Supercomputing the Mysteries of Boron Carbide

Researchers at the University of Florida are using XSEDE supercomputers to unlock the mysteries of boron carbide, one of the hardest materials on earth. The material is also very lightweight, which explains why it has been used in making vehicle armor and body protection for soldiers. The research, which primarily used the Comet supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center along with the Stampede and Stampede2 systems at the Texas Advanced Computing Center, may provide insight into better protective mechanisms for vehicle and soldier armor after further testing and development.

XSEDE Supercomputers Advance Skin Cancer Research

In this TACC podcast, UC Berkeley scientists describe how they are using powerful supercomputers to uncover the mechanism that activates cell mutations found in about 50 percent of melanomas. “The study’s computational challenges involved molecular dynamics simulations that modeled the protein at the atomic level, determining the forces of every atom on every other atom for a system of about 200,000 atoms at time steps of two femtoseconds.”

AI on XSEDE Systems Promises Early Prediction of Breast Cancer

Researchers are using XSEDE supercomputers and artificial intelligence to predict breast cancer. “Our local GPUs did not have enough memory to accommodate such a scale of data for AI modeling. It could take weeks to run one experiment without the support of powerful GPUs. Using the GPUs from XSEDE, with larger memory, reduced that to a couple of hours.”

Simulating Shock Turbulence Interactions on Stampede II

In this special guest feature, Jorge Salazar from TACC writes that Researchers are using XSEDE supercomputers to better understand shock turbulence interactions. “We proposed that, instead of treating the shock as a discontinuity, one needs to account for its finite thickness as in real life which may be involved as a governing parameter in, for example, amplification factors,” Donzis said.

XSEDE Campus Champions to Focus on Research Collaboration

XSEDE has selected five Campus Champions Fellows for the 2019-2020 academic year. These exceptional researchers will have the opportunity to work side-by-side with staff of the XSEDE project to solve real-world science and engineering projects. “The five Fellows selected for this year will work on projects spanning from hydrology gateways to undergraduate data science curriculum development under the overarching goal of increasing cyberinfrastructure expertise on campuses by including Campus Champions as partners in XSEDE’s projects.”

Globus Integrates with Box Cloud Content Management

Today the Globus research data management service announced the general availability of Globus for Box, a new solution for seamlessly connecting Box with an organization’s existing research storage ecosystem. “The Box connector is a valuable addition to our Globus subscription, since it will let our users easily plug Box into their existing ecosystem of research data storage systems,” said Doug Johnson, chief systems architect and HPC systems group manager, Ohio Supercomputer Center.

NSF Funds $10 Million for ‘Expanse’ Supercomputer at SDSC

SDSC has been awarded a five-year grant from the NSF valued at $10 million to deploy Expanse, a new supercomputer designed to advance research that is increasingly dependent upon heterogeneous and distributed resources. “As a standalone system, Expanse represents a substantial increase in the performance and throughput compared to our highly successful, NSF-funded Comet supercomputer. But with innovations in cloud integration and composable systems, as well as continued support for science gateways and distributed computing via the Open Science Grid, Expanse will allow researchers to push the boundaries of computing and answer questions previously not possible.”

Video: Supercomputing Dynamic Earthquake Ruptures

Researchers are using XSEDE supercomputers to model multi-fault earthquakes in the Brawley fault zone, which links the San Andreas and Imperial faults in Southern California. Their work could predict the behavior of earthquakes that could potentially affect millions of people’s lives and property. “Basically, we generate a virtual world where we create different types of earthquakes. That helps us understand how earthquakes in the real world are happening.”

Seeking Nominations for the XSEDE Advisory Board

XSEDE seeks nominations for individuals to serve on the XSEDE Advisory Board (XAB). “The XAB aims to ensure that XSEDE is designed to impact a broad range of disciplines, enable both research and education, have broader impacts to society, and have a user community that is diverse (gender, ethnic background, etc.). All members of the community are eligible to serve on the XAB. Individuals can nominate themselves or nominate another person as a potential XAB member.”

XSEDE Teams with Cal State for Advanced Computing Training

The need for more young people in STEM careers in a growing concern for the HPC community. Along these lines, more than 70 undergraduate and graduate students participated in the recent XSEDE/DIRECT-STEM training workshops at Cal State LA. “We instruct the students in scientific computing and data science,” said Paul Nerenberg, assistant professor of physics and biology and research advisor for the DIRECT-STEM program funded by NASA. “These are going to be core skills for them in their careers no matter what they do.”