The Next Generation Starts Today
 Bill Gropp, SC13 General Chair
Serving as general chair of SC demands that I spend much of my time focused on the very next step I have to take: a series of important but nearly endless details that must be managed in order to make one very large event happen in November each year.
Faced with so many small tasks it can be easy to lose sight of the bigger pictures that capture the many faces of SC and its impact on our community. One of the vital roles of SC is to shape both the next generation HPC workforce and the educators that bring HPC into their classrooms.
SC's next generation and workforce efforts are tied together in HPC Interconnections, or HPCI (pronounced "hipsy").
This year we've renamed and restructured the long–standing "Communities" program to emphasize the power of HPC to bring people, ideas, and communities around new ideas and solutions to some of our most significant societal challenges. Our goal is that HPC Interconnections will help all conference attendees get more out of the conference, providing programs for everyone interested in building a stronger HPC community, including students, educators, researchers, international attendees and underrepresented groups.
HPC Interconnections provides a welcoming entry to SC13 for attendees who may be new to the community or the conference. HPC Interconnections comprises Broader Engagement, HPC Educators, Mentors & Protégés, a program for international attendees, and programs for students, including the Doctoral Showcase, the Student Job Fair, the Student Cluster Competition and Student Volunteers. The goal is to ensure that all attendees make meaningful connections to help them during SC13 and after. You can find more information about the elements of the HPCI program on the website at http://sc13.supercomputing.org/content/overview-5.
And there is still time to participate in HPCI as a presenter through the HPC Educators program and the Doctoral Showcase; the deadline for submission to both is July 31.
The HPC Educators Program focuses on undergraduate educators and SC attendees interested in integrating HPC and computational and data–enabled science and engineering into classrooms. It also engages government and industry with the HPC educator community and provides a forum to share best practices. You can find more information at http://sc13.supercomputing.org/content/hpc-educators.
The Doctoral showcase includes two tracks designed to give the HPC community a preview of what's next. The Dissertation Research Showcase track highlights the research of Ph.D. students who will be graduating in the next 12 months, and the Early Research Showcase highlights the work of Ph.D. and master's students who are in the early stages of their research. Both tracks provide an outstanding opportunity to connect to the people and ideas that will shape the future of our field.
HPC Impact Showcase to Offer Exciting Venue for Change Agents at SC13
New for SC13, the HPC Impact Showcase reveals real–world applications of high performance computing (HPC) via presentations in a theater on the exhibit floor. These unique presentation opportunities offer an exciting and accessible venue for key change agents, not traditionally associated with the SC conference series, to share important insights and perspectives of what it took to embrace HPC for competitive advantage and to illustrate the real–world results that ensued.
The HPC Impact Showcase is open to anyone with an interesting story to tell, and a passion for their work. By embedding this showcase within the SC Exhibits Space, attendees will be able to drop in and hear a story that they can relate to and be inspired by.
Interested individuals can submit a proposal describing their experience before July 31st at https://submissions.supercomputing.org/. These testimonials will be reviewed by the exhibits committee, and the most unique and provocative will be invited to present in the new Impact Showcase venue in the Exhibits Space, to ensure maximum accessibility to all conference attendees.
To learn more about the HPC Impact Showcase, or on how to contribute or sponsor, visit http://sc13.supercomputing.org/content/hpc-impact-showcase.
Sneak Peak at Tutorials
The SC13 Tutorials program will feature a variety of fundamental, as well as timely, topics related to high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis. With a rigorous peer–review process, the SC13 Tutorial committed accepted 30 tutorials among 70 submissions by well–recognized leaders in the field.
More than half of the tutorials will include hands–on sessions (usually in full–day lessons), where the attendees can directly work with the tutorial presenters to learn and to explore the given topic in detail.
Almost all other tutorials (often taking only a half–day) will include detailed demonstrations that still provide in–depth exposure to the topic.
This year, in addition to popular recurring tutorial topics, twelve new tutorials on hot topics and emerging technologies will be offered. These additions cover topics such as statistical data analysis, new many–core architectures, large–scale data management and even procurement!
Tutorials will be presented on Sunday, November 17 and Monday, November 18.
For more information, visit:
http://sc13.supercomputing.org/content/tutorials
It's Time to Start Planning Emerging Technologies Submissions
The SC13 technical program is expanding onto the show floor with the new Emerging Technologies Track. Emerging Technologies is designed to provide a forum on the SC13 show floor for novel projects at a national or international scale. It is different from other aspects of the technical program, such as contributed presentations and posters, in that it will provide a forum for discussing large–scale, long–term efforts in high performance computing, networking, storage, and analysis, rather than a recent research result that such a project might have achieved. Emerging Technologies will provide space in a booth on the SC13 show floor. The booth will facilitate displays, presentations, and spontaneous discussions among participants and visitors.
There are many possible manners in which the technology being celebrated can be presented, and these can be chosen by the presenters. Emerging Technologies welcomes exhibitions of real hardware prototypes and demonstrations of software, as well as project presentations in poster form, animated displays, and scheduled presentations or discussions. Projects will display future technologies with the potential to influence computing and society as a whole.
Submissions for the Emerging Technologies Track are accepted at http://submissions.supercomputing.org. Each submission should describe the project scope in detail and provide references to external resources (newspaper articles, webpages etc.). Additional materials, such as prototype photos, are very welcome. Each project needs to describe how much space it would require and how it would use the space provided (include any additional requirements such as A/V equipment or network connectivity). Projects will be selected based on a peer–review process with a single round of reviews.
More information about the Emerging Technologies program can be found at http://sc13.supercomputing.org/content/emerging–technologies and open questions will be answered by the chairs via emerging-technologies@info.supercomputing.org.
SC13 Student Volunteer Program
Applications are now being accepted for the SC13 Student Volunteer program, and undergraduate and graduate students are encouraged to apply. Serving as a Student Volunteer is an excellent opportunity for students interested in high performance computing to learn from many of the world's leading experts in the field while supporting the conference. Student Volunteers also have an opportunity to meet their peers from other schools, compare notes on their student experiences and research, and meet potential future collaborators.
Student Volunteers will receive meals and complimentary conference registration, which provides access to all tutorials and workshops, technical talks, panels, the Technical Program reception, and much more. There is limited support for hotel rooms and transportation expenses. Student Volunteers are expected to work 4–5 hours per day during the week of the conference. No special skills or experience are required for most volunteer positions, but familiarity with computing platforms, audio/visual equipment, or office equipment is helpful.
Student Volunteers are part of SC's HPC Interconnections program.
Learn more at: http://sc13.supercomputing.org/content/student-volunteers
To apply, go to: http://submissions.supercomputing.org
Donation to Help Build HPC Interconnections
The SC13 HPC Interconnections program broadens the reach of HPC and provides a welcoming entry to attendees who may be new to the community or the conference. To help make the programs available to more participants, HPC Interconnections is asking SC13 attendees and exhibitors for tax–deductible donations. These donations will help support Broader Engagement, HPC Educators, Mentors & Protégés, a program for international attendees, and student programs, including Student Volunteers, the Doctoral Showcase, the Student Job Fair and the Student Cluster Competition.
Denver is a "Natural" Fit for Green Meetings and Events
The city of Denver is dedicated to sustainable development and ecologically–friendly practices that will help us develop a green Denver as well as green meetings.
During his time as mayor, Governor John Hickenlooper realized the importance of sustainability and developed Greenprint Denver, a program that provides leadership and solutions to ensure a prosperous community where people and nature thrive.
Natural beauty surrounds us daily and we care about the environment. From utilities and transportation (including nearly 150 hybrid city vehicles), to parks and LEED–certified city buildings, Greenprint Denver offers a comprehensive and measurable plan of action that few cities can match. The Denver International Airport (DEN) – the 5th largest airport in the U.S. and the 10th largest in the world, with more than 50 million passengers in 2010 – is dedicated to eco–friendliness and energy efficiency. DEN is a short drive away from the sustainable Colorado Convention Center and a variety of other conference venues, making Denver a convenient eco–friendly destination for SC13.
Green is here to stay. |
