Center for Computation &Technology at LSU

Gabrielle AllenAssoc. Prof. Computer ScienceAsst. Dir. CCT

gallen@cct.lsu.eduwww.cct.lsu.edu/~gallen

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1985: University of Nottingham, UK

• BSc Mathematics

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1988: University of Cambridge, UK• Part III, Applied Math & Theoretical Phys

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1989: University of Cardiff, UK• PhD Computational Astrophysics

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1995: Albert Einstein Institute, Germany• Postdoc then Lead of CS Area

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2003: Baton Rouge, USA

• Assoc. Prof, Computer Science• Ass Dir, CCT

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Research Areas• HPC and programming environments

– Cactus Computational Toolkit• Grid computing and scenarios

– Grid Application Toolkit• Collaborative environments

– GridSphere Portal Framework• Applications

– Numerical relativity– Petroleum engineering (UCOMS)– High speed networking (EnLightened)– Computational Chemistry (GridChem)– Computational Fluid Dynamics (IGERT)– Computational Biology (LBRN)– Coastal Modeling (SCOOP/DynaCode)

• Research• Education• Leading Facilities

– Supermike, LONI• Economic Development• Partnerships

– AEI, Cisco, LBL/NERSC, KISTI, other• Focal Point for

– Interdisciplinary Researchin Arts, Sciences, Engineeringand Humanities

– Collaboration– Innovation

Access Grid: Connecting People

What is the CCT?

Core CS: Gabrielle Allen

CCT Focus Areas

ComputationalFrameworks Grid Computing Computational

MathematicsScientific

ComputingNetworks, Sensors

& GIS

Coast to Cosmos (C2C): Jorge PullinNumerical Relativity CFD Coast/Climate

Modeling?Petroleum

Engineering?

Visualization, Interaction and Digital Arts (VIDA): Steve BeckScientific

VisualizationHuman Computer

InteractionDigital Audio

& MusicDigitalMedia

CollaborativeEnvironments

Material World: Jorge PullinComputational

Chemistry?Computational

Biology? Bioinformatics? MedicalComputing?

Computational Material Science?

Business: Rudy HirscheimFinancial

Modeling?Virtual

Organizations? Scheduling? Service Agreements?

DecisionSciences?

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CCT Researchers• Recruiting best faculty, students, staff

– MIT, Caltech, Yale, Cambridge, Cornell,Ga Tech, Wisconsin, more

– From around the world: Romania,Germany, Japan, Denmark, UK, Poland,Argentina, England, Scotland, China, SriLanka, Austria, USA

• Very interdisciplinary– Music, Art, Physics, Engineering,

Computer science, Mathematics, Business,and much more

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Collaborations for ComplexProblems

NASA Neutron StarGrand Challenge5 US InstitutionsAttack collidingneutron star problem

EU AstrophysicsNetwork10 EU Institutions3 yearsContinue theseproblems

NSF Black Hole GrandChallenge

• 8 US Institutions• 5 years• Attack colliding black

hole problem

Examples of Future of Science &EngineeringRequire Large Scale Simulations,beyond reach of any machineRequire Large Geo-distributed Cross-Disciplinary CollaborationsRequire Grid Technologies, but not yetusing them!

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• Exploring Einstein’s General RelativityWant to develop theoretical lab to probe this fundamental theory

– Fundamental theory of Physics (Gravity)– Among most complex equations of physics– Predict black holes, gravitational waves, etc, but want much more

• Exciting new field about to be born: Gravitational WaveAstronomy– LIGO, VIRGO, GEO, LISA, … ~ $1 Billion worldwide!– Fundamentally new information about Universe– A last major test of Einstein’s theory: do they exist?

• Eddington: “Gravitational waves propagate at the speed of thought”• 1993 Nobel Prize Committee: Hulse-Taylor Pulsar (indirect evidence)• 20xx Nobel Committee: ??? (For actual detection…)

One century later, both of these developments happening at the sametime!

Einstein’s Equations andGravitational Waves

Huge Black Hole Collision Simulation

• An international collaboration ofscientists, mathematicians,computer scientists, and artists

• This will be a model for CCT

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Huge Black Hole Collision Simulation

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Teraflop Computation, AMR, Elliptic-Hyperbolic, ???

Numerical Relativity

High Capacity Computing:Compute What Happens in Nature!

Perturbative

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• LIGO: Laser Interferometric GravitationalWave Observatory

• Livingston Parish• LA becomes world center for revolution in physics

Gravitational Wave Astronomy

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Cactus Computational Toolkit• Cactus is a open source framework for

developing portal, modular applications, inparticular high-performance parallel simulationcodes

• Computational Toolkit provides many standardtools

• Designed to allow physicists to develop their ownmodules and leverage of other physics/CSmodules

• Designed for large, geographically dispersedcollaborations

• Originated in numerical relativity community,following experiences with codes developed atthe NCSA/AEI/LSU, now adopted and extendedby diverse community of users and developers www.cactuscode.org

The GridHot Area in Computational Science

• Computational Devices• Scattered Across the World

– Compute servers (double 18 months)– Handhelds– Networks (double each 9 months)– Playstations, cell phones– Sensors

• How to take advantage of this for• science, engineering, business, art?

– Harness multiple sites and devices– Make it accessible to scientists,

engineers, artists– Integrate people across State and World

for new possibilities

LONI• What is LONI?

– Cutting edge computing/networking facility,1000x faster: most advanced in US

– Harnessing power of many devices tosolve problems

– NLR, worldwide nets: connecting LA tomost advanced world facilities

• Gov. Blanco leadership: others follow• What can be done with it?

– Make the impossible routine!– We are awash in data!

LONILouisiana Optical Network Initiative

Integrating state campuses for research projects

LA can be Top User

• Collaborative Research and Education: Bringtogether distant researchers, students, educators.

• Biotechnology and Life Sciences: LONI enablesdetailed simulations of patient’s eye displayed in 3D.Doctors in New Orleans find optimal surgicalprocedure to save patient’s sight.

• Astrophysics: LIGO indicates gravitational waves,provides data to statewide LONI Grid which simulatesblack hole collisions, sends output to LIGO for refinedobservation.

• Mississippi River Basin• Petroleum Engineering

Access Grid Lead-ArgonneNSF STARTAP Lead-UIC’s Elec. Vis. Lab

Creating a Virtual Global Research LabInternet Linked Pianos

New Cyber ArtsNew Cyber ArtsHumans Interacting with

Virtual RealitiesSource: Smarr

From Telephone Conference Calls toAccess Grid International Video Meetings

Projects Seed Strategic Areas

• UCoMS (Petroleum Engineering)– Deploy sensor networks across

Gulf– Data collected to provide input to

simulations, tasks farmed out– Results collected (transmitted

back)– http://www.ucoms.org

• SCOOP (Ocean Observing)– Data coming in from sensors all

over Gulf Realtime OperationalGrid

– Feeds in to models on Grid sites

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Katrina/Rita• Devastating natural

disaster– 100’s $B, ~1000 lives

• Where will it go?– Grids for ensemble models– DDDAS

• What will it do?– ADCIRC storm surge models

couple to tracks, waves, etc.

• How do we respond?– Collect and communicate

results, explain to State,FEMA, etc.

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SCOOP Coastal Portal

Remote Viz/Steering for Applications

RemoteViz data

HTTP

Streaming HDF5Autodownsample

Amira

Any Viz Client:LCA Vision, OpenDX

Changing any steerable parameter• Parameters• Physics, algorithms• Performance

RemoteViz data

Notification

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iGrid:Remote Dist. Viz/video demo

• Interaction from SanDiego, LSU, Brno

• Visualization at LSU• LSU connected

– LONI /NLR to Starlight– Netherlight– CzechLight to Brno,– CaveWave to San Diego

• Data on remotemachines

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Visualization

Scientific Visualization labSGI Prism 32procs/128GB/6 pipesStereoscopic displays(10’ diag.)Tiled LCD displaysystems(16 Mpixel+)

SoftwareAmiraDev for dataanalysis and visualizationLibraries for distributedand remote data access

Future research towardsvisualizing DDDAS-typeapplication scenarios

28Center for Computation & Technology Interactive Distributed Visualization Across NLR/LONI

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Student Opportunities at CCT

• Students critical to this kind of work• Programs for involvement

– work-study– faculty mentors– projects for credit

• Developing international cooperations

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Links• http://www.cct.lsu.edu• http://www.cct.lsu.edu/~gallen• http://www.cactuscode.org• http://www.gridlab.org/GAT• http://www.gridsphere.org

• gallen@cct.lsu.edu• IM: gridrebel