SC15 HPC Matters Plenary Session Available Now Online

SC15 just released the full HPC Matters Plenary on YouTube for all to access.  Watch as Jackie Kern, SC15 General Chair from the University of Illinois, introduces Diane Bryant who then discusses how next-generation supercomputers are transforming HPC and presents exciting opportunities to advance scientific research and discovery to deliver far-reaching impacts on society.

As part of this Plenary, Intel announced a $300,000 scholarship per year for five years for women/minorities with STEM undergraduate degrees to fund fellowships for those pursuing PhD's degrees in computational and data science.  This commitment is in honor of Intel's third CEO Andrew Grove.

 Making special appearances were Intel Fellows Mark Bohr, Matt Adiletta, Al Gara, Mark Seager, Bill Magro, and Pradeep Dubey.

Closing out the HPC Matters Plenary was Wilf Pinfold, HPC Matters Chair from Concurrent Systems. Wilf encouraged future engagement by the audience in the HPC Matters theme for the coming year.  To learn more about the HPC Matters Program, click here or to view the HPC Matters short, compelling videos, click here.

HPCwire Interviews Diane Bryant On Eve of HPC Matters Plenary

HPC Matters Plenary Speaker Diane Bryant

Thomas Ayres and Tiffany Trader for HPCwire

Back in September, the news broke that Intel’s Senior Vice President Diane Bryant was named the HPC Matters plenary speaker for the SC15 conference taking place in Austin, Texas.

The theme for this year’s HPC Matters program is “Fueling the Transformation” and Bryant, along with multiple industry luminaries, will be taking the stage before the SC15 opening gala on November 16 to discuss the myriad of ways that HPC is transforming lives.

Bryant leads Intel’s datacenter business unit, one of the chipmaker’s strongest segments. This year, FORTUNE magazine named Bryant to its Most Powerful Women in Business list. Criteria for selection to this prominent listing includes the importance of the woman’s business in the global economy, health and direction of the business, career arc, and cultural influence.

This dovetails well with Bryant’s role as speaker for this year’s HPC Matters plenary. The HPC Matters program, launched by the SC program committee two years ago, rests on four pillars: influencing daily lives, science and engineering, economic impact, and education.

Bryant speaks frequently on all of these issues and has been especially prominent in promoting the benefits of diversity in the workplace. For the upcoming HPC Matters plenary, Bryant will draw on her experience running Intel’s datacenter group, which includes the HPC business segment and products ranging from high-end coprocessors for supercomputers, to big data analytics solutions, to high-density systems for the cloud. In the exclusive interview to follow, she shares her thoughts on where she sees HPC heading in the upcoming years, why it’s an important topic in our world, and how her career at Intel has shaped her views on HPC. Following is the interview:

HPCwire: What key points are you going to touch on in your presentation?
Diane Bryant: We are in the midst of an unprecedented change in High Performance Computing. Everything about how HPC systems are used and built is going to change over the next decade. HPC must support more complex models with more and more data, and enable new usages as industries realize the benefits of very powerful real-time analytics.  To meet these needs, HPC must achieve exascale performance and beyond, while expanding access to more users.  This will require a transformation of not only the systems, but the entire solution stack.

How does HPC matter to you?
Diane Bryant: As an engineer, what excites me is seeing how information technology is used to solve real world problems.  HPC is a transformational capability helping solve society’s most pressing challenges.  Look at the improvements in life science and precision medicine that have really been enabled by researchers and physicians gaining access to more powerful supercomputers.  Seeing industry after industry take these tools with Intel technology as their foundation and use them to improve lives and drive economic growth is tremendously gratifying and exciting to all of us who work to push IT forward.

Click here to go to the full HPCwire article.

HPC Matters Plenary Session with Diane Bryant to be Webcast

Intel's Diane Bryant

Diane Bryant, senior vice president and general manager, Data Center Group at Intel, will speak at the upcoming SC15 conference HPC Matters Plenary Session to discuss how next-generation supercomputers are transforming HPC and presenting exciting opportunities to advance scientific research and discovery to deliver far-reaching impacts on society.

Based on the interest in this session we are pleased to announce that Intel will sponsor a live webcast of the HPC Matters Plenary for those who are not able to attend in Austin. Please join us on Monday, November 16th, at 5:30 p.m central standard time at this website.

In Austin the session will be open to all SC attendees and located in Ballroom DEFG. A badge is required, but there is no fee to attend this Plenary. You can pick-up a complimentary badge in registration if needed. Seats are on a first-come basis.

To view the digital library containing short videos telling compelling stories of how HPC Matters, click here.

Previewing SC15 Diversity Committee Focused Events

Attendees are encouraged to participate in the SC15 Diversity Sessions.

The SC15 Diversity Committee is passionate about gaining insight from the SC community on how we can increase the diversity of our community by increasing the representation of under-represented groups. Please join the conversation at any or all of the following events at SC15 where we will be having an open dialog and collaborating on potential solutions.

Diversity and Innovation in HPC
12:15  – 1:15 p.m. Tuesday, November 17
Panel discussion featuring various community experts and collaborative engagement with SC attendees offering insight into historical diversity efforts and collectively identifying future opportunities.
Location: Intel Booth #1333
Organizers: Hosted by Intel Corporation

Women in HPC: Pathways and Roadblocks
10:30 a m. – 12 p.m. Wednesday, November 18
Birds-of-a-Feather discussion to understand what makes the STEM subfields so successful in attracting women, and how other subfields might emulate their success.
Location: Room 13B.
Organizers: Rebecca Hartman-Baker, Toni Collis

Women Impacting HPC Tech Session
 11:15 a.m. – 12 p.m. Thursday, November 19
Panel discussion featuring various woman within the HPC community who have positively impacted society with their discoveries. Panelist will share their technical career paths and actively engage with the audience.
Location: Intel Booth #1333
Organizers: Hosted by Intel Corporation

Women in HPC: Changing the Face of HPC
8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m Friday, November 20
Workshop and panel discussions bringing together leading women working in HPC and female early career researchers. Showcase HPC research on a broad range of topics, and discuss the importance of gender equality.
Location:Hilton Salon A
Organizers: Toni Collis, Barbara Chapman, Daniel Holmes, Lorna Smith, Alison Kennedy, Adrian Jackson, Julia Andrys, Jesmin Jahan Tithi, Rapela Regina Maphanga, Sunita Chandrasekaran, Rebecca Hartman-Baker

SC15 Releases Short Video Explaining Why High Performance Computing is Important to NASA

NASA Aerospace Engineer Dr. Shishir Pandya explains how high performance computers (HPCs) help advance airplane and rocket technologies to save fuel and make travel more affordable for the public.  According to Pandya it is also critical to be pushing technology further to search for that next breakthrough.

This is another chapter in a series of short videos focusing on why HPC is important and of critical value to society. It is part of a three-year SC "HPC Matters" campaign.  Click here to view the entire HPC Matters video library. Also, once again, there will be an HPC Matters Plenary during the conference.  This year's chosen speaker is Intel's Diane Bryant - recently named one of the top 51 most powerful women by Forbes. To view those details, click here.

Editorial note: Special thanks to NASA's Jill Dunbar for her assistance on this project.

SC15 Announces Intel’s Diane Bryant as HPC Matters Plenary Speaker

Intel's Diane Bryant

Austin, TX (USA) – September 10, 2015 – SC15 today announced that Intel’s Diane Bryant, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Data Center Group, has been selected as the HPC Matters plenary speaker at the 27th annual SC15 conference on high performance computing (HPC), networking, storage and analysis.

Starting in 2013, the SC conference organizers launched “HPC Matters” to encourage members of the computational sciences community to share their thoughts, vision, and experiences with how high performance computers are used to improve the lives of people all over the world in more simple terms. Four pillars provide structure to the program: Influencing Daily Lives; Science and Engineering; Economic Impact; and Education

Bryant will discuss how next-generation supercomputers are transforming HPC and presenting exciting opportunities to advance scientific research and discovery to deliver far-reaching impacts on society.

“In a real sense, transformation is at the heart of existence, and ultimately the challenge and opportunity before us is to perceive and comprehend the power of transformation so that we can use it for the good of the world and everything in it. Nothing does that better than high performance computing,” observes SC15 general chair Jackie Kern, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

As a frequent speaker on the future of technology, Bryant will draw on her experience running Intel’s Data Center Group, which includes the HPC business segment, and products ranging from high-end co-processors for supercomputers to big data analytics solutions to high-density systems for the cloud. The SC15 HPC Matters plenary takes place on Monday, November 16th, at 5:30 p.m. at the Austin Convention Center.

About SC15
SC15, sponsored by ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) and IEEE Computer Society offers a complete technical education program and exhibition to showcase the many ways high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis lead to advances in scientific discovery, research, education and commerce. This premier international conference includes a globally attended technical program, workshops, tutorials, a world class exhibit area, demonstrations and opportunities for hands-on learning. For more information on SC15, please visit http://www.sc15.supercomputing.org/, or contact communications@info.supercomputing.org for more information.

About ACM
ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery www.acm.org, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers and professionals to inspire dialogue, share resources and address the field’s challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession’s collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence. ACM supports the professional growth of its members by providing opportunities for life-long learning, career development, and professional.

Intel and the Intel logo are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

U.S. Department of Energy Awards $200 Million for Next- Generation Supercomputer at Argonne National Laboratory

From a U.S. Government Press Release:

Under Secretary for Science and Energy Orr Announces Next Steps in Pursuit of Exascale Supercomputing to Accelerate Major Scientific Discoveries and Engineering Breakthroughs.

Argonne, Ill. – Today, U.S. Department of Energy Under Secretary for Science and Energy Lynn Orr announced two new High Performance Computing (HPC) awards that continue to advance U.S. leadership in developing exascale computing.  The announcement was made alongside leaders from Argonne National Laboratory and industry partners at Chicago’s tech start-up hub, 1871.

Under the joint Collaboration of Oak Ridge, Argonne, and Lawrence Livermore (CORAL) initiative, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a $200 million investment to deliver a next-generation supercomputer, known as Aurora, to the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF). When commissioned in 2018, this supercomputer will be open to all scientific users – drawing America’s top researchers to Argonne National Laboratory. Additionally, Under Secretary Orr announced $10 million for a high-performance computing R&D program, DesignForward, led by DOE’s Office of Science and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).

“Argonne National Laboratory’s announcement of the Aurora supercomputer will advance low-carbon energy technologies and our fundamental understanding of the universe, while maintaining United States' global leadership in high performance computing,” said Under Secretary Orr. “This machine – part of the Department of Energy’s CORAL initiative – will put the United States one step closer to exascale computing.”

Today’s $200 million award is the third, and final, supercomputer investment funded as part of the CORAL initiative, a $525 million project announced by Department of Energy Secretary Moniz in November 2014.  CORAL was established to leverage supercomputers that will be five to seven times more powerful than today’s top supercomputers and help the nation accelerate to next-generation exascale computing.  DOE earlier announced a $325 million investment to build state-of-the-art supercomputers at its Oak Ridge and Lawrence Livermore laboratories.

“Few national investments have the potential to demonstrate dramatic progress and capability across many scientific disciplines and domains with real-world benefits,” said Peter Littlewood, Director, Argonne National Laboratory. “Advanced computing is a lever that drives transformational change in science and technology, accelerating discovery and shortening the time for technology to reach market.”

Key research goals for the Aurora system, expected to be commissioned in 2018 and to which the entire scientific community will have access, include:

• Materials science: Designing new classes of materials that will lead to more powerful, efficient and durable batteries and solar panels.

• Biological science: Gaining the ability to understand the capabilities and vulnerabilities of organisms that can result in improved biofuels and more effective disease control.

• Transportation efficiency: Collaborating with industry to improve transportation systems with enhanced aerodynamics features, as well as enable production of better, more highly-efficient and quieter engines.

• Renewable energy: Engineering wind turbine design and placement to greatly improve efficiency and reduce noise.

The new system, Aurora, will use Intel’s HPC scalable system framework to provide a peak performance of 180 PetaFLOP/s.  The system will help ensure continued U.S. leadership in high-end computing for scientific research while also cementing the nation's position as global leader in the development of next-generation exascale computing systems.  Aurora, in effect a “pre-exascale” system, will be delivered in 2018.  Argonne and Intel will also provide an interim system, called Theta, to be delivered in 2016, which will help ALCF users transition their applications to the new technology.

“The future of high performance computing will require significant innovations on multiple fronts and Argonne's Aurora and Theta supercomputers represent successive generations of the transformation required in future HPC system architectures” said Raj Hazra, Vice President, Data Center Group and General Manager, Technical Computing Group, Intel Corporation. “Working together with Cray, these systems provide a highly flexible and adaptable industry design based on Intel’s HPC scalable system framework that will deliver breakthrough performance, power efficiency and application compatibility through an integrated and balanced system architecture – paving the way for new scientific discoveries and far-reaching benefits on a global scale. Intel is honored to have been awarded the Aurora contract as part of the CORAL program.”

Intel will work with Cray Inc. as the system integrator sub-contracted to provide its industry-leading scalable system expertise together with its proven supercomputing technology and HPC software stack. Aurora will be based on a next-generation Cray supercomputer, code-named “Shasta,” a follow-on to the Cray® XC™ series.

“Cray is honored to partner with Argonne and Intel as we develop our next-generation Shasta system to build one of the fastest supercomputers on the planet for the Department of Energy,” said Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray. “Shasta will be a powerful combination of Intel’s new technologies and Cray’s advanced supercomputing expertise, creating a single, flexible system that will enable huge advances in computing and analytics. Aurora will be the first system in our Shasta family and we couldn’t be more excited.”

In addition to procuring systems like Aurora, the Office of Science and the National Nuclear Security Administration are making longer-term investments in exascale computing under the DesignForward high-performance computing R&D program, designed to accelerate the development of next-generation supercomputers. The program recently awarded $10 million in contracts to AMD, Cray, IBM and Intel Federal, complementing the $25.4 million already invested in the first round of DesignForward. Under this public-private partnership, the four technology firms will work with DOE researchers to study and develop software and hardware technologies aimed at maintaining our nation’s lead in scientific computing.