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OKLAHOMA SUPERCOMPUTING SYMPOSIUM 2024



OSCER

OU IT, it.ou.edu

OK EPSCoR, okepscor.org


Table of Contents


PLENARY SPEAKERS

Henry Neeman
Henry Neeman

Director
OU Supercomputing Center for Education & Research (OSCER)
Executive Director of Research Computing
Information Technology
Associate Professor
College of Engineering
Adjunct Associate Professor
School of Computer Science
University of Oklahoma

Topic: "OSCER State of the Center Address"

Slides:   PowerPoint   PDF

Talk Abstract

The OU Supercomputing Center for Education & Research (OSCER) celebrated its 23rd anniversary on August 31 2024. In this report, we examine what OSCER is, what OSCER does, what OSCER has accomplished in its 23 years, and where OSCER is going.

Biography

Dr. Henry Neeman is the Director of the OU Supercomputing Center for Education & Research, Executive Director of Research Computing for OU Information Technology (IT), Associate Professor in the College of Engineering and Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Oklahoma.

He received his BS in computer science and his BA in statistics with a minor in mathematics from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1987, his MS in CS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1990 and his PhD in CS from UIUC in 1996. Prior to coming to OU, Dr. Neeman was a postdoctoral research associate at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at UIUC, and before that served as a graduate research assistant both at NCSA and at the Center for Supercomputing Research & Development.

In addition to his own teaching and research, Dr. Neeman has collaborated with dozens of research groups, applying High Performance Computing techniques in fields such as numerical weather prediction, bioinformatics and genomics, data mining, high energy physics, astronomy, nanotechnology, petroleum reservoir management, river basin modeling and engineering optimization. He serves as an ad hoc advisor to student researchers in many of these fields.

Dr. Neeman's research interests include high performance computing, scientific computing, parallel and distributed computing and computer science education.

Alan Chalker
Alan Chalker

Director of Strategic Programs
Ohio Supercomputer Center
Topic: "Open OnDemand: Connecting Computing Power with Powerful Minds"
Slides: PDF

Talk Abstract

Open OnDemand is an innovative, open-source, web-based portal that removes the complexities of research computing system environments from the end-client, and in so doing, reduces "time to science" for researchers, by facilitating their access to research computing resources. Through Open OnDemand, research computing clients can upload and download files, create, edit, submit and monitor jobs, create and share apps, run graphical user interface-based (GUI) applications, and connect to a terminal, all via a web browser, with no client software to install and configure.

Open OnDemand greatly simplifies access to research computing resources, freeing domain scientists from having to worry about the operating environment and instead focus on their research. It enables computer center staff to support a wide range of clients, by simplifying the user interface and experience. The overall impact is that clients can use remote computing resources faster and more efficiently. This presentation will provide an overview of Open OnDemand, and detail some of the success stories that have been generated from the global community of over 1600 research computing centers that utilize it.

Biography

Alan Chalker, Ph.D., is Director of Strategic Programs at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC). In this role, he is responsible for many of OSC's innovative efforts and initiatives, including in the areas of business development and relationship management. Chalker also coordinates many of the center's grant proposals and manages a variety of research projects, as well as the Open OnDemand platform, which is utilized by research computing centers worldwide.

Additional oversight responsibilities for Chalker include OSC's regular participation in numerous conferences and events (such as the Ohio State Fair and SC Conference Series) and OSC's Summer Institute programs for middle- and high- school students (of which he is an alumnus). Chalker also oversees OSC's public outreach activities, including educational tours of OSC's data center and the presentation/activity book "What's So Super About Supercomputing?"

Previously, Chalker was responsible for AweSim (OSC's industrial engagement program) and a team of researchers who worked on projects and training for the Department of Defense's (DoD) High Performance Computing Modernization Program. Prior to OSC, Chalker spent five years as the lead controls engineer with a public company, Embrex Inc.

In 1998, Chalker earned a bachelor's degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from The Ohio State University. He received a doctoral degree in Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2005.

Erik Deumens
Erik Deumens

Senior Director
UFIT Research Computing
University of Florida
Topic: "HITRUST Compliance for Legally Regulated Computing and Data on HPC Systems"
Slides:     PPTX

Talk Abstract

The HITRUST cybersecurity and compliance framework and assessment process has been developed since 2007 to create efficiency around validating requirements imposed by HIPAA. To enable research on protected health information with AI models on its HiPerGator supercomputer, the University of Florida decided in 2021 to get the supercomputer certfied by HITRUST to make sure that data was adequately protected. To get the full benefit of AI in medical research, it is necessary to expose all characteristics of the data to the training process. Some of the de-identification processes create distortions that are hard to detect and correct. In this talk, I will describe the process UF went through to get certified on March 2023.

Biography

Erik Deumens has a background as a researcher in computational nuclear and chemical physics. In that career, he has worked on almost every supercomputer type ever built. He became a programmer and computer scientist as a side effect of computational science research. He is the designer of the super instruction architecture, an approach to computational chemistry programming that scales to multiple 10,000 cores. Since 2011, he has been the director of the Research Computing unit in IT at the University of Florida. In 2015, he was asked to take ownership and build out an environment for research on restricted data that meets requirements posed by HIPAA and ITAR, i.e. complies with NIST 800-53 moderate and NIST 800-171, and now CMMC v2.

Todd Gamblin
Todd Gamblin

Distinguished Member of Technical Staff
Advanced Technology Office
Livermore Computing
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Topic: "El Capitan: The First NNSA Exascale System"
Slides: coming soon

Talk Abstract

Livermore Computing (LC), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's (LLNL's) supercomputing center, and HPE are deploying the first US exascale system focused on national security. This talk provides an overview of the preparations for LC's first exascale system, as well as details of its system architecture.

Biography

Todd Gamblin is a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff in the Livermore Computing division at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He created Spack, a widely used open-source build and package management tool for HPC. He leads cloud collaborations and software strategy in LLNL's Advanced Technology Office. In the past, Todd has led the Packaging Technologies Project under the U.S. Exascale Computing Project and an LLNL Strategic Initiative on software integration. His research interests include dependency management, software, parallel computing, and performance analysis.

Todd has been at LLNL since 2008. He received the Early Career Research Award from the U.S. Department of Energy in 2014, an R&D 100 award in 2019, and the LLNL Director's Science & Technology Award in 2020. He received Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2009 and 2005, and his B.A. in Computer Science from Williams College/ in 2002.

Dan Stanzione
Dan Stanzione

Executive Director
Texas Advanced Computing Center
The University of Texas at Austin

Topic: "The NSF Leadership Computing Facility -- What's Coming Up Soon, and Challenges for the Future"

Slides: available after the Symposium

Talk Abstract

The National Science Foundation funded a new Leadership Computing Facility, led by the Texas Advanced Computing Center, in July of this year. Now that construction is under way, this talk will cover what users can expect (and when!), and discuss upcoming challenges in building/deploying HPC systems in the age of AI.

Biography

Dan Stanzione is the Executive Director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin and the Principal Investigator for Wrangler. He is also the PI for TACC's 10 PetaFlop Stampede supercomputer, and has previously been involved in the deployment and operation of the Ranger and Lonestar supercomputers at TACC. He served as the Co-Director of The iPlant Collaborative, an ambitious endeavor to build cyberinfrastructure to address the grand challenges of plant science. Prior to joining TACC, Dr. Stanzione was the founding director of the Ira A. Fulton High Performance Computing Institute (HPCI) at Arizona State University (ASU). Before ASU, he served as an AAAS Science Policy Fellow in the National Science Foundation and as a research professor at Clemson University, his alma mater.


Amy Apon, PhD
Amy Apon

Program Director
Professor
Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure
Directorate for Computer & Information Science & Engineering
National Science Foundation
Talk Topic: "Opportunities in the NSF Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure and Update on the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource"
Slides:   PDF

Talk Abstract

This talk will give an overview of resources and funding opportunities in the NSF Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC), with a focus on currently available resources, as well as funding opportunities. The talk will also include an update on the National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource (NAIRR) Pilot. The talk will allow time for questions from the audience.

Biography

Amy Apon has been a Program Director in the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure since January 2023. She is the lead Program Director for the Campus Cyberinfrastructure program, a program within the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure. Apon joined NSF through the Intergovernmental Personnel Act, or rotator, in January 2023 from Clemson University where she holds the rank of Professor. Apon joined Clemson in 2011 as the Chair of the Computer Science Division and became the Director of the School of Computing in 2019, a position that she held through the pandemic. Prior to joining Clemson, Apon was a faculty member at the University of Arkansas. While at Arkansas she founded the Arkansas High Performance Computing Center in support of cyberinfrastructure needs for institutions across Arkansas. Apon holds a PhD in Computer Science from Vanderbilt University. She does research in parallel and distributed computing systems and in a variety of interdisciplinary areas with collaborators.

Dana Brunson
Dana Brunson

Executive Director for Research Engagement
Internet2

Panel Topic:

"How the OneOklahoma Cyberinfrastructure Initiative Enables CI Funding"

Panel Abstract

Since the OneOklahoma Cyberinfrastructure Initiative was established in September 2008, member institutions have been awarded $18.6M in external funding for research computing -- over a million dollars a year on average. In this panel, we'll look at how OneOCII uses peer mentoring and community building to create a statewide capability for ongoing federal support of Oklahoma computing/data-intensive research.

Biography

Dr. Dana Brunson is Executive Director for Research Engagement at Internet2. She is responsible for developing, directing, and executing Internet2's strategy and active engagement with the national and global communities that supports the effective use and development of research cyberinfrastructure. Dana is Principal Investigator of the Research Computing and Data Nexus, a National Science Foundation Cyberinfrastructure Center of Excellence Pilot, and serves in leadership roles in the Campus Research Computing Consortium (CaRCC), including co-chairing the RCD Capabilities Model working group and the Logistics operations group. In August 2024, she completed her role as co-manager of the XSEDE Campus Engagement Program which included the Campus Champions. Prior to joining Internet2 in January 2019, she was Assistant Vice President for Research Cyberinfrastructure, Director of the Oklahoma State University High Performance Computing Center, and co-lead of the OneOklahoma Cyberinfrastructure Initiative. She earned her Ph.D. in Mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin and master's and bachelor's degrees in mathematics from OSU.

Brian Burkhart
Brian Burkhart

Chief Technology Officer
OneNet
Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education

Panel Topic:

"How the OneOklahoma Cyberinfrastructure Initiative Enables CI Funding"

Panel Abstract

Since the OneOklahoma Cyberinfrastructure Initiative was established in September 2008, member institutions have been awarded $18.6M in external funding for research computing -- over a million dollars a year on average. In this panel, we'll look at how OneOCII uses peer mentoring and community building to create a statewide capability for ongoing federal support of Oklahoma computing/data-intensive research.

Biography

Brian Burkhart joined the OneNet team in November 1999 as a systems engineer. He currently serves as Chief Technology Officer and coordinates the overall technical direction of OneNet. He also serves as principal investigator for OneNet's National Science Foundation grant awards.

Franklin Fondjo Fotou
Franklin Fondjo Fotou

Associate Professor
Department Chair
Department Department of Technology
Director
LU Computing Center for Research & Education
Langston University
 
Panel Topic: "How the OneOklahoma Cyberinfrastructure Initiative Enables CI Funding"

Panel Abstract

Since the OneOklahoma Cyberinfrastructure Initiative was established in September 2008, member institutions have been awarded $18.6M in external funding for research computing -- over a million dollars a year on average. In this panel, we'll look at how OneOCII uses peer mentoring and community building to create a statewide capability for ongoing federal support of Oklahoma computing/data-intensive research.

Biography

Franklin Fondjo Fotou received his B.S. degree in Physics, M.Sc. degrees in Physics (with a minor in Electronics), M.Sc. Degree in Physics (with a minor in Heat Transfer) from the University of Yaoundé I, Yaoundé Cameroon, in 1996, 1998, and 2000 respectively. He received the Doctor's degree in Computer Science and Communication Engineering at the Graduate School of Information Science and Electrical Engineering, Kyushu University, Japan in March 2006. Dr. Fondjo was recipient of the Japanese government scholarship for excellence, the Munbukagakusho, from April 2003 - March 2006, and has received several the Young Scientist Research Fund of the 21st Century COE Program of Japan in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Dr. Fondjo Fotou is Co-PI and key personnel on several NSF funded grants. His current research includes Computational Electromagnetics and SAR, Internet of Thing (IoT), and big Data analysis and Data Science. He is currently the Chair of the Department of Technology, Langston University, in Langston OK, the Director of the Langston Computing Center for Research and Education (LU-CCRE), the Director of the Langston Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Education (LU-CIRE), and the Co-Director of the Langston Math Science and Technology (MST) Summer Program at Langston University.

Dr. Fondjo Fotou is a Campus Champion for Langston University and an active member of the OneOklahoma Cyberinfrastructure Initiative (OneOCII). He is also member of both the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) in US and the IEICE (The Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers) in Japan.

Stephen Wheat
Stephen Wheat

Professor
Computing and Mathematics
Oral Roberts University

Panel Topic: "How the OneOklahoma Cyberinfrastructure Initiative Enables CI Funding"

Panel Abstract

Since the OneOklahoma Cyberinfrastructure Initiative was established in September 2008, member institutions have been awarded $18.6M in external funding for research computing -- over a million dollars a year on average. In this panel, we'll look at how OneOCII uses peer mentoring and community building to create a statewide capability for ongoing federal support of Oklahoma computing/data-intensive research.

Biography

Stephen Wheat joined the Computing and Mathematics faculty at Oral Roberts University (ORU) in January 2018. Prior to his arrival at ORU, he spent 38 years in the High-Performance Computing (HPC) industry. His work contributed to the search for oil, the enhancement of telephony, the hunting for submarines, the means to comply with a nuclear forces treaty, the means to maintain the nuclear stockpile without the need for full-scale testing, to advancements in all industries. His roles spanned from researcher to General Manager.

Dr. Wheat is the recipient of a Gordon Bell Prize (1994) as well as the Intel Achievement Award (1997), both associated with his advancing technology in HPC. He has twice been recognized by a major HPC publication as a "Person to Watch." He was recognized as one of NASA Ames Research Center's 25 most influential people in their 25-year history for his contributions to NASA's return to flight after the Columbia space shuttle disaster, even though he did not work for NASA.

Dr. Wheat brings his broad experience in Computer Science to ORU, where he enriches the course material with decades of real-life experience, bringing life and relevance to even the most basic concepts, "my technical skills matched with my faith-lived-out frequently gave me opportunity to share the story of God's grace and love through Jesus Christ with people that confided in me because they saw more there. It is my daily goal to enable students to excel in their careers with the means to be missionaries within the technical community."

Having lived as a youth in Tulsa and attending his first two years of university at ORU, he and his wife of 42 years have relocated back to Tulsa. He and she are the parents of four and the grandparents of 12. Dr. Wheat is a Commercial Pilot and a Certified Flight Instructor for Multi-Engine Airplanes in Instrument conditions. He also enjoys photography, cycling, and running.


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