By Dan Lorts (STEM-Trek Blogger and HPC Advocate)

How about a behind the scenes look at what happens during the setup of a big conference like SC18?

It just so happens that I also work part-time for an event security company that is one of many providing services at SC18. This first group of pictures was taken during the second night of the setup. The floors were taped to identify the location of booths and placement of not only electrical connections but also the required data connections (Fig 1: show floor space map; cover image).

There were contractors running all over the place, including SciNet engineers who were setting up dNOCs and running the fiber connections per the above layout. The green Xes indicate completed booths; there were three additional sheets with booths in progress.

So, as you walk around or view pictures of the SC18 exhibit floor, remember how …

Elizabeth Leake (STEM-Trek) recently asked SC18 travel grant awardees (traveling to Dallas, Texas Nov. 9-16), “Shall we call our AirBnB South Fork or Ubuntu House?”

All she heard were crickets.

“Remember? J.R. Ewing was the lead character in the 1980’s teledrama, and South Fork was the name of his ranch.”

Again. Silence…

She began to realize this cohort was either too young to have known about the television series, Dallas, or grew up in places where it was never a ‘thing.’  They should consider themselves lucky to have avoided a decade of show-inspired “Texas Helmet Head” and massive shoulder pads. Seriously; we looked like linebackers!

So, Ubuntu House it is!

From Wikipedia: Ubuntu (Zulu pronunciation: [ùɓúntʼù])[1][2] is a Nguni Bantu term meaning “humanity.” It is often translated as …

In this blog, Marcus Bond, an XSEDE Campus Champion and professor of inorganic chemistry and x-ray crystallography at Southeast Missouri State University, shares his experience at the International Supercomputing Conference, ISC High Performance. Bond’s first ISC blog post was featured in HPCwire on June 26, 2018. All photos by Bond.

ISC Tutorial Day: Sunday

Knowledge. As a relative newcomer to the field of high performance computing (HPC), this is primarily why I attend. The last few years have been a flurry of HPC conferences, workshops, and Linux Cluster Institutes as I try to educate myself and become more conversant about supercomputing. Repetition is helpful, since it is easy to forget from one conference to …

Featured in HPCwire on June 13, 2018

Xiaoxiang Zhu (朱晓香) who works for the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Technical University of Munich (TUM), was awarded the 2018 PRACE Ada Lovelace Award for HPC for her outstanding contributions in the field of high performance computing (HPC) in Europe.

Dr. Zhu is a professor of Signal Processing in Earth Observation (SiPEO) at TUM and head of the Department EO Data Science at the DLR Remote Sensing Technology Institute.

This was the third year that the Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) issuedthe Lovelace Award, and it was presented to Zhu on May 28 during the PRACEdays18 conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, by Sinéad Ryan who chairs the PRACE Scientific Steering Committee.

I caught up with Dr. Zhu in Ljubljana, and she agreed to this interview.

Dr. Zhu, EO research is important to many disciplines, but it is complex and I imagine few understand how it is applied. How would you describe it to a layperson?

 “Urbanization is one of the most important megatrends of global change. Currently 55 percent of the world’s population lives in urban communities, and that percentage is ticking upward; in 1950, 30 percent lived in cities, but by …

A multinational delegation recently attended the Understanding Risk in Shared CyberEcosystems workshop, or URISC@SC17, in Denver, Colorado. URISC participants and presenters from 11 countries, including seven African nations, 12 U.S. states, Canada, India and Nepal, also attended SC17, the annual international conference for high performance computing (HPC), networking, storage and analysis that drew nearly 13,000 attendees. Von Welch (Indiana University), who directs the Center for Trustworthy Scientific Cyberinfrastructure, provided expert oversight for the URISC program. Welch invited nine specialists who presented open-source tools and cybersecurity best practices.

URISC Presenter Nick Roy, Director of Technology and Strategy for Internet2’s InCommon Federation, explained eduGAIN and its benefits to the global research community. “From a local management standpoint, eduGAIN saves managers time and effort because home credentials provide authentication and access to resources, instrumentation and data that are physically located at institutions in in 48 member countries that comprise an …

Here’s your chance to visit Frankfurt, Germany, and learn how technical conferences are managed! ISC provides student lodging and meals, and it’s early enough to raise funds for a flight. You’ll need another $200 to $2,000 out-of-pocket, depending on how far you’ll need to travel.

How can you do this?

Volunteer to work overtime! Check with your dean; your university might offer partial, or full support. Watch STEM-Trek; we might receive donations that are earmarked for this type of student travel.

From the ISC website via Colleen Sheedy:

“If you are a student pursuing an undergraduate or graduate degree in computer science, or any STEM-related fields, and high performance computing (HPC) is on your radar, volunteering at ISC 2018 can help steer your future career in the right direction.

We are looking for enthusiastic and reliable young people to help us run the conference. In return we offer you …

By Elizabeth Leake, STEM-Trek Nonprofit

The 11th South African Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) Annual National Conference convened Dec. 3-7, 2017 at the Velmore Estate Hotel south of Pretoria.

CHPC, the South African Research and Education Network (SANReN) and the Data Intensive Research Initiative of South Africa (DIRISA) showcased a broad range of resources and human capital development programs that supported the conference theme, “HPC Convergence with Novel Application Models for Better Service to Research and Industry.”

The event was officially opened by Phil Mjwara, Director General of the South African National Department of Science and Technology and Hina Patel, Executive Director of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Meraka Institute. The CHPC National Conference was called to order by CHPC Director, Happy Sithole.

More than 450, including 132 students (72 competitors and 60 posters), registered for the five-day event which included two full days of …

STEM-Trek was awarded the HPCwire Editors’ Choice Workforce Diversity Leadership Award by Tabor Communications’ CEO Tom Tabor during SC17. Many thanks to the person who submitted our nomination.

We were also honored to receive the “2016 HPCwire Editors’ Choice Award for HPC Workforce Diversity Leadership.”

Please take a moment and review the other amazing projects that won 2017 HPCwire awards:

https://www.hpcwire.com/2017-annual-hpcwire-readers-choice…/

Cybersecurity Engineer/Risk Assessor Susan Ramsey (National Center for Atmospheric Research) presented to an international delegation of cybersecurity specialists who are attending the Understanding Risk in Shared CyberEcosystems, or URISC@SC17 workshop this week in Denver, Colorado. URISC delegates and presenters from 11 countries and 12 U.S. states will also attend SC17, the annual international conference for high performance computing, networking, storage, and analysis.

Ramsey explained how attacks are fully-automated; operations are housed in office complexes where well-paid specialists identify and exploit technical vulnerabilities in Internet-enabled devices. They even have help desks! Once they collect enough information about a target, they are able to launch a highly sophisticated assault that considers a range of information about the victim.

Ransomware was recently used to hijack Springhill Tennessee’s emergency response system that was held for $250k ransom. While that would be a trivial amount for a large city, for a small town, like Springhill, …