LBNL Software Developer Support Brainstorming Sessions

Software has become an essential component of science research. Scientists and engineers throughout LBNL now develop software. Let's brainstorm ways we can build community and support mechanisms for LBNL software developers across the lab. If you are interested in helping, join one of the following sessions:

• April 4 - noon - 1pm in Perseverance Hall
• April 5 - 3pm - 4pm at OSF (238)
• April 9 - 10am - 11am in Perseverance Hall

Conference on Data Analysis Keynote and Posters

The recent "Conference on Data Analysis: Exploring Research across the Department of Energy", featured Deb Agarwal as a keynote speaker on the topic "Changing Your Perspective from Serving the Data to Enabling Data Users." Taghrid Samak and Arthur Weidmer were also featured at the conference as invited poster presenters.

Microsoft Research Website Highlights ACS Research

Microsoft Research recently posted three science stories involving collaborations with the Computational Research Division's (CRD's) Advanced Computing for Science Department (ACS) and the Berkeley Water Center (BWC):

• Amassing Global Data on Carbon and Climate
• Data Deluge and Digital
• Simulating the Breathing of the Biosphere

ACS/NERSC Summer Students Score a Hat-Trick

It is rare to submit three papers to the same conference, but even rarer to have all of them accepted! But this is exactly what happened in the summer of 2011 when two summer students, Zach Fadika and Elif Dede, had all three of their submitted papers accepted at the Grid2011 conference held in Lyon, France. Elif Dede was advised by Dan Gunter and Lavanya Ramakrishnan from ACS, and Zach Fadika was also advised by Lavanya Ramakrishnan with Shane Canon from NERSC.

1. Benchmarking MapReduce Implementations for Application Usage Scenarios. Zacharia Fadika, Elif Dede, Madhusudhan Govindaraju and Lavanya Ramakrishnan
2. MARIANE: MApReduce Implementation Adapted for HPC Environments. Zacharia Fadika, Elif Dede, Madhusudhan Govindaraju and Lavanya Ramakrishnan
3. Scalable and Distributed Processing of Scientific XML Data. Elif Dede, Zacharia Fadika, Chaitali Gupta and Madhusudhan Govindaraju

We look forward to hearing many more good things from Zach and Elif (and, indeed, all our summer students) in the future.

ACS Researchers Lead UQ Study Group

Mathematical models intended for computational simulation of complex real-world processes are a crucial ingredient in virtually every aspect of DOE science. Utilization of such computer models requires addressing Uncertainty Quantification (UQ), a greatly expanding field focusing on systematic uncertainties in computer models such as model limitations, sparse inputs, and initial conditions; and statistical uncertainties such as noisy or incomplete data. Within LBNL and CRD in particular, there is an excellent mix of skills in mathematics, modeling, parallel programming, and systems to address these challenges head-on. But current CRD approaches to understanding and using UQ are scattered across researchers and departments.

To help better focus CRD efforts, Dan Gunter and Lavanya Ramakrishnan of the Advanced Computing for Science (ACS) Department formed an Uncertainty Quantification Study Group that will help familiarize participants with the varied aspects of the UQ challenge, and spur discussions of how CRD research can be applied to their solution. The study group is an opportunity to cross-germinate ideas and explore collaborations across groups. Read more on the UQ group wiki..

Berkeley Lab Hosts Week and a half long Discovery Workshops covering HPC and Cloud Computing topics

Exascale computing and cloud computing are both rapidly emerging as key capabilities available to support scientific computation. The forecast for many aspects of computing definitely calls for exascale computing or clouds, but cutting through the hype and getting a clear picture on the possibilities and limitations of each requires a deep look into the technologies and intensive hands-on sessions. To this end, Berkeley Lab's Computational Research Division (CRD) and NERSC hosted a weeklong workshop on cloud computing from June 20-24 and a half-week workshop on high-performance computing advances June 15-17.

The Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS)at UC Berkeley helped host the workshop. Participating organizations helping Berkeley Lab provide content include UC Berkeley, Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, Cloudera, the and Microsoft. The Department of Energy's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) contributed workshop content. Participation was limited and the limit was quickly met.

"There is a lot of information floating around on exa-scale and cloud computing, but it's not easy to separate fact from fiction. Fortunately, we have a number of research projects, testbeds and collaborations working in these areas, so we were in a good position to marshal the necessary resources for this workshop," said organizer Keith Jackson, of CRD's Advanced Computing for Science Department.

Berkeley Lab Contributes Expertise to New Amazon Web Services Offering

This month Amazon Web Services (AWS) lauched a new Cluster Compute Instances offering for Amazon EC2, which will make high-bandwidth, low-latency HPC resources available in a cloud-computing environment. To ensure that this new service can handle a gamut of demanding HPC applications, AWS staff worked closely with researchers in the Berkeley Lab's Computational Research Division (CRD), Information Technologies Division, and NERSC.  read more..

- Linda Vu