MICDE Symposium: Emerging and Future Paradigms for High Performance Computing

By | Educational, Feature, General Interest, News, Research

By Eric Shaw
Office of the Vice President for Research

The Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering (MICDE) welcomed distinguished scientists to discuss emerging and future paradigms for High Performance Computing during its 2023 symposium, held on Friday, March 24. 

“Computational advancements have reached a pivotal juncture, empowering researchers to make progress in scientific discoveries and engineering innovations. This is enabled by the confluence of algorithms, software and hardware, and it is critical for experts across disciplines to work together to continue the pace of progress and achieve desired outcomes,” said Karthik Duraisamy, Director of Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering.

The symposium featured a wide range of topics related to high performance computing and other computational science-related issues, demonstrating the multidisciplinary nature of the field. These leading-edge developments highlight the vast potential for the field to address some of the most significant challenges facing society today. From improving weather and climate forecasting to advancing materials science and drug discovery to understanding nuclear fusion, the power of high-performance computing is truly remarkable.

Dr. Fariba Fahroo, program officer at the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), spoke on challenges, opportunities, and national needs in computational science. During the talk, she introduced AFOSR and the computational mathematics program she manages. She also discussed the challenges and new directions emerging in computational mathematics as a field bridging areas in applied mathematics and computational science. Dr. Fahroo shared her insights on large-scale projects in machine learning for modeling physical systems, rare events, data assimilation, and reduced order modeling. The talk highlighted the importance of basic research programs in various areas of computational math and control theory, such as multiscale modeling and computation, design under uncertainty, distributed, multi-agent control and estimation, and computational control theory.

Stanford professor, Alex Aiken, presented Legion, a programming model, and runtime system that is designed to handle the increasingly complex and hierarchical nature of modern machines. Aiken discussed the design of Legion, its rationale, and recent work in developing these libraries before highlighting the importance of considering data movement in parallel programming and the potential for Legion to improve the efficiency and productivity of programming for modern machines. Aiken also highlighted usability – particularly demonstrating how simple codes written for course projects scale to a massive number of GPU nodes.

Princeton University professor of astrophysical sciences, Amitava Bhattacharjee, presented his research on the High-Fidelity Whole Device Model of Magnetically Confined Fusion Plasma (WDMApp) as part of the Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project (ECP). Bhattacharjee explained that WDMApp is a ten-year project that involves plasma physicists, applied mathematicians, and computer scientists to simulate whole device burning plasmas applicable to an advanced tokamak regime. Bhattacharjee explained that the most crucial step of the project was coupling two existing, well-established, extreme-scale gyrokinetic codes, the GENE continuum code, and the XGC particle-in-cell (PIC) code, to develop novel algorithms for both GENE-XGC and GEM-XGC coupling. The WDMApp codes (GENE, GEM, and XGC) were optimized, leveraging the ECP Co-Design and Software Technologies projects for portability and performance.

Dr. Patty Lee, the chief scientist of hardware technology development at Quantinuum, presented the current capabilities of quantum computing hardware and discussed the scientific and industrial applications that have been run on the hardware. Dr. Lee also provided insights into the software development toolkits available to support the quantum programmer community and the outlook for achieving quantum advantage in the near term. She highlighted the exponential improvement in the computational capability of state-of-the-art quantum computing hardware compared to classical computers.

Dr. Christiane Jablonowski, a professor in the Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering at the University of Michigan, gave a talk on “Computational Frontiers in Weather and Climate Modeling”. She reviewed the state-of-the-art weather and climate modeling approaches at NOAA, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), and the Department of Energy, and discussed the emerging computational frontiers. The talk focused on high-resolution weather and climate modeling trends, the ‘digital twin’ concept, and emerging computational paradigms.

The much-anticipated exascale computing era is here, with the arrival of the Frontier system at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US. The US Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project (ECP) is poised to take full advantage of Frontier’s capabilities in tackling problems of national and international interest. According to Doug Kothe, the Director of the US Department of Energy Exascale Computing Project, and the day’s final speaker, “When we collaborate, we get the most powerful tools and discoveries.” The ECP’s mission is to deliver on targeted exascale systems such as Frontier, which are capable of addressing high-priority strategic problems of national interest that are intractable with at least 50 times the computational power of the HPC systems available in 2016, yet at a very high efficiency. The ECP’s software technology effort is developing an expanded and vertically integrated software stack that includes advanced mathematical libraries, extreme-scale programming environments, development tools, visualization libraries, and the software infrastructure to support large-scale data management and data science for science and security applications.

In addition to the inspiring talks, symposium attendees also had the opportunity to engage in a lively panel discussion with the day’s speakers. Moderated by Venkat Raman, Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan, the panelists – Fariba Fahroo, Doug Kothe, Amitava Bhattacharjee, Patty Lee, Christiane Jablonowski, and Alex Aiken – tackled some of the most pressing issues and challenges in the field of high performance computing and computational discovery. The audience was able to ask questions and participate in the discussion, making it an engaging experience. It was a fitting end to an informative and thought-provoking day at the MICDE Symposium.

The 2023 MICDE Symposium featured a poster competition where 58 participants showcased their research. The competition winners were announced on Friday, March 24. Tommy Waltmann secured the first place for his work on “Fast and Efficient Particle Trajectory Analysis with the freud Library.” Doruk Aksoy won the second place for “An Incremental Tensor Train Decomposition for High-Dimensional Data Streams,” and Archana Sridhar and Parameshwaran Pasupathy shared the third place for their respective works on “Simulation and modeling of particle-laden compressible flows” and “A Fractional Viscoelastic Model of the Axon in Brain White Matter.” The fourth place was shared among Keith Phuthi, Srinivasan Arunachalam, Kyle Bushick, and Vishal Subramanian, for their works on various topics related to simulation and modeling.

“It has truly been an honor hosting these distinguished speakers, and to attend the poster session which highlighted the incredible depth and breadth of research in computational science at the University of Michigan. It is a testament to our pursuit of knowledge and innovation and a reminder of the direct impact computational science has on science and society,” Duraisamy said.

MICDE 2023 Annual Symposium Thank you

Scholarships for tobacco simulation modeling course offered by the Center for the Assessment of Tobacco Regulations (CAsToR)

By | Educational, Funding Opportunities

The Center for the Assessment of Tobacco Regulations (CAsToR) is pleased to once again announce the availability of scholarships for a short course on tobacco simulation modeling (EPID 730) to be offered during the University of Michigan Summer Session in Epidemiology (SSE) Program in 2023. 

EPID 730 Simulation Modeling of Tobacco Use, Health Effects and Policy Impacts
(2 credit hours) Rafael Meza and Jihyoun Jeon
WEEK 2 (July 17-21)

The course will be offered on-line and will provide an introductory overview of computational modeling techniques with examples in Tobacco Regulatory Science, discussions of best practices, and hands-on lab experience in which students will develop their own simulation models. At the completion of the course, students will be able to explain the contributions of simulation modeling in Tobacco Regulatory Science, and describe advantages and disadvantages of common modeling approaches. Students will explore how to incorporate simulation modeling into their own Tobacco Regulatory Science research and participate in interdisciplinary teams that use modeling techniques.

EPID 793 Complex Systems Modeling for Public Health Research
(2 credit hours) Marisa Eisenberg and Michael Hayashi
WEEK 1 (July 10-14)

To be eligible for a scholarship, applicants must plan to enroll in EPID 730. Applicants may also be eligible to receive funds for EPID 793 if they plan to enroll in both courses (EPID 730 and EPID 793). Federal employees are not eligible to apply.

The deadline to apply is 11:59pm ET on Friday, April 14, 2023. Please see the flyer for more information and a link to the application.

Center for the Assessment of Tobacco Regulations Logo

Argonne Training Program on Extreme-Scale Computing DEADLINE EXTENDED

By | Educational, Events, HPC, News

Annual Argonne Training Program on Extreme-Scale Computing (ATPESC) 2023

  • Deadline to submit applications is extended to March 8, 2023 (midnight, Anywhere on Earth)
  • Expected notification of acceptance: May 16, 2023
  • Program start and end date: July 30-August 11, 2023
  • Place: Chicago, IL
  • More information

ATPESC Training Program 2023

Submit your application for an opportunity to learn the tools and techniques needed to carry out computational science on the world’s most powerful supercomputers. ATPESC participants will have access to DOE’s leadership-class systems at the ALCF, OLCF, and NERSC.

Program curriculum:

Renowned scientists and leading HPC experts will serve as lecturers and guide the hands-on training sessions. The core curriculum will cover:

  • Hardware architectures
  • Programming models and languages
  • Approaches for performance portability
  • Numerical algorithms and mathematical software
  • Performance measurement and debugging tools
  • Data analysis, visualization, and methodologies for big data applications
  • Approaches to building community codes for HPC systems
  • Machine learning and data science

Eligibility and application:

Doctoral students, postdocs, and computational scientists interested in attending ATPESC can review eligibility and application details on the website.

There are no fees to participate in ATPESC. Domestic airfare, meals, and lodging are also provided.

Los Alamos National Laboratory’s X Computational Physics Workshop and Internship Programs 2023

By | Educational, Events, News, SC2 jobs

Applications for LANL’s X-Computational Physics (XCP) division’s summer 2023 workshop / internship programs are open now. Participants will receive a fellowship stipend, the amount to be determined based on your current academic rank. There are two programs, the computational physics workshop and the parallel computing workshop. Both programs are 10 weeks in duration and require US citizenship. Admissions are rolling, with a closing date of 1/16/2023 for the Computational physics workshop and 1/20/2023 for the parallel computing workshop.

The workshops are geared toward undergraduates and early graduate students, and either would be a great introduction to LANL, and aspects of XCP’s mission (there is significant lecture time built into the schedule of both). Please note that these are effectively XCP Divisions summer internship program if students don’t already have a direct hire mechanism worked out.

Computational Physics Summer Workshop 2023

Date: June 12 – August 18, 2023

Application deadline: January 16, 2023

More information.

 

Parallel Computing Summer Research Internship 2023

Date: June 12 – August 18, 2023

Application deadline: January 20, 2023

More information.

4th Rising Stars in Computational and Data Sciences workshop

By | Educational, Events, News, Research

The Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences at UT Austin, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) are partnering to host the 4th Rising Stars in Computational and Data Sciences, an intensive workshop for women graduate students and postdocs who are interested in pursuing academic and research careers.

Date: April 12-13, 2023

Place: Austin, TX University of Texas Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences

The Oden Institute is seeking nominations for outstanding candidates in their final year of PhD or within three years of having graduated. We will select approximately 30 women to come for two days of research presentations, poster sessions, and interactive discussions about academic and research careers, with financial support for travel provided.

The nomination consists of sending (1) a letter of nomination and (2) a copy of the nominee’s 2-page resume to Karissa Vail at karissa.vail@austin.utexas.edu. More information can be found at https://risingstars.oden.utexas.edu/

Please consider nominating one of your outstanding current/recent PhD students or postdocs.

Nominations are due:  January 23, 2023.

Tutorial Workshop – Isaac Newton Institute

By | Educational, Events, News

Workshop theme

This week-long workshop will provide an introduction to the core theoretical and applied engineering topics of the DDE programe. Three sessions will be devoted to foundational techniques and methodologies including (i) reinforcement learning and control, (ii) uncertainty quantification and data assimilation, and (iii) model reduction. Another three sessions will be devoted to introductions to current and future challenges for data-driven engineering arising from (i) aeronautics, (ii) chemical and (iii) structural engineering. The tutorials will lay the foundation for the follow-up activities of the DDE programe and the deep-dive study periods in particular. The tutorial workshop is suited in particular for PhD students, postdocs and earlier career scientists from mathematics, statistics, computer science, and computational engineering.

Speakers

  • Sean Meyn (Algorithm design for reinforcement learning and optimization)
  • Sebastian Reich (Uncertainty quantification and data assimilation)
  • Karthik Duraisamy (Model order reduction for complex systems)
  • Luca Magri (Physics aware machine learning in engineering),
  • Antonio del Rio Chanona (Process control and supply chain optimization)
  • Elizabeth Cross (Data-driven structural assessment)

Date

January 16 – 20, 2023

Location

Cambridge, UK or Online (more information in the application section)

More information

Application Deadline: 30 Sep 2022

GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH ASSISTANT POSITION IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

By | Educational, SC2 jobs

Prof. Jesse Capecelatro in the Department of Mechanical Engineering is currently seeking a GSRA for a DOE-sponsored project related to methane ares.

Job Description

The project will involve performing CFD simulations of methane ames in the presence of turbulent cross-winds and using machine learning to guide improved burner designs. The student must be admitted in College of Engineering or Applied Math and have experience using OpenFOAM (or related CFD) and course work in turbulence and combustion.

 

How to Apply

If you are interested in this position or want to learn more, please email your curriculum vitae to Jesse Capecelatro at jcaps@umich.edu with subject line REM-EDY.

POSTDOC POSITION IN MECHANICAL / NAVAL ARCHITECTURE AND MARINE ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

By | Educational, Funding Opportunities, SC2 jobs

Dr. Harish Ganesh (Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering), Prof. Jesse Capecelatro (Department of Mechanical Engineering), and Prof. Steven Ceccio (Department of Mechanical Engineering) are currently seeking a post-doctoral scholar for a one-year position.

Job Description:

This position involves developing numerical methods to leverage time-resolved 3-D experimental measurements using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV). Specifically, the project aims at developing a particle based numerical framework to augment experimentally obtained PTV data in the near- and far-wake behind a bluff body. The candidate should have a PhD in Engineering or a related field (e.g., Physics, Mathematics, or Computer Science) with experience in Scientific Computing (proficiency in MPI and Python) and an interest in high Reynold’s number turbulent flows.

How to Apply:

If you are interested in this position, please email your curriculum vitae and at least two references to Jesse Capecelatro at jcaps@umich.edu.

Postdoc Position at Johns Hopkins University

By | Educational, Funding Opportunities, SC2 jobs

Profs. Michael Shields and Lori Graham-Brady are seeking a postdoctoral scholar for a joint collaborative program on uncertainty quantification of mechanical property predictions based on data-driven and/or machine learning models. In the short term, the focus of this project will be on developing UQ tools for Deep Neural Network models that connect image data to material properties. In the longer term this is expected to expand to a spectrum of ML and other data-driven models. Finally, we hope to explore UQ for interconnected models, e.g., in a hierarchical multi-scale construct.

Successful candidates for the position will have a demonstrated track record of scholarly research, and experience in uncertainty quantification, machine learning, and/or computational mechanics. Due to the broad range of expertise requested, we are open to candidates who have more significant expertise in one of these areas and who are interested in developing further knowledge in the other domains. Initial appointment is for one year with the expectation of renewal for a second year pending satisfactory performance. We are committed to recruiting a diverse community of faculty, students, and staff, and to cultivating an inclusive environment that supports, fosters and celebrates all the ways in which the broad differences among us make us better.

Interested candidates are asked to submit their CV and a brief cover letter to Profs. Graham-Brady and Shields. Please email materials to both lori@jhu.edu and michael.shields@jhu.edu.

Professor Karthik Duraisamy named new director of the Ph.D. in Scientific Computing program

By | Educational, Feature
Prof. Karthik Duraisamy infront of screen with turbulence simulation

Professor Karthik Duraisamy (Aerospace Engineering)

Karthik Duraisamy, associate professor of Aerospace Engineering, and an associate director of the Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery & Engineering, has been named director of the joint Ph.D. in Scientific Computing program effective on January 1, 2022. Professor Duraisamy’s research involves the development of theory and algorithms for computational modeling of complex physical systems. He was the principal investigador of ConFlux, an NSF Major Research Instrumentation project that led to the development of a first of its kind computing instrument specifically designed to enable High Performance Computing (HPC) clusters to communicate seamlessly and at interactive speeds with data-intensive operations. Currently he directs the Air Force Center of Excellence on Rocket Combustion modeling. He is invested in educating future researchers with a strong computational background capable of using the power of computing for problem solving. He worked with the group that launched the course Methods and Practice in Scientific Computing, and developed and teaches a course on data-driven analysis and modeling of complex systems. These two courses give students a solid foundation, enabling them to use HPC in their research. 

Portrait of Ken Powell

Professor Ken Powell (Aerospace Engineering)

Professor Duraisamy replaces Ken Powell, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Aerospace Engineering, who stepped down from the role after 18 years of service. As a young assistant professor, Professor Powell was an instrumental member of the original team that conceived and launched the program back in 1989. The field of computational fluid dynamics, where his research interests lie, has always included an active community of HPC users and developers, thus he was always actively involved in the program through research, teaching and student advising. In 2004 he succeeded Professor William Martin as director of the program. During his time as director, he met and advised every single one of the over 350 students that enrolled in the program. Through this time he became an expert on scientific computing courses across the university, and witnessed first hand the explosion in computational and data science usage, reflected in the research scope of the students enrolling in the program.

Professor Duraisamy has big shoes to fill, but he is being assisted by the MICDE Management and Education Committee. The program’s mission, to train U-M students in scientific computing and to support the growing computational and data science community at the University of Michigan, will itself continue to expand.

The University of Michigan Ph.D. in Scientific Computing timeline. Read more.