CENTER FOR COMPUTATION & TECHNOLOGY

LSU Expands Southern High-Performance Computing Resources CCT has tripled the computing capacity of SURAgrid through the addition of LSU's largest current supercomputer, SuperMike. SURA is a consortium of more than 60 member universities across the Southern United States. One of SURA's main collaborative research projects among its members is SURAgrid, which CCT Director Ed Seidel was involved in developing. SURAgrid is a large-scale, regionally distributed grid computing environment that links together high-performance computing resources at the different SURA member sites. Grid computing harnesses multiple computational resources to solve complex problems faster and with greater accuracy than would be possible with a single computer. Grids also can bring problems that are difficult to solve within reach through pooled academic resources. SURAgrid, with the addition of SuperMike, now has three times the computing capacity it did previously as a direct result of the addition of LSU's resources. CCT researcher Archit Kulshretha and Kate Barzee with SURA were instrumental in bringing SuperMike into the grid. Seidel said these types of projects are instrumental in helping LSU, and the South as a whole, better use high-performance computing resources. “Our state and our region are emerging as leaders in high-performance computing. When we have opportunities such as this to bring our resources into national projects, it helps us move the Southeastern United States into a more prominent position,” Seidel said. Seidel added that being a part of SURA has benefited both LSU and Louisiana by allowing researchers here to work collaboratively with other Southern universities on projects such as coastal observation, hurricane visualization and other federally supported research. “SURAgrid is a critically important new utility being developed for our region,” said Jerry P. Draayer, President & CEO of SURA. “By combining our members' computing resources with the next-generation Internet capabilities now available in the SURA region, we are helping to shape and create the Internet of the future, especially features that will empower collaborative research while enhancing education and our region's economic competitiveness. LSU's addition of SuperMike to the SURAgrid pool is a significant step forward in building this regional resource.” The SURA Coastal Ocean Observing Project, or SCOOP (www.scoop.lsu.edu/gridsphere/gridsphere), is a great example of how SURA has assembled a national team to address important problems, such as hurricane forecasting, using SURAgrid. “We are pleased to be able to help expand the computing resources on SURAgrid,” Seidel said. “We hope that these increased computational abilities will allow us to make breakthroughs in key research areas that have important implications not only for Louisiana, but for the country.” For more information on SURA, please visit www.sura.org. James Redford Institute Featured at Red Stick Festival 2007 James Redford, writer, director, producer and son of Robert Redford, will attend the Red Stick International Animation Festival this year to emphasize the importance of organ and tissue donation through his organization, the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness (JRI.) Red Stick International Animation Festival is an annual event in downtown Baton Rouge that brings together artists, animators, filmmakers, computer scientists and also people who just like cartoons to showcase the latest developments in Louisiana's digital arts and technology sectors, which is leading to economic development for the state and the city. The festival will take place April 18-22 in the Baton Rouge Arts District at a variety of historic venues in the capital city. JRI is a supporter of the 2007 Red Stick Animation Festival with the Animation Collaboration for a Cause segment. This portion of the festival is where artists work closely with school-age children from Louisiana to help them use animation to express their feelings and share their stories about various social issues. The 2007 Animation Collaboration will focus on organ transplant awareness and will include two days of workshops, on Thursday, April 5, and Friday, April 6, for the children. During the 2007 Red Stick International Animation Festival, Redford will sit on a panel on Friday, April 20, to discuss his organization and the importance of donor awareness. Redford is a recipient of two liver transplants and created his foundation to raise awareness about the need for more people to choose donation. The Inaugural Animation Collaboration at Red Stick 2006 was with FilmAid International, AnimAction and Listen Up! Youth Media. That collaboration, which took place as a three-day workshop at the Shaw Center, was designed to empower students affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to tell their stories of hope and inspiration. The films created by the 2006 collaboration are still being screened at festivals worldwide. Red Stick Director Stacey Simmons said the event was so inspiring last year, she has now slated the Animation Collaboration as a permanent addition to the annual Red Stick International Animation Festival. “We hope that we can use this part of the festival each year to not only raise awareness of different causes, but to show participants how animation is an innovative means of communicating about today's important social issues,” Simmons said. Animation Collaboration takes place at Red Stick through a partnership with AnimAction, a company that focuses on youth expression through animation. AnimAction projects emphasize working collaboratively and expressing creativity. AnimAction has worked with youth media and the "DIY Youth Culture" globally for more than 17 years and has trained thousands of young people and teachers throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa and Asia. Youth-produced animated shorts from AnimAction workshops have been shown worldwide on network television, in movie theaters, schools, hospitals and on Web sites, and have been award finalists in international animation festivals, competing side-by-side with industry leaders. “Our audiences get larger every year, and we look for collaborative opportunities, such as this feature at Red Stick, to reach out to more youth who can benefit from using animation as creative expression,” said Clifford Cohen, AnimAction director. “We hope to continue having a presence at Red Stick to raise awareness about a new cause each year.” AnimAction is a supporter of the 2007 Red Stick Animation Festival with the Animation Collaboration for a Cause segment. CCT in the News Evaluating Application Performance on the Big Iron 3-8-2007/HPC Wire Four years ago, a group of scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory began to undertake what would become one of the most comprehensive performance evaluations of supercomputers. The project, led by Lenny Oliker at Berkeley Lab, has produced findings that not only illustrated the strengths and weaknesses of various high-performance computing architectures, but also pinpointed bottlenecks in scaling applications for petascale computing down the road. http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/1309580.html BR's Animation Festival already has 236 films 3-12-2007/The Advocate The Red Stick International Animation Festival, which annually brings together artists, animators, filmmakers, computer scientists and also fans of cartoons, has so far received 236 film submissions from 30 countries. http://www.2theadvocate.com/entertainment/6444117.html Pats on the Back • Anuradha Vij was one of seven LSU students selected to represent the university at the College Diversity Leadership Conference, May 15-16 in Dallas. Colin Powell will chair this conference. Congratulations on being chosen to represent LSU and the CCT at this event! • Congratulations to Andrew Davidson, Razvan Carbunescu and Irina Craciun for being accepted to present their papers/posters at the Louisiana Academy of Sciences' annual meeting this Friday, March 16. • Congratulations to Nils Dorband for becoming the first Ph.D. student to graduate through the CCT. Upcoming Guest Lectures: • Pavel Bochev, Ph.D., Sandia National Laboratories, will discuss “Mimetic Discretions and What They Can Do For You.” Bochev will lecture Wednesday, March 14, in 338 Johnston at 11 a.m. • Olivier Sarbach, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, will discuss “Absorbing Outer Boundaries in General Relativity” at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday, March 15 in Johnston 338. • This Friday, March 16, the CCT Colloquium Series will feature David Skinner of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, to discuss “Integrated Performance Monitoring: HPC Workload Characterization.” Skinner will lecture at 3 p.m. in Johnston 338. • Jeffrey Stolet, University of Oregon School of Music, will discuss “Creating the Invisible: Simple Concepts, Random Ideas and Parenthetical Ramblings About Sound Design” on Wednesday, March 21, at 2:30 p.m. in Johnston 338. Please Note: • The next All CCT Meeting will be this Wednesday, March 14, at 3 p.m. in Johnston 338. • Planning for SC07 is underway. CCT Event Manager Karen Jones would like your input on booth giveaway items for this year's convention, taking place in Reno, Nev. Please browse the promotional giveaway company 4imprint.com or others and send your ideas to Karen by Friday, March 30. • The Louisiana Academy of Sciences will host its annual meeting this Friday, March 16, at Southern University. Faculty, staff and students are welcome to attend and can register on-site. Visit www.laacademy.org for more information. • The third annual Red Stick International Animation Festival will be April 18-22. Please visit www.redstickfestival.org for more information on becoming a volunteer for this festival. Upcoming Grant Deadlines: BOR Post-Katrina Support Fund Initiative Primary Education Subprogram BOR P-KSFI PES March 15 2007 4:30 pm At Least $ 1,000,000.00 available http://www.laregents.org/www2/index.htm Board of Regents Support Fund Post-Katrina Support Fund Initiative Primarily Research Subprogram BOR P-KSFI PRS March 15 2007 4:30 pm At Most $ 4,000,000.00 available http://www.laregents.org/www2/index.htm NSF Advanced Learning Technologies NSF ALT April 25 2007 5:00 pm A Portion Of $ 2,800,000.00 available http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2006/nsf06535/nsf06535.htm Interfaces in Science: Career Awards at the Scientific Interface May 01 2007 12:00 am At Most $ 500,000.00 available http://www.bwfund.org/programs/interfaces/career_awards_background.html