and laptop on a wheeled base, while a Microsoft Kinect is used for navigation and obstacle avoidance. Users assign tasks to the CoBot via a Web interface, and once the task is completed, the CoBot can either return to its home base or move on to the next assigned task. Veloso eventually wants to develop CoBots that can perform daily human tasks alongside their human masters. "I decided that ... these robots ... need a symbiotic relationship with humans, and they need to proactively ask for help when they need help," Veloso says. To read further, please visit http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/worlds-most-wired-roboticist/.

Educator News and Curriculum

Women Bridge Computer-Science Gap

Since 1984, the number of computer science degrees awarded to women has steadily declined, with just 13 percent of computer science graduates today being female. The reasons that few women pursue technology careers are complicated and varied, but the bigger picture is that the pipeline from elementary school to a computing career shrinks with each higher level of education, according to DePauw University professor Gloria Townsend, who has received a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to encourage more women to explore computing as a career. "My own NSF grant works at the undergraduate and graduate school portions of the pipeline to create a number of regional areas where women in computing ... meet biennially at a conference to gain experience speaking and sharing research, networking with each other, interacting with industry sponsors who offer internships and jobs and listening to speakers who share realistic information about life in computing," Townsend says. A lack of K-12 computing courses and uninteresting computing courses at the middle school level, a lack of accurate career information about computer science, and the absence of female mentors in the field all play a role in turning young women away from the industry, Townsend notes. To read further, please visit http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/jobs/chi-women-bridge-computerscience-gap-20120803,0,659958.story.

Coders Get Instant Gratification With Khan Academy Programming

The Khan Academy, which has provided free video lectures on subjects such as mathematics, biology, and history since 2006, recently launched a computer science section. Instead of a video, each computer science lesson contains a pane on the left side for students to enter code and a pane on the right that displays the output. The first lesson involves writing code that will draw a face in the right hand pane. After learning to create graphics, students learn animation and eventually game development. The results of coding changes are immediately displayed in the right pane, offering instant feedback. The lessons also include tips for solving common beginner problems. The tutorials use Processing.js, which is based on the visual arts-centric programming language Processing, but can run inside a Web browser without the need for any plugins. To read further, please visit http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/08/khan-academy/.

Student Engagement Opportunities and Information

ILCAC Awards McCartor Fund Fellowships

The International Light-Cone Advisory Committee continued its recently established McCartor Fund Fellowship program by awarding travel grants to two young scientists at its annual meeting in Cracow, Poland, July 8-13, 2012, and another to be given at a forthcoming meeting in Delhi, India, December 10-15, 2012. ILCAC was incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia in 2008 under SURA sponsorship. Thanks to a generous gift by Sheila McCartor, Gary McCartor’s widow, and generous gifts by Gary’s friends, as well as the registration fee waivers from the meeting organizers, two young physicists received the Gary McCartor Travel Awards:

·            Lekha Adhikari, who is a PhD student in New Mexico State University supervised by Professor Matthias Burkardt; and

·            Christian A. Cruz-Santiago, who is a PhD student in Pennsylvania State University supervised by Professor Anna Stasto.

The two McCartor Fellowships enabled the two awardees to attend either LC2012-Cracow at the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cracow or LC2012-Delhi at University of Delhi, India. Christian Cruz- Santiago gave his research presentation at the Cracow meeting. Lekha Adhikari will present his research work in Delhi meeting. For more information, visit www.ilcacinc.org.

The USC Viterbi School of Engineering REACH (Recruitment of Engineering Achievers) PhD Preview Event 
October 25-26, 2012 – Los Angeles, California
Application Deadline- September 14, 2012

REACH brings to USC’s campus talented students from all over the U.S. who plan on, or are seriously considering, pursuing a Ph.D. in an engineering field. This event is particularly geared toward students historically underrepresented in the field of engineering: African-American, Latino and Native American. Travel expenses, hotel and meals are all paid for by the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. If you are seriously considering a Ph.D. in engineering and are entering your junior or senior year or are a recent graduate in an engineering, computer science, applied mathematics or applied physical science major, you are invited to apply to participate in REACH. For additional information and to apply, please visit http://viterbi.usc.edu/reach.  

2012 Fall Visit NC State Program
October 28-30, 2012 - Raleigh, North Carolina
Application Deadline - October 1, 2012
Admittance Notification:  October 8, 2012

The Visit NC State Program is an innovative and progressive recruitment strategy committed to extending educational opportunities for talented students interested in pursuing a graduate degree. The two-day event includes opportunities for participants to:

• Interact with world-class faculty in your interested discipline and research interest
• Visit several state-of-the-art research facilities and laboratories
• Be exposed to research opportunities
• Network with current graduate students and other prospective students
• Meet academic administrators

All associated cost (air and ground transportation, lodging, meals, and program materials for all accepted participants) will be covered by the Graduate School at North Carolina State University. For more information, please visit http://go.ncsu.edu/visitncstate. For additional questions, contact Brett Locklear, Director of Graduate Recruitment, at balockle@ncsu.edu.  

News at 11:00: XSEDE Partners and Staff in the News

Top Federal Economic Development Official Visits Ohio Supercomputer Center

Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) officials recently described for a top federal economic development official how the center is using advanced modeling and simulation to boost the prospects for small- and medium-sized supply-chain businesses. Matt Erskine, Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, visited OSC in Columbus, Ohio, Aug. 21 to learn more about OSC’s role in the National Digital Engineering and Manufacturing Consortium (NDEMC) program. NDEMC is a five-year public-private partnership funded by the Economic Development Administration (EDA). “The Columbus region has been working to provide the advanced tools that businesses need to give them a cutting edge in the marketplace,” said Erskine in a Commerce Department blog immediately following his visit. “A very important and impressive tool is the Ohio Supercomputer Center, a statewide resource that provides supercomputing services and computational science expertise to both researchers and industry.” To read further, please visit https://www.osc.edu/press/top-federal-economic-development-official-visits-osc.

Last But Not Least – Computational News of Interest

The University of Sydney Develops Artful Algorithms

University of Sydney professor Seok-Hee Hong is creating superfast algorithms as part of an effort to refine a two-dimensional (2D) graphic visualization tool targeted for information technology security analysts. Hong says the tool will aid in the detection of a wide range of suspicious activity, and could potentially be used to monitor and analyze mobile telephone calls or Internet networking sites. "We already know that good visualizations have some geometric properties, called aesthetic criteria, including few edge crossings, good area resolution--small area in 2D and small volume in [three dimensions]--low curve complexity with few bends per edge, and a high degree of symmetry," Hong notes. "The challenge we are trying to overcome is the design of a central tool with the clarity and definition to carry out analysis, enabling businesses, researchers, and other dataset users to explore datasets to identify patterns, associations or trends." To read further, please visit http://sydney.edu.au/news/84.html?newsstoryid=9851.

A Battery That Folds!

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) researchers have developed a super-thin, flexible, all-solid-state battery that could one day lead to phones and gadgets that can be folded. "The technological advance of thin and light flexible displays has encouraged the development of flexible batteries with a high power density and thermal stability," the KAIST researcher says. The advent of a high-performance, flexible, and thin film battery will accelerate the development of next-generation fully flexible electronic systems in combination with existing flexible components such as display, memory, and light-emitting diodes, the KAIST team notes. To read further, please visit http://www.eetindia.co.in/articleLogin.do?artId=8800672256&fromWhere=/ART_8800672256_1800004_NT_0c978568.HTM&catId=1800004&newsType=NT&pageNo=null&encode=0c978568.

New Router Enhances the Precision of Woodworking

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have developed a handheld device that can adjust its position to precisely follow a digital plan when the user moves the router generally around the shape to be cut. "You load the system up with a digital plan that you would like it to follow, and then you are only responsible for getting it to within a quarter-inch or so of that plan," says MIT Ph.D. student Alec Rivers. First, the user moves the device over the raw material, while a built-in camera films the surface and then connects all the video frames it sees into a single cohesive two-dimensional (2D) map of the piece. To read further, please vsiit http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/automated-handheld-router-for-woodworking-0808.html