NUIT Support of Researchers RACC Meeting September 13, 2010 Bob Taylor Director, Academic and Research Technologies
Research Support Focus FY2011 High Performance Computing (HPC) Capabilities Research Storage Services (Vault) Social Science Computing Cluster (SSCC) Visualization Services Highly-Capable Videoconferencing Services Virtual Organization Collaboration Platforms Cultural Digitization Projects, Digital Libraries
HPC: Science Paradigms Traditionally: Science is Empirical, based on observations Last few hundred years: Theoretical branch using models, generalizations Last few decades: Computational branch simulating complex phenomena Transition to: Data exploration (escience). a a 2 = 4πGρ Κ 3 c a 2 2 unify theory, experiment, and simulation Data captured by instruments Or generated by simulator Processed by software Information/Knowledge stored in computer Scientist analyzes database / files using data management and statistics
HPC: Branscomb Pyramid for NSF Blue Ribbon Panel hear 4
HPC: Branscomb Pyramid and NU National Infrastructure (sustained PFLOP) Blue Waters System at Champaign-Urbana TeraGrid Quest HPC Cluster at Northwestern Current 4,008 cores, 37 TFLOP performance Three year goal: 10,000 cores, 100 TFLOP 84 projects supported, January 2010 today 5
Examples of HPC Needs at NU 6
HPC consulting and education HPC consulting for NU researchers User on-boarding Porting of existing software applications Parallel or serial optimization and debugging of existing codes, algorithms, and applications Support new parallel algorithm development Education Series of workshop, from simple usage of Quest to advanced topics 7
Research Support Focus FY2011: Research Storage Services Vault-Collaborative Research Storage Vault-Supplementary Research Storage Vault-HPC Storage
Vault Storage Services Moderate Storage Vault-Collaborative Research Storage Easy sharing and management of data for researchers 1000 to 2000 users in FY2011 Large Data and High Demand Workflows Specialized workflows with processing on Quest Vault-HPC Storage 9
Research Support Focus FY2011: Social Science Computing Cluster Social Science Compute Cluster serves over 100 social science researchers, primarily in Kellogg and WCAS 132 AMD cpu s, batch processing and interactive mode 30 social science software applications 8 TB of storage, needs are rapidly growing! first SSCC users moving jobs to Quest
Research Support Focus FY2011: Visualization Services
Much, if not most, data generated on Quest will not immediately be visual in form. Much will be numerical. Good visualizations are sometimes key to a rapid and comprehensive understanding of experimental results (not to mention education) Increased Need For Visualization
Current Work in Visualization Astronomy Production Animation Demo Chemistry/Biology Volume Visualization Demo Advanced Display Wall Poster Design Radiology (Feinberg) Volume Visualization
Advanced Display Devices Silverman Hall Stereo display wall Main wall will be twentyfive 46 3D-HD displays from JVC 52M pixels in total Stereo display mode October 2010 release Driven by NVIDIA hardware 240 Cores/GPU x 10 GPUs = 2400 Cores
Research Support Focus FY2011: Highly-Capable Videoconferencing
iexperiment for Oncofertility Consortium
iexperiment for Oncofertility Consortium Vidyo, the underlying technology of the NU Desktop videoconferencing app, is installed on 6 electron microscopes in Lurie labs. The computers running the Vidyo software are enabled to allow research collaborators to join the videoconference while a experiment is in session.
Research Support Focus FY2011: Highly-Capable Videoconferencing Vidyo desktop video conferencing software licensed for researchers at NU. Supports interoperable video collaboration between Mac users, Windows users, NU s H323 videoconference rooms. Works over campus network, home DSL connections, hotel and conference connections 830+ users at NU registered now
Research Support Focus FY2011: Highly-Capable Videoconferencing Oncofertility Consortium Monthly and quarterly videoconferences with Vidyo Argonne Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center Replaced their existing Access Grid system, which was not working well with collaborators at UIUC and Yale. First lab session (successful) last week NERC (Non-Equilibrium Research Center) monthly PI meetings (up to 5 remote connections, weekend group meetings as needed, connectivity for the NERC Director while on travel
Research Support Focus FY2011: Virtual Organizations Oncofertility Consortium Hub
Cultural Digitization Projects: Dunhuang China
Cultural Digitization Projects: Dunhuang China Academic and Research Technologies will host 6 members of the Dunhuang Research Academy in Evanston, September 13-21, 2010
Cultural Digitization Projects: Dunhuang China The Dunhuang academy team will be trained on Northwestern University standards and practices of cultural digitization processes, and go in the field with professional photographic shoots during their visit.
Research Support Focus FY2011: Tools for Digital Libraries
NUIT Support of Researchers Questions?