HPC Happenings
DataONE Summer Internships at the University of New Mexic
May 27- July 26, 2013 - Albuquerque, New Mexico
Application Deadline – March 17, 2013
The Data Observation Network for Earth (DataONE) is a virtual organization dedicated to providing open, persistent, robust, and secure access to biodiversity and environmental data, supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation. DataONE is pleased to announce the availability of summer research internships for undergraduates, graduate students and recent postgraduates. Applications are now being accepted for 2013 DataONE Summer Internships. Prospective interns can apply for one of the specified projects listed at http://www.dataone.org/internships/. Full information and application details can be found at http://www.dataone.org/internships/. Additional questions can be addressed to internship@dataone.org.
Virginia Bioinformatics Institute: HPC in Life/Medical Sciences \
July 22- August 2, 2013 – Blacksburg, Virginia
Submission Deadline – March 30, 2013:
Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech is hosting a "High Performance Computing in the Life/Medical Sciences" two-week summer institute sponsored by the National Science Foundation. This summer two-week intensive course is directed towards eligible undergraduates, graduate students and postdocs interested in further developing their expertise in biology relevant high performance and data intensive computing field. During the course, participants will attend lectures and discussions by leading field members including academic and industrial affiliates and work on a group research project with three other course participants. A travel stipend, including lodging and sustenance is provided. For more information, please visit http://nsfsi.vbi.vt.edu/. For application guidelines and to apply, please visit http://nsfsi.vbi.vt.edu/application.php. For a flyer about this opportunity, please visit http://nsfsi.vbi.vt.edu/PDFs/2013-nsfsi-flyer-web.pdf.
News at 11:00: XSEDE Staff and Partners in the News
Tack’s Jay Boisseau Named One of HPCwire’s 2013 People to Watch
HPCwire, the #1 news and information portal covering the entire ecosystem of High Performance Computing (HPC) announced today that it has published the ‘HPCwire People to Watch 2013' list. The annual list is comprised of an elite group of the best and brightest minds in HPC whose research, dedication and hard work will be making a difference in the HPC community and in the world with their contributions. The annual selections are made following an extensive review process by the HPCwire editorial and executive staff, recommendations from past recipients, and with guidance from industry analysts and luminaries across the HPC community. To read further and for a complete list, please visit http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/news/press-releases/2013/hpcwire-people-to-watch.
SDSC’s Chaitan Baru Named Associate Director, Data Initiatives
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, has named SDSC Distinguished Scientist Chaitanya Baru the Center’s Associate Director, Data Initiatives. The new position reflects the Center’s focus on addressing both the management and technical aspects of ‘big data’ and other data-enabled applications now becoming pervasive among academia, government, and industry. Baru, who joined SDSC in 1996, specializes in scientific data management, large-scale data systems, data integration and analytics, and parallel database systems. He also is director of SDSC’s Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Development Group (ACID) and director of the Center for Large-scale Data Systems Research (CLDS). In his new position, Baru will coordinate and expand upon SDSC’s myriad data-centric initiatives, all aimed at leveraging advancements in high-performance computing and data analysis to accelerate research and discovery. To read further, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR021113_cbaru.html.
TACC, SDSC Mourns the Loss of Dr. Robert P. Harkness
Dr. Robert P. Harkness, a computational astrophysicist with the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, died on Sunday, January 27, after a brief bout with cancer. He was 56. Harkness joined SDSC in 2001 as a member of SDSC’s Laboratory for Computational Astrophysics. With a total of more than 30 years’ experience in computational science and high-performance computing, he focused much of his research on the dynamics of exploding stars (novae and supernovae), but also specialized in writing new applications that allowed researchers worldwide to perform ever-larger computer simulations To read further, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR013113_rharkness.html.
Shawn Brown to Direct New Public Health Group at PSC
Shawn T. Brown, PhD, has joined the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) as Director of Public Health Applications. In this role, he will lead a new group at the PSC whose research addresses the problems of predicting disease spread via large-scale agent-based modeling, vaccine supply chain logistics in developing countries, and public health decision-making support via high performance computational modeling. This position is a unique one for a high-performance computing facility such as PSC, and is part of a general trend to use supercomputing to address "big data" problems in the life and public health sciences. Dr. Brown comes to the PSC from the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, where he was an Assistant Professor of Biostatistics. To read further, please visit http://www.psc.edu/index.php/newscenter/90-2013press/791-shawn-brown-to-direct-new-public-health-group-at-psc.
Ken Chiacchia Joins PSC as Science Writer
Kenneth B. Chiacchia, PhD, has joined Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) as Senior Science Writer. Ken replaces Michael Schneider, who retired in November 2012 after 25 years at PSC. Ken comes to PSC after more than 20 years in biomedical science writing. He has held staff writing and editorial positions at Harvard Medical School and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Ken received the Carnegie Science Center Journalism Award in 2007 and the Press Club of Western Pennsylvania Award for Best Writing, Radio, in 2011. In addition to his staff positions, Ken has done freelance writing for outlets such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Allegheny Front public radio environmental news program, and fiction publications including Cicada magazine. Ken did his doctoral work on the insulin receptor protein at Harvard University’s Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Overheard
Web Founder Berners-Lee: Share Info, Improve the World
CNet
Sharing information online has the potential to improve society worldwide, said World Wide Web founder Sir Tim Berners-Lee at the recent 2013 World Economic Forum. Berners-Lee also says social networking sites should offer users more control over their personal data by allowing them to share it with other social networks. And he says governments should share information that is useful to the public, such as hospital health outcome data and pothole locations. In addition, Berners-Lee says academic papers should be freely accessible, and online music requires a new business model that allows easier access while also paying musicians. Internet activist Aaron Swartz was "an incredibly ethical person who thought a huge amount about what was right and how the world should be," and he used his programming skills to transform the world, says Berners-Lee of the 26-year-old programmer who committed suicide earlier this month. At the time of his death, Swartz was facing felony charges for downloading numerous academic papers. To read further, please visit http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57565792-93/web-founder-berners-lee-share-info-improve-the-world/.
HPC Call for Participation
Call for Participation for XSEDE13
Submission Deadline – March 8, 2013
XSEDE13: Gateway to Discovery is coming to San Diego July 22-25, 2013. The conference will support and enhance the world of advanced digital resources and services and highlight scientific discovery facilitated through Science Gateways. As the second annual conference of XSEDE, XSEDE13 is a forum for the presentation of high-quality technical papers, posters, tutorials, and Birds of a Feather sessions that will facilitate greater communication among scientists and students who use XSEDE and other cyberinfrastructure resources; For more information, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/xsede13/call-for-participation.
Call for Participation for Cluster 2013
September 23-27, 2-13 - Indianapolis, Indiana
Submission Deadline – March 29, 2013
Indiana University's Pervavsive Technology Institute is hosting Cluster 2013 in Indianapolis this September 2013. The conference will explore cluster technology, both present and possible future, with a focus on campus cyberinfrastructure and bridging. Cluster 2013 will also include poster, panel, workshop and tutorial sessions for face-to-face interactions with the technology leaders in cluster computing. For more information, please visit http://ovpitnews.iu.edu/news/page/normal/23625.html.
Call for Papers The International Conference on Culture and Computing
September 16-18, 2013
- Kyoto, Japan
Submission Deadline – April 5, 2013
Culture and Computing is a new research area, which aims to overcome different cultural issues in international communities using information and communication technologies (ICT). There are various research directions in the relations between culture and computing:
to archive cultural heritages via ICT (cf. digital archives),
to empower humanities researches via ICT (cf. digital humanities),
to create art and expressions via ICT (cf. media art),
to realize a culturally situated agent (cf. cultural agent),
to support multi-language, multi-cultural societies via ICT (cf. intercultural collaboration),
and to understand new cultures born in the Internet and Web (cf. net culture).
The International Conference on Culture and Computing provides an opportunity to share research issues and discuss the future of culture and computing, which has been held in cultural cities including Kyoto, Japan (2010, 2011) and Hangzhou, China (2012). The fourth conference (Culture and Computing 2013) will be back to Kyoto, the cultural heart of Japan, organized with an exhibition on the integration of state of the art cultural computing technologies and Japanese traditional culture, along with a number of co-located events.
For complete information on submission topics, submission guidelines, please visit http://www.media.ritsumei.ac.jp/culture2013/.
Upcoming Conferences and Workshops.
LittleFe Buildout at SIGCSE 2013
March 6-9, 2013 – Denver, Colorado
Thinking of attending SIGCSE13 in Denver this year? The LittleFe group (http://LittleFe.net) will be hosting a buildout as a set of two workshops (sessions 24 and 25) at the conference. If you're accepted for the SIGCSE LittleFe buildout, then during the workshop, you will assemble your LittleFe, install the Bootable Cluster CD (http://BCCD.net) and learn how to setup and use it for teaching parallel programming and distributed computing. At the end you and your partner will be able to take the LittleFe back to your institution for use in your classes. Both you and your partner must register for and attend both workshop 24 and workshop 25 to be eligible to receive the free LittleFe unit. For more information on the conference, please visit http://www.sigcse.org/sigcse2013/. For more information on LittleFe, please visit http://LittleFe.net.
Hands-0n Workshop on Computational Biophysics
June 10-14, 2013 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
This workshop will be presented by members of the BTRC Center for Multiscale Modeling of Biological Systems from the University of Pittsburgh and the members of the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group (www.ks.uiuc.edu) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The workshop is designed for students and researchers in computational and/or biophysical fields who seek to extend their research skills to include computational and theoretical expertise, as well as other researchers interested in theoretical and computational biophysics. Theory sessions in the morning will be followed by hands-on computer labs in the afternoon in which students will be able to set up and run simulations. Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptop for use in workshop tutorial sessions but computer workstations are also available. For more information and to register for this event, please visit http://www.nrbsc.org/education/workshops/computational_biophysics_2013//.
Research Features From Across the Country and Around the World
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center and ANSYS Partner to Provide High Performance Computing for Academic Research
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) has announced the formation of a strategic academic partnership with ANSYS (NASDAQ: ANSS), a leader in engineering simulation software. PSC is a national center for high-performance computing, funded by multiple federal and state agencies and a service provider (SP) in the NSF XSEDE program, enabling computational science nationwide. As a result of the new partnership, PSC will be able to provide exceptional engineering simulation resources to academia. It will be the only SP in the XSEDE program to offer access to the full ANSYS multiphysics simulation software suite. Scientists in U.S. academic institutions use PSC computing resources to perform cutting-edge computations in the physical, social and biological sciences, including various engineering disciplines. “PSC desired to acquire the full ANSYS multiphysics software suite,” says Cheryl Begandy, director of education, outreach and training at PSC, “to support those academic researchers who need to supplement the capabilities of their local computers to perform more computationally intensive ANSYS simulations.” All universities that have current and valid ANSYS licenses are eligible to participate in the program. To read further, please visit http://www.psc.edu/index.php/newscenter/90-2013press/804-psc-and-ansys-partner-to-provide-high-performance-computing-for-academic-research.
Tufts University Developing Brain-Scanning Headset That Monitors Your Mental Workload
New Scientist
Tufts University researchers are developing a computer system with the ability to directly monitor a user's brain in real time. The system will be able to act as a filter, letting through desired information while blocking the rest. "We can really supercharge the way you consume information," says Tufts researcher Even Peck. The system features a headset that beams infrared light from emitters on a user's forehead into their prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain associated with planning and decision-making. By measuring the amount of light reaching receivers on the forehead, the system can tell when a user is concentrating intently or not. Matching the readings to what a user is looking at on a screen enables the system to determine what is useful information and what is not, a technique known as functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers are working with fNIRS technology to enhance how people drive cars, and are developing a system that could be useful for researching the cognitive demands of new car features To read further, please visit http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21729056.500-brainscanning-headset-monitors-your-mental-workload.html.
New, Multifunctional Electronic Devices May Soon Be Possible, Penn State Research Suggests
Penn State Live
Penn State University researchers have designed a material interface that can improve the functionality of non-silicon-based electronic devices as well as enhanced nanoelectronic components, says professor Qi Li. "Our goal was to create a multifunctional device with improved function by adding...a ferroelectric-magnetic interface--a ferroelectric layer replacing the insulator barrier and a special interface layer--built into the device that acts to change from metal to insulator as well as from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic in response to the negative or positive charge polarization of the barrier," Li says. The researchers say the device enhances the binary-state resistance difference by up to 10,000 percent. Li says the interface is special because its oxide materials are multiferroic, which means that one side is magnetic and the other is ferroelectric. "Because our new interface combines both magnetic and ferroelectric properties and because we utilize the coupling effect between the two, we can reproduce a similar binary system with a much larger resistance difference between the two charge-polarization directions," Li says. To read further, please visit http://science.psu.edu/news-and-events/2013-news/Li2-2013.
Finding Tools vs. Making Tools: Discovering Common Ground Between Computer Science and Journalism at Georgia Tech Symposium
Nieman Journalism Lab
Computer scientists and journalists attending the Georgia Tech College of Computing's recent Computation + Journalism Symposium discussed ways in which their two disciplines could blend to create a better news information environment. Many journalists say they have a "forager" mindset, using available tools to address immediate issues related to generating news, while technologists say they tend to "forge" more generalized tools. Journalism students would benefit from learning to cultivate computational tools, for example, through training in user-centered design and computational thinking. However, not all journalists will actually need to code, and specialization for building and coding tools could occur. Computational journalism could play a role in efforts to quantify the impact of journalistic influence on social networks. As data sets expand and instrumentation improves in media, a computational influence engine could be optimized for revenue, an informed audience, and accountability impact. To read further, please visit http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/02/finding-tools-vs-making-tools-discovering-common-ground-between-computer-science-and-journalism/.
Educator Opportunities and Information
Mentoring Models to Move Minorities to Majorities in STEM
ASU News
Arizona State University (ASU) professor Carlos Castillo-Chavez says accelerating programs that mentor and move minorities forward to majorities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) subjects is one method that is gaining momentum in the effort to shift U.S. demographics in STEM. Although there is a common belief that promoting underrepresented groups cannot be addressed without long-term changes in the K-12 school system, there are successful models currently being used that show how mentoring can change lives, Castillo-Chavez says. He is the executive director of the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute (MTBI), a program that hosts a summer undergraduate research experience program and has developed integrative degrees in applied mathematics for the life and social sciences for undergraduate and doctoral students. In 2010-2011, ASU was the leading producer of Hispanic Ph.D.'s in the mathematical sciences and fifth in the U.S. for all minority groups combined, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. To read further, please visit https://asunews.asu.edu/2013216_AAASCarlosCastilloChavez.
Coursera and edX Add Universities and Hope to Expand Global Reach
Inside Higher Ed
Coursera and edX both recently announced they are doubling the number of universities offering classes through their open online education sites. For Coursera, the expansion means an additional 29 new universities will join the company's 33 existing partners. Sixteen of Coursera's new partners are international institutions, including universities in Italy, Hong Kong, France and Spain. Coursera co-founder Andrew Ng says the international additions should help the company attract non-English-speaking students around the world. To expand its international appeal, Coursera plans to offer more classes in languages other than English. It currently offers one or two courses in French, but plans to have more classes in French as well as Spanish, Chinese, and Italian. edX will add six new universities, five of which are international. "In the longer term, our mission is to dramatically increase access to education worldwide," says edX president Anant Agarwal. To read further, please visit http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/02/21/coursera-and-edx-add-universities-and-hope-expand-global-reach. .
The Job Market of 2045
IEEE Spectrum
Rice University professor Moshe Vardi predicts that by 2045 artificial intelligence (AI) will have progressed to a point that machines will be able to perform a significant percentage of human work. He projects ever-growing levels of robotic automation in the manufacturing industry, both in developed and developing countries. He also expects the complete automation of driving within another generation, while automated checkouts and even automated shelf loading will be commonplace. On the other hand, Vardi does not think sales jobs, especially those involving human-to-human contact, will become roboticized anytime soon. Still, Vardi is unsettled by his observation that "we seem to be blindly developing the technology without worrying about the consequences." He makes a case for technological regulation, noting that "we adopt technology, we discover the consequences later, and at that point it’s very often too late to get off the technology." To read further, please visit http://spectrum.ieee.org/podcast/at-work/tech-careers/the-job-market-of-2045.
A New Group Aims to Make Programming Cool
New York Times
Code.org was founded with the goal of increasing the education of computer science in classrooms and sparking more excitement about the subject among students. Code.org's first project will be a short film starring various technology industry celebrities, who will talk about how programming can be exciting and accessible. The video's purpose is to challenge the stereotypical cultural image of programmers, says Code.org founder Hadi Partovi. The nonprofit organization is part of a much broader movement by the technology industry to train more people in computer science at a young age. Code.org also will create a database to help parents find schools where computer science is already being taught and to advocate ways of making it more available to students. To read further, please visit http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/22/a-new-group-aims-to-make-programming-cool/.
Student Engagement and Information
Contest Aims to Boost State of Password Encryption
CSO Online
A group of cryptographers from academia and the tech industry has organized the Password Hashing Competition to raise awareness of the need for better password hashing. The organizers are looking to develop a new password hash algorithm that is more difficult for hackers to break. Technologies can be submitted to the competition website by Jan. 31, 2014. The group is interested in a standard that can generate hashed passwords much slower, but does not want to keep people waiting too long when they log into a site, says Kudelski Security's Jean-Philippe Aumasson, one of the competition's judges. "From a secure standpoint, the slower the better," Aumasson says. "From a usability standpoint, the faster the better, so it's a tradeoff between usability and security." The U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a member on the panel of judges and will monitor the contest. To read further, please visit http://www.csoonline.com/article/728944/contest-aims-to-boost-state-of-password-encryption.
House to Launch Nationwide Contest Encouraging Students to Develop Mobile 'Apps'
The Hill
The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass a resolution establishing a nationwide technology competition for students, encouraging contestants to develop new applications for smartphones and tablets. The House would run the contest, and students from each congressional district would compete in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. "Because of the importance of computer science it would be appropriate to initially challenge students to develop so-called 'apps' for mobile, tablet, and computer platforms," the resolution says. The resolution was motivated by a recent study, which found that only one-third of the bachelor's degrees earned in the United States are in a STEM field. "Bringing together members of Congress and their younger constituents to participate in activities that will result in a deeper appreciation for STEM fields will foster enthusiasm for education in the sciences," the resolution says. To read further, please visit http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/284063-house-to-launch-nationwide-contest-encouraging-students-to-develop-mobile-apps.
2013 Texas Tech REU in Cybersecurity, Robotics, and Software Engineering
Program Dates - June 3-August 9, 2013
Application Deadline - March 8, 2013
The Texas Tech NSF REU Site program provides the opportunity for undergraduate students to conduct research in cybersecurity, robotics, and software engineering through mentoring that guides students towards becoming independent researchers in a welcoming and enriching environment. Our goal is to influence students to conduct research in the engineering of secure and intelligent software systems and to instill in students the methods and desires to continue with graduate research in these disciplines. Each participant will receive a stipend of $5000, university residential housing and meal plan, and up to $600 in travel expenses. Additional project and application information can be found online at http://www.depts.ttu.edu/cs/research/reu
REU Summer Program at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Application Deadline – February 28, 2013
The Research Experiences for Undergraduates program based at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences offers 10-week internships in a variety of science and engineering topics, including scientific computing, computer science, data security and privacy, robotics, as well as industrially relevant team-based projects in computational science and applied math. Apply at reusite.seas.harvard.edu/application or send inquiries to reu@seas.harvard.edu.
Summer Internship Opening at IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
The IBM T.J. Watson Research Center has an internship opportunity available in the Database Research group in the Intelligent Information Management department. In our department, we are working on database management technologies in relational database servers and emerging NoSQL data store. We are looking for candidates knowledgeable and interested in studying the exploitation of storage class memory and/or distributed, parallel processing algorithms in graph database. Phd candidates that have demonstrated ability to conduct research independently and have a publication track record in the areas of interest are preferred. For more information, please visit https://jobs3.netmedia1.com/cp/faces/job_summary?job_id=RES-0555967.
On the Lighter Side – Computational News of Interest
Liability Issues Create Potholes on the Road to Driverless Cars
Wall Street Journal
Although widespread commercial use of driverless cars is still years away, Google and others are already testing the technology on roads and automakers have raised concerns about liability laws. The liability question could expand lawsuits to include the car's owner, a passenger, or the company that designed and/or built the car. "Their concern is that somebody comes along and modifies their vehicles, and they could be held liable if that technology doesn't work," says Arizona state Rep. Jeff Dial. California, Nevada, and Florida are the only states that have passed laws on driverless cars. In California, the legislation directs the Department of Motor Vehicles to come up with rules by 2015, while Florida's law gave its motor-vehicle agency until 2014 to prepare a report on the cars. Nevada's Department of Motor Vehicles already has 22 pages of rules for driverless vehicles, and has licensed Google, Audi, and Continental AG to test them on public roads. The vehicles must undergo 10,000 hours of testing on closed tracks and testers must put up a bond of at least $1 million to cover any potential liabilities. To read further, please visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323854904578264162749109462.html.
Swipe, Shake, CTRL Z? Web Spec Aims to End Input Overload
ZDNet
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recently published the draft of IndieUI, a specification aimed at making it easier for developers to build Web applications that can be controlled by different devices. The draft sets out a specification for a software abstraction layer that translates user interaction into the desired action on the Web app's user interface. "Web developers won't have to worry about the specifics of how users provide input, and can focus just on the user intent," according to a W3C blog post. IndieUI provides an alternative to having to code for every possible input that could be used with an app, such as pressing a combination of keys or a screen swipe. To read further, please visit http://www.zdnet.com/web-app-7000010331/?s_cid=e539.
