HPC Happenings

Virtua; School Offers Two Computational Science Courses

 

• Data Intensive Summer School (July 8-10, 2013)
• Proven Algorithmic Techniques for Many-core Processors (July 29-Aug. 2, 2013)

Graduate students, post-docs and professionals from academia, government, and industry are invited to sign up now for two summer school courses offered by the Virtual School of Computational Science and Engineering. These Virtual School courses will be delivered to sites nationwide using high-definition videoconferencing technologies, allowing students to participate at a number of convenient locations where they will be able to work with a cohort of fellow computational scientists, have access to local experts, and interact in real time with course instructors. Registration fees for each course are $100, with some sites waiving the fees. To register, first visit the user portal for the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE): https://portal.xsede.org/. If this is your first use of the XSEDE portal, follow the guidelines to create a free portal account. Once you have an XSEDE portal account, you may sign up for the Virtual School courses through the XSEDE course calendar: https://portal.xsede.org/course-calendar. For more information about the Virtual School, go to http://www.vscse.org/. Questions about the summer school can be sent to info@vscse.org.

Make It a Family Affair! XSEDE13 Offers Robotics Workshop for Your Kids

In conjunction with XSEDE13, a robotic course is being offered for students in grades 5-8. It uses Lego Mindstorm™ Robots to facilitate the understanding of computer programming concepts.  Students will learn to program pre-built robots to do simulate a robotic mission to Mars. The course fee is $100, which includes lunch each day. Space is limited to 15 participants. Parents can register their children during the XSEDE13 registration process and will then receive email instructions. The class will meet July 22-25, 2013, at the Marriott Marquis and Marina (the XSEDE13 conference location) from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For more information, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/xsede13/ready-set-robots1.

Call for Entries: International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge
Submission Deadline - September 30, 2013

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the journal Science created the International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge to celebrate the grand tradition of science visualization and to encourage its continued growth. The spirit of the competition is to communicate science, engineering and technology for education and journalistic purposes. Judges appointed by NSF and Science will select winners in five categories: Photography, Illustration, Posters & Graphics, Games & Apps, and Video. The winning entries will appear in a special section of Science (with one entry chosen for the front cover) and be hosted at ScienceMag.org and NSF.gov. In addition, each winner will receive a one-year online subscription to Science and a certificate of appreciation. If you have questions, please email them to scivis@nsf.gov. More information about the challenge can be found at http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/scivis/challenge.jsp.

CASC Brochure/Website Image Competition
Submission Deadline - May 31, 2013

The CASC Brochure/Website Image Competition is underway and will determine the visualization to be used on the cover of the 2014 CASC Brochure. Please note that visualizations not appearing on the cover may be used on pages inside the brochure and on the CASC website. In terms of resolution, 3K x 3K pixels or better for the cover images. The web-based application/submission form outlines the additional information that must be included with every image.

The judges will be using the following criteria:

• Illustrative of research underway at the center submitting the proposed images
• Focus on research that offers a broad representation of what CASC members have undertaken
• Timeliness of visualization (e.g. the Gulf Oil Spill viz last year)
• Exhibits Intellectual merit
• Provides scientific, cultural, economic impact
• Compelling, visually interesting, lively, colorful images in a high-resolution format

For submissions, please visit http://apps.ccr.buffalo.edu/casc/.

XSEDE 13 Student Day Receives Record Number of Applications

Local San Diego area high school students have expressed an enthusiastic interest in Student Day, part of the upcoming XSEDE13 conference taking place in July at the San Diego Marriott Marquis. Applications have topped the fifty mark, which is the goal number sought by the conference organizers. With substantial funding assistance from the National Science Foundation, students will be able to participate in a national, high performance computing conference right in their own backyard. For more information on Student Day, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/xsede13/students.

HPC Conference Call for Participation

4th Workshop on Scientific Cloud Computing (ScienceCloud) 2013 - Call for Participation -Co-located with ACM HPDC 2013
June 17, 2013 - New York City, New York

The 4th workshop on Scientific Cloud Computing (ScienceCloud) will provide the
scientific community a dedicated forum for discussing new research, development,
and deployment efforts in running scientific computing workloads on Cloud
Computing infrastructures. The ScienceCloud workshop will focus on the
use of cloud-based technologies to meet new compute-intensive and data-
intensive scientific challenges that are not well served by the current
supercomputers, grids and HPC clusters. For more information and submission guidelines, please visit http://datasys.cs.iit.edu/events/ScienceCloud2013/program.html.

Pan American Advanced Studies Institute on Data Discovery - Call for Participation
July 15-26, 2013 - Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Guatemala
Submission Deadline – June 9, 2013

The objective of this Pan American Advanced Studies Institute (PASI) is to introduce researchers early in their careers to Methods in Computation-Based Discovery (CBD). In the quest for solutions to major problems (e.g., biodiversity, modeling of natural systems, water ecology, digital cultural heritage, etc.), researchers across the natural and social sciences as well as the humanities and arts are generating massive and/or highly complex data sets that extend well-beyond humans’ capacities to perceive or analyze without sophisticated technological augmentation. CBD allows researchers to gather, transform and analyze data from a range of sources, including, for example, sensors, video archives, telescopes, and supercomputers. Researchers today need both access to advanced computational resources and sophisticated skills in data acquisition, management, transformation, visualization, analytics, and preservation.  The Institute will be offered through a joint effort of seven organizations: (1) the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE); (2) the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), including the Blue Waters Petascale Supercomputer project; (3) the Institute for Computing in Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (I-CHASS) (4) the Advanced Visualization Lab (AVL); (5) the Advanced Research and Technology Collaboratory for the Americas (ARTCA); (6) the Latin American Cooperation of Advanced Networks (RedCLARA); and (7) the Organization of American States (OAS). These organizations believe research collaboration to be essential to building strong international partnerships to address grand challenges. For more information, please visit http://artcaonline.org/pasi.html.

IEEE Cluster 2013 Call for Participation
September 23-27, 2013 - Indianapolis, Indiana
Paper Deadline – May 25, 2013

Cluster 2013 requests submission of tutorials, technical papers, posters, panels, and visualizations as part of the conference this year. A one-week extension for full submissions will automatically be granted upon the submission of an abstract by the deadline.  To view all deadlines, please visit http://internal.pti.iu.edu/ieeecluster-2013/cluster-2013-important-dates. For complete information, please visit http://internal.pti.iu.edu/ieeecluster-2013.

HiPC 2013 - 20th IEEE International Conference on High Performance Computing - Call for Papers
December 18-21, 2013, Hyderabad, INDIA
Submission Deadline – June 8, 2013

You are invited to submit original unpublished research work that demonstrate current research in all areas of high performance computing including design and analysis of parallel and distributed systems, embedded systems, and their applications in scientific, engineering, and commercial areas. The details the call for papers) can be found at http://www.hipc.org/hipc2013/papers.php. In addition to technical sessions consisting of contributed papers, the conference will include invited presentations, a student research symposium, tutorials, and vendor presentations in the industry, user and research symposium. Further details about call for student research symposium, workshops, tutorials, and exhibits, as well as submission guidelines are available at http://www.hipc.org/hipc2013/index.php.

Upcoming Conferences and Workshops

SSTIC 2013
July 22-26, 2013 - Tarragona, Spain
Registration Deadline – May 26, 2013

SSTiC 2013 will be an open forum for the convergence of top class well recognized computer scientists and people at the beginning of their research career (typically PhD students) as well as consolidated researchers. SSTiC 2013 will cover the whole spectrum of computer science by means of 67 six-hour courses dealing with hot topics at the frontiers of the field. By actively participating, lecturers and attendees will share the idea of scientific excellence as the main motto of their research work. For more information and to register, please visit http://grammars.grlmc.com/SSTiC2013/.

2013 SACNAS National Conference
October 3–6, 2013 - San Antonio, Texas

SACNAS is a  way for you to expose your students to incredible resources and the validating and inspiring environment of SACNAS where they have the unique opportunity to engage with science, culture, and community. The SACNAS National Conference also provides an important place for you to recharge as a professional, as you connect with peers, build your own networks, and recruit new students. For complete conference information, please visit http://sacnas.org/events/national-conf?.

SC13
November 17 - 22, 2013 - Denver, Colorado

SC13, the premier annual international conference on high-performance computing, networking, and storage, will be held in Denver, Colorado. The Technical Papers Program at SC is the leading venue for presenting the highest-quality original research, from the foundations of HPC to its emerging frontiers. The conference committee solicits submissions of excellent scientific merit that introduce new ideas to the field and stimulate future trends on topics such as applications, systems, parallel algorithms, and performance modeling. For more information, please visit http://sc13.supercomputing.org/content/papers.

Research Features From Across the Country and Around the World

UC San Diego Team Achieves Petaflop-Level Earthquake Simulations on GPU-Powered Supercomputers

A team of researchers at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering at the University of California, San Diego, has developed a highly-scalable computer code that promises to dramatically cut both research times and energy costs in simulating seismic hazards throughout California and elsewhere. The team, led by Yifeng Cui, a computational scientist at SDSC, developed the scalable GPU (graphical processing units) accelerated code for use in earthquake engineering and disaster management through regional earthquake simulations at the petascale level as part of a larger computational effort coordinated by the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC). San Diego State University (SDSU) is also part of this collaborative effort in pushing the envelope toward extreme-scale earthquake computing. To read further, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR040213_earthquake.html.

Laureates Urge No Cuts to Budgets for Research
New York Times

More than 50 Nobel laureates are urging Congress to save the federal research establishment from budget cuts, which they say could endanger the innovation engine that is essential to the U.S. economy. "We urge you to keep the budgets of the agencies that support science at a level that will keep the pipelines full," the laureates say in a letter to Congress. The group's concern is mostly for young scientists who might be poised to produce the breakthroughs of tomorrow, but who are not at the top of the list for federal funding. To read further, please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/science/nobel-laureates-urge-congress-not-to-cut-research-budget.html.

The Potential and the Risks of Data Science
New York Times

Columbia University recently held a symposium to introduce its new Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering, a collection of interdisciplinary centers, including cybersecurity, financial analytics, health analytics, new media, and smart cities. The event featured presentations by Columbia professors as well as computer scientists from companies such as Google, Facebook, and Bloomberg on the potential of the technology in a range of fields. Although privacy issues did not play a significant role in the symposium, Google CIO Ben Fried said his biggest "concern is that the technology is way ahead of society,” suggesting risks associated with public rejection or runaway technology if only a limited number of people understand big data. To read further, please visit http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/the-potential-and-the-risks-of-data-science/.

The University of Wisconsin Welcomes Us to the Data Driven World
NextGov.com

The University of Wisconsin's GeoDeepDive is a huge database that aims to leverage big data in the field of geosciences by helping geologists access data that otherwise would have been buried under mountains of accumulated information. Funded by a White House initiative launched in March 2012 to help government agencies, businesses, and researchers make better use of big data, GeoDeepDive will cull scanned pages from pre-Internet science journals, generations of websites, archived spreadsheets, and video clips into a database that aims to include all geological data. The system will eventually use contextual clues and technology similar to IBM’s Watson to enable geologists to query what professors Miron Livny and Christopher Re, the project's creators, refer to as dark data. "These new tools have that promise--to change the types of questions we’re able to ask and the nature of answers we get," University of Wisconsin geologist Shanan Peters says. To read further, please visit http://www.nextgov.com/big-data/2013/04/welcome-data-driven-world/62319/.

Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Scientists Patent Software for Protecting Supercomputing Results Against System Failures

Scientists at Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) have patented ZEST, a piece of software that takes a rapid “snapshot” of a supercomputer’s calculations as it works. ZEST greatly speeds the ability to store complex calculations as a hedge against a system failure, saving precious supercomputing time and slowing calculations down far less than current methods. PSC co-inventors of ZEST included Paul Nowoczynski, Jason Sommerfield, Nathan Stone, and Jared Yanovich. Just as we all hit “save” as we work, scientists carrying out vast computations such as those required for detailed weather predictions or earthquake science need to periodically store — “checkpoint” — the machine’s computational state. In the case of a system malfunction, this allows them to avoid having to start from the beginning after hours or days of work. To read further, please visit http://www.psc.edu/index.php/newscenter/90-2013press/815-psc-scientists-patent-software-for-protecting-supercomputing-results-against-system-failures.

Educator Opportunities and Information

Modeling Workshop for Hish School Educators
June 17-28, 2013 - San Luis Obispo, California
Registration Deadline – June 1, 2013

This workshop I for high school physics and physical science teachers interested in creating student-based, active-inquiry classrooms. Registration priority is given to teachers in Northern California. For more information, please visit http://www.ptec.org/pd/detail.cfm?ID=5099.

UC San Diego Computer Scientists Develop First-person Player Video Game That Teaches How to Program in Java
UCSD News

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) researchers have developed CodeSpells, an immersive, first person player video game designed to teach students how to program in Java. The researchers tested the game on a group of 40 girls, ages 10 to 12, who had never been exposed to programming before. The researchers found that within just one hour of play, the girls had mastered some of Java's basic components and were able to use the language to create new ways of playing with the game. "CodeSpells is the only video game that completely immerses programming into the game play," says UCSD professor William Griswold. The researchers plan to release the game for free and make it available to any educational institution that requests it. The researchers designed the game to keep children engaged while dealing with the difficulties and frustrations of programming. "We’re hoping that they will get as addicted to learning programming as they get addicted to video games," says UCSD graduate student Stephen Foster. To read further and to view a video slip, please visit http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/uc_san_diego_computer_scientists_develop_first_person_player_video_game_tha.

When a Teacher Is 2 Feet Tall
Wall Street Journal

In a move hailed as the first of its kind in U.S. education, classrooms in California and New York are experimenting with robotic teachers in a range of subjects. Slated to launch this spring, the Los Angeles trial will use a robotic dragon to teach healthy lifestyle habits to first graders. The first of several planned projects involves students showing the robot how to prepare for a race, which is intended to help the students remember their lessons. The Los Angeles project will be conducted by researchers from Yale University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Southern California, and Stanford University. The researchers say the robots will serve as engaging assistants rather than replacements for teachers. To read further, please visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323820304578410730962208740.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsFifth.

Student Engagement and Information .

Scholarship For Underrepresented Undergraduates in Engineering, Geology, Physics
Application Deadline - May 31, 2013

Did you know that Shell offers scholarships for under-represented undergraduate students at selected universities?
Participating Universities: Colorado School of Mines, Cornell, Florida A&M, Georgia Tech, SITY-Baton Rouge, MIT, Michigan State, North Carolina A & T, Ohio State-Columbus, Penn State, Prairie View A&M, Purdue, Rice, Stanford, Texas A&M-College Station, University of CO-Boulder, UH, U Michigan-Ann Arbor, U of Oklahoma-Norman, UTEP, UT-Austin, U of Illinois-Urbana Champaign

Information on Sid: Shell Oil Company offers $5,000 annual scholarships through its Shell Incentive Fund Scholarship program to under-represented students pursuing an undergraduate degree in a specific technical field of study at certain colleges. The scholarship can be used to pay for tuition and/or school expenses. For more information and to apply, please visit http://www.shell.us/aboutshell/careers-tpkg/students-and-graduates/scholarships.html.

Call for Fellowship Applications for the Third LinkSCEEM General User Meeting
June 25-27, 2013 - Alexandria, Egypt

The LinkSCEEM-2 FP7 project is organizing a 3-day general user meeting in Alexandria Egypt. The General User Meeting is part of the LinkSCEEM-2 project training activities aiming to prepare the Eastern Mediterranean scientific community for the use of HPC systems. The meeting targets young researchers from the region and will address programming training needs of current and prospective HPC users both from Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. For application information, please visit http://cyprusinstitute.limequery.org/21658/lang-en.  More information about the program of the event can be found at http://www.linksceem.eu/ls2/component/rsevents/event/26-Third-linksceem-general-user-meeting-june-2013.html. 

Career Opportunities

Creative Software Developer (multiple openings)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory - Req # 75566

In the upcoming year, the Scientific Networking Division will embark on an important challenge: expanding its program in applied research, development and integration. With the vision to be a pioneer in developing innovative network technologies, the Division is seeking an exceptionally competent, flexible and innovative software engineer that is willing to think beyond the conventional. We are working at the leading edge of software-defined networking, OpenFlow, dynamic network infrastructure, network visualization, network knowledge plane, multi-domain and multi-layer architectures. The successful candidate will be the one that brings strong and diverse coding skills, focus, and ability to work with a fast-paced team. For more information and to apply, please visit https://lbl.taleo.net/careersection/2/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=75566.

Entry Level Programmer
Oak Ridge National Laboratory - Knoxville, Tennessee Area

The successful applicant will contribute to the development of an integrated environment for modeling and simulation that covers many areas of computational science, including applications in batteries, nuclear reactors and fuels, plasma-facing components in fusion reactors and quantum computer simulations and quantum information.  The successful applicant would simultaneously contribute to software development activities and original research. Further information on the project can be found at https://niceproject.sourceforge.net .  Technical questions may be directed to: Jay Billings, billingsjj@ornl.gov. For more information, please visit http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=5636000&trk=eml-anet_dig-b_premjb-ttl-cn&ut=1QKe-0nXHc9BM1.

Advanced CI Application Specialist
Arizona State University

The ASU Advanced Computing Center (A2C2) seeks an Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Application Specialist staff member to:
* support the high-performance computing (HPC) needs of sponsored research projects across ASU;
* engage domain specific ASU faculty and their research groups to efficiently run their research applications;
* lead workshops for beginner and advanced users on how to effectively use ASU's research computing platforms;
For more information, please visit http://a2c2.asu.edu/about/jobs-a2c2/.

On the Lighter Side - Computational News of Interest

Essay-Grading Software Offers Professors a Break
New York Times

The EdX consortium has unveiled automated software that grades student essays and short written answers using artificial intelligence, and it will freely offer the program online to any institution. EdX president Anant Agrawal expects the assessment tool to help students repeatedly take tests and write essays to improve the quality of their answers, enhancing the learning process with instant feedback. The tool requires human graders to first grade 100 essays or essay questions, and then employs various machine-learning methods to train itself to automatically grade any number of essays or answers almost instantly. The software assigns a grade according to the scoring system developed by the teacher, and provides general feedback. To read further, please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/science/new-test-for-computers-grading-essays-at-college-level.html?_r=0.

As Web Search Goes Mobile, Competitors Chip at Google’s Lead
New York Times

People increasingly want to use their mobile devices to find all types of information, which is fueling a shift in the nature of search. Consequently, Google and others are developing smarter search apps designed to generate more customized and relevant results. “What people want is, ‘You ask a very simple question and you get a very simple answer,’” says University of Washington professor Oren Etzioni. "We want to know the closest sushi place, make a reservation, and be on our way.” Google has changed its search model to display answers rather than just links if a person uses search terms such as “March Madness” or “weather.” In 2012, Google debuted the knowledge graph, which employs semantic search to comprehend and find meanings of and linkages among people, places, and things. To read further, please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/04/technology/as-web-search-goes-mobile-apps-chip-at-googles-lead.html

In conjunction with XSEDE13, a robotic course is being offered for students in grades 5-8. It uses Lego Mindstorm™ Robots to facilitate the understanding of computer programming concepts.  Students will learn to program pre-built robots to do simulate a robotic mission to Mars. The course fee is $100, which includes lunch each day. Space is limited to 15 participants. Parents can register their children during the XSEDE13 registration process and will then receive email instructions. The class will meet July 22-25, 2013, at the Marriott Marquis and Marina (the XSEDE13 conference location) from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. For more information, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/xsede13/ready-set-robots1.

Register now for Virtual School summer courses on data-intensive and many-core computing

Graduate students, post-docs and professionals from academia, government, and industry are invited to sign up now for two summer school courses offered by the Virtual School of Computational Science and Engineering.

Data Intensive Summer School (July 8-10, 2013)
Proven Algorithmic Techniques for Many-core Processors (July 29-Aug. 2, 2013)
These Virtual School courses will be delivered to sites nationwide using high-definition videoconferencing technologies, allowing students to participate at a number of convenient locations where they will be able to work with a cohort of fellow computational scientists, have access to local experts, and interact in real time with course instructors.

The Data Intensive Summer School focuses on the skills needed to manage, process, and gain insight from large amounts of data. It targets researchers from the physical, biological, economic, and social sciences who need to deal with large collections of data. The course will cover the nuts and bolts of data-intensive computing, common tools and software, predictive analytics algorithms, data management, and non-relational database models.

Participating sites are: Louisiana State University; Marshall University; Michigan State University; Northwestern University and the University of Chicago; Princeton University; Purdue University; University of California Los Angeles; University of California San Diego; University of Delaware; the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (all registration fees will be waived for those participating at NCSA); University of Oklahoma; University of Tennessee Knoxville; University of Texas at Brownsville; University of Texas at El Paso; and University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

For more information about the Data-Intensive Summer School, including pre-requisites and course topics, visit http://www.vscse.org/summerschool/2013/bigdata.html.

The Proven Algorithmic Techniques for Many-core Processors summer school will present students with the seven most common and crucial algorithm and data optimization techniques to support successful use of GPUs for scientific computing.

Studying many current GPU computing applications, the course instructors have learned that the limits of an application’s scalability are often related to some combination of memory bandwidth saturation, memory contention, imbalanced data distribution, or data structure/algorithm interactions. Successful GPU application developers often adjust their data structures and problem formulation specifically for massive threading and executed their threads leveraging shared on-chip memory resources for bigger impact. The techniques presented in the course can improve performance of applicable kernels by 2-10X in current processors while improving future scalability.

Participating sites for this course are: Clemson University; Louisiana State University; Marshall University; Michigan State University; Princeton University; Purdue University; University of California Los Angeles; University of Delaware; the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (all registration fees will be waived for those participating at NCSA); University of Tennessee Knoxville; University of Texas at Brownsville; University of Texas at El Paso; and University of Utah.

For more information about the Proven Algorithmic Techniques for Many-core Processors course, including pre-requisites and course topics, visit http://www.vscse.org/summerschool/2013/manycore.html.

Registration fees for each course are $100, with some sites waiving the fees. To register, first visit the user portal for the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE): https://portal.xsede.org/. If this is your first use of the XSEDE portal, follow the guidelines to create a free portal account. Once you have an XSEDE portal account, you may sign up for the Virtual School courses through the XSEDE course calendar: https://portal.xsede.org/course-calendar.

For more information about the Virtual School, go to http://www.vscse.org/. Questions about the summer school can be sent to info@vscse.org.

The Universe

Brigham Young University (BYU) is trying to make its computer science program more accessible to women. Junior Christine Kendall is working with clubs and faculty to encourage women to study technical fields. “I feel like because of culture or society, men, in general, have more confidence in technical areas," Kendall says. "I think it’s really easy to feel like an outsider and that you don’t belong, especially when you hear all your classmates talking about their personal projects and what they’ve done on the side.” Kendall and computer science professor Jay McCarthy met with faculty about allowing introductory students to sort themselves by experience level, because a gender gap in experience exists even at the basic level, Kendall says. Although introductory curriculum will remain the same, different sections are likely to be offered for students with varying levels of experience. To read further, please visit http://universe.byu.edu/beta/2013/04/01/paving-the-road-for-women-in-computer-science-at-byu/

HPCwire

A new HPC center will be launched by years end in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Green High-Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) will be outfitted with terascale hardware aims to deliver it in an environmentally friendly way. Beyond promises of power efficiency and reduced carbon footprint, the center is deviating from typical facility models. It will act as a shared resource between multiple universities, requiring users to develop new strategies of implementation. To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2012-05-29/massachusetts_offers_a_new_model_for_academic_hpc.html.

NASA Accepting Proposals for NASA Innovations in Climate Education - Tribal (NICE-T) under EONS 2013-14 NASA Research Announcement
Notice of Intent Deadline - May 22, 2013.
Full Proposal Deadline - July 24, 2013.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of Education is accepting proposals in response to the Education Opportunities in NASA STEM (EONS) 2013-14 NASA Research Announcement.  This new announcement is an umbrella announcement for opportunities under the Minority University Research and Education Program (MUREP)/ Eligibility Information: Proposals will be accepted from Tribal Colleges and Universities. NASA centers and other organizations may apply through partnership with the lead organization in some cases. For more information regarding this opportunity, please visit the EONS page on the NSPIRES website at http://go.nasa.gov/14So8d6.

 

MIT News

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is offering i2.002, an online version of its core mechanical engineering course, 2.002, with search functionality that enables students to view videotaped lectures at specific moments when searched-upon concepts are mentioned. The online course includes videotaped lectures, recitations, and a discussion forum. “It’s like Googling your class,” says MIT professor Ken Kamrin. “It’s a clickable, searchable index of videos...something that might be considered as part of the next generation of textbooks.” Kamrin and MIT professor Pedro Reis created the i2.002 videotapes by recording the 2.002 lectures and organizing the videos with a tree of clickable topics and subtopics; this allows students to watch lectures sequentially or to search topics and watch related videos on that subject's “branch.” To read further, please visit http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/2002-mechanics-and-materials-online-0403.html

NPR

has been the only woman on a team of computer programmers a few times in the more than two decades she has worked in the field. Most notably, she led the team — as the lone female programmer — that created Flash video, the dominant technology for streaming video on the Web. Since only about 20 percent of all programmers are women, her experience isn't uncommon, and now she's trying to bring more women into the field. A little over four years ago, Allen founded , which does design and development of software for mobile devices. The company's mix of 10 programmers and designers work with entrepreneurs and help them take an idea and turn it into software that works. To read further, please visit http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/04/29/178810467/blazing-the-trail-for-female-programmers. To listen to this story, please visit http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=178810467&m=179763245

Computing Research News

With careers in computing topping the average U.S. growth rate, it is vital to boost the population of Hispanics who complete computing programs and acquire high-status, lucrative positions. A dearth of Hispanic faculty, role models, and mentors underscores Hispanics' underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI) was organized to reverse this trend through consolidation of the founding Hispanic-serving institutions' strengths, resources, and concerns. CAHSI's primary purpose is to mainstream mentoring and the construction of structured, academic networks for students that ready them for success in coursework from entry level through graduate school and, thereafter, into the STEM workforce. To read further, please visit http://cra.org/resources/crn-archive-view-detail/expanding_the_pipeline_hispanic_momentum_in_computing/.

Education Features From Across the Country and Around the World

Massachusetts Offers a New Model for Academic HPC
HPCwire

A new HPC center will be launched by years end in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Green High-Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) will be outfitted with terascale hardware aims to deliver it in an environmentally friendly way. Beyond promises of power efficiency and reduced carbon footprint, the center is deviating from typical facility models. It will act as a shared resource between multiple universities, requiring users to develop new strategies of implementation. To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2012-05-29/massachusetts_offers_a_new_model_for_academic_hpc.html.

Paving the Road for Women in Computer Science at BYU
The Universe

Brigham Young University (BYU) is trying to make its computer science program more accessible to women. Junior Christine Kendall is working with clubs and faculty to encourage women to study technical fields. “I feel like because of culture or society, men, in general, have more confidence in technical areas," Kendall says. "I think it’s really easy to feel like an outsider and that you don’t belong, especially when you hear all your classmates talking about their personal projects and what they’ve done on the side.” Kendall and computer science professor Jay McCarthy met with faculty about allowing introductory students to sort themselves by experience level, because a gender gap in experience exists even at the basic level, Kendall says. Although introductory curriculum will remain the same, different sections are likely to be offered for students with varying levels of experience. To read further, please visit http://universe.byu.edu/beta/2013/04/01/paving-the-road-for-women-in-computer-science-at-byu/.

Stanford to Collaborate With edX to Develop a Free, Open Source Online Learning Platform
Stanford Report

Beginning in June, Stanford University will collaborate with edX, the nonprofit online learning enterprise founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to advance the development of edX's open source learning platform, which provides free and open online learning tools. As part of the collaboration, Stanford will integrate features of its existing Class2Go open source online learning platform into the edX platform. "This collaboration brings together two leaders in online education in a common effort to ensure that the world's universities have the strongest possible not-for-profit, open source platform available to them," says Stanford's John Mitchell. To read further, please visit http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/april/edx-collaborate-platform-030313.html.

Visa Demand Jumps
Wall Street Journal

U.S. employers are expected to quickly reach a cap on the annual allocation of applications for skilled foreign worker visas or H-1Bs, amid signs of an economic rebound. Demand for the program increased over the past several years as companies ramped up hiring, and this year the visa limit is expected to be reached within a week of becoming available. Attorney Mark Koestler cites a misconception that only technology giants use the visas, as there is ample evidence that they also are used widely by many small companies. For years, high-tech companies have urged Congress to raise the limit on visas for skilled foreigners, but critics claim the visa program displaces eligible U.S. workers and that companies hire foreigners because they take less pay and fewer benefits. To read further, please visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324883604578396680112980530.html.

Google Fellowship Opportunity for Computer Science Teachers

‪For the past 3-4 months, Google has been working on a program that focuses on diversity and CS pipeline. They will be starting up a program to increase opportunities for middle and high school students in NC, SC & GA (where they have data centers), particularly girls and underrepresented minorities, to learn programming and computer science. Google will be hiring a number of newly credentialed STEM teachers to become Google CS Fellows for a 2-year program that will be run in one of the data centers. Google's plan is to hire 15-20 excellent new teachers to learn the latest in CS tools and pedagogy and spread it via after-school and CS clubs throughout the south. ‬These teachers‪ will work through the barriers and policy issues in the local region, with the goal of scaling up over the 2 years and getting CS into the classrooms in the south. G‬oogle's‪ hope is that these teachers become leaders in CS education through this experience, after they finish their fellowship. For more information on the Google CS Fellowship and to apply, please visit https://www.google.com/about/jobs/search/#!t=jo&jid=1241001&.

EU Commission Launches 'Grand Coalition' to Tackle IT Shortage
BBC News

A grand coalition launched by the European Commission (EC) will address the information technology (IT) skills shortage in the European Union. The region is not producing enough skilled IT graduates to keep pace with the approximately 100,000 IT jobs being added every year. The EC plans to spend 1 million Euros on the coalition. "I want people to be open in their commitments, join forces where they see the chance, and recognize we need to do things differently," says digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes. To read further, please visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21668166.

Hybrid Technology Degrees Emerging
Network World

College students today have an opportunity to pursue new majors that are hybrids of computer science, information systems, and computer engineering. At Pennsylvania State University, for example, engineering and business courses have been combined in an interdisciplinary program offering a B.S. and B.A. in Information Sciences and Technology (IST) and a B.S. in Security and Risk Analysis (SRA). About 78 percent of last year's graduates were placed in May 2012, but the placement rate was 91.6 percent for those with the dual major of IST and SRA, notes Penn State's Mary Beth Rosson. To read further, please visit http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/030513-hybrid-tech-degrees-267327.html.

Video Game Invades Classroom, Scores Education Points
USA Today

GlassLab is an effort by Electronic Arts to use video games to inspire students to embrace science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers. GlassLab developers have created a free online community based on the newly redesigned world-building game SimCity, as well as free lesson plans and an online teacher's network. In the game, players act as the builder and mayor of a fictional town, building infrastructure, industry, and housing to attract residents. In the SimCityEDU lessons, users must solve specific problems that plague the fictional town. "Being able to touch something, being able to experiment with it, I think, really can make a difference in a kid's life," says Maxis Games' Lucy Bradshaw. To read further, please visit http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/04/video-games-education-simcity/1963239/.

Educator Conferences and Workshops

STEM Smart: Lessons Learned from Successful Schools
June 23, 2013 – Atlanta, Georgia
Focus on Engineering Education
A Conference Hosted by the National Science Foundation (NSF)

This NSF-hosted meeting will highlight findings in the National Research Council reports, Successful K-12 STEM Education and Monitoring Progress Toward Successful K-12 STEM Education, with a special focus on engineering education, as described in the Next Generation Science Standards. It will include breakout sessions on National Science Foundation funded projects, resources and initiatives that align with the reports’ evidence base on effective instruction, access to high quality STEM for all students, and building supportive infrastructure. The STEM Smart meeting was planned in conversation with the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). For more information, please visit http://successfulstemeducation.org/events/329.

NSF Sponsors Tapestry Workshops for High School Teachers
June 26-28, 2013, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
July 10-12, 2013, Purdue University West Lafayette, IN
July 16-18, 2013, Florida International University, Miami, FL 
July 23-25, 2013, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK
July 29-31, 2013, Triton College, River Grove, IL

If you are interested in:

*            attracting more and diverse students into your high school Computer Science classes;
*            Influencing the perceptions of students, parents, guidance counselors, administrators, and other teachers on the importance of your       courses and the opportunities they provide;
*             Engaging your students in the exciting and rewarding field of computing;
*             Sharing strategies, practices, and good ideas for teaching computer science.

Workshops will be tuition-free with lodging and meals provided. Applications for all of the workshops are being taken now at http://www.cs.virginia.edu/tapestry/.

Stanford CS4HS (Computer Science for High School) Summer Workshop
June 27-28, 2013 – Stanford, California
Registration Deadline – May 24, 2013

The workshop focuses on the teaching of .HTML and CSS, and includes an introduction to PHP. It is based off of the successful CS105 course created by Patrick Young, and taught by Patrick Young and Steve Cooper. Steve will be running this workshop. Teachers who wish to attend should apply as soon as possible. A $50 deposit is required to reserve a seat. (This deposit is refunded upon completion of the workshop.) Most meals will be provided. Attendees are responsible for their own transportation and lodging. For more information, please visit http://cs4hs.stanford.edu/.

WiPSCE 2013: Conference on Primary and Secondary Computing Education – Call for Participation
November 11-13, 2013 - Aarhus, Denmark
Submission Deadline – June 17, 2013

WiPSCE 2013 invites you to submit a paper, report, or poster for the 8th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education (WiPSCE 2013),  Research in primary and secondary computing education is a young field with strong ties to national educational systems.  Nevertheless, its theories, methods, and results are internationally applicable and of interest to researchers and practitioners in the field. WiPSCE aims at improving the exchange of research and practice relevant to teaching and learning in primary and secondary computing education, teacher training, and related research. For more information, please visit http://wipsce.org.

The TACC Summer Supercomputing Institute will provide researchers with an intensive introduction to TACC's computing resources.  The Institute is appropriate for all levels of researchers, faculty, staff, and graduate students, from new users of advanced computing technologies to those who have research projects requiring powerful computing, visualization, storage, or software. For more details and to apply online, please visit the XSEDE Training Calendar at https://www.xsede.org/web/xup/course-calendar.