Invited Technical Talk: Next Generation Supercomputers

Location: Salon VI and VII
Presenter: Valentina Salapura

Innovative system architecture must become the engine for performance growth as device speed increases from CMOS scaling offer diminishing returns. We will discuss our holistic approach to optimize the entire hardware and software stack for the Blue Gene supercomputer family. Blue Gene was designed from the ground up with a focus on power/performance efficiency and reliability. The largest Blue Gene/L configuration consists of 64 racks with a total of 65536 dual-processor nodes for a peak performance of 360TFLOPS, and is number one on Top 500 list since November 2004. Blue Gene/P was announced in June 2007 and in a full configuration, its performance will exceed 1 Petaflop.
To achieve good application performance, we exploit parallelism at multiple levels: at the process-level, thread-level, data-level, and instruction-level. To increase performance of each single compute node over the previous generation of systems, we turned to a quad-processor node incorporating symmetric multiprocessing in BlueGene/P. To ensure high efficiency of each quad-processor node, we architected a novel snoop filter to reduce the impact of coherence traffic.
As the result of a deliberate design for scalability approach, Blue Gene supercomputers offer unprecedented scalability and performance to a wide range of scientific applications. Although peak numbers are often used to in comparing systems, the real merit is the value delivered to its user community. A broad range of scientific applications on Blue Gene supercomputers have allowed to advance scientific discovery, which is the ultimate measure of success of the Blue Gene system family.

Developing Student Leaders to Invent the Future

Location: Salon I and II

Presenters: Teresa Dahlberg (UNC Charlotte), Tiffany Barnes (UNC Charlotte), Mia Lustria (Florida State University), Cheryl Seals (Auburn University), Andrea Lawrence (Spelman College), Kristy Boyer (North Carolina State University), Julie Strothman (Landmark College)

Today’s computing graduates must be able to work in diverse groups, understand a wide range of cultures, and innovate for a diverse society. The STARS Leadership Corps develops students to take a leadership role in recruiting, developing and becoming the next generation of computing professionals. The panel will overview the leadership model which emphasizes Excellence, Leadership, Civic Engagement, Service and Community. Panelists will describe implementation at six academic institutions.

How to Land Your Dream Job in Industry

Location: South Ballroom

Presenters: Tina Evangelista (Intel), Jill Huchital (Google), Heidi Kvinge (Intel), Kamie Roberts (National Institute of Standards and Technology), Pat Shriver (Cisco Systems), Gabby Silberman (CA), Veronica Woody (IBM)

This moderated panel of hiring managers and staffing specialists will offer inside information on how their organizations recruit, interview, and select candidates to fill their hiring needs. Get tips on how to find jobs, how to prepare for an interview, and how to judge if a company is right for you. Find out what companies are looking for and how you can match your skills to their needs.

Business Innovation through accurate, high-volume data capture: Using RFID to shed light on the dark corners of the enterprise

Location: Salon VIII

Presenter: Deirdre M. Athaide (IBM Corporation)

What do counterfeit drugs, raincheques and spoilt milk have in common? Each are a symptom of a pressing need for an industry to more accurately track and monitor its supply chain movements. Luckily, this is a problem that innovative RFID technology can solve. Come and listen as we explore how accurate, high-volume data capture enabled by RFID technology is leading to important business process discoveries and innovation in several key industries.

Pursuing Graduate School and the Computer Science Research Career

Location: Salon III

Presenters: Lori Pollock (University of Delaware), Kathleen Fisher (AT&T Research), Jocelyn Simmonds (University of Toronto), Katarzyna Wilamowska (University of
Washington)

This panel discusses the opportunities and challenges of pursuing graduate education in computer science and engineering. Panelists will discuss the entire cycle of graduate education from applying to schools and being a student, to graduating and taking a first job. The panel includes PhD women in academia and industry as well as current graduate students. Undergraduate and graduate students, and those who advise them, will all benefit from this panel.

Introducing the Computing Community Consortium — Facilitating Visions for our Future

Location: Camellia and Dogwood

Presenters: Susan L. Graham (UC Berkeley), Jen Rexford (Princeton University)

The goal of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is to create venues for community participation in developing research visions and stimulating new research activities for our field. Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the consortium has been established by the Computing Research Association (CRA). In this interactive panel, we will describe why this is an opportune time to establish, articulate, and pursue visions for the field, and how the CCC Council can help catalyze the computing research community realize these visions. CCC is all of us! The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

Making the Transition to a Teaching-oriented Institution

Location: Narcissus and Orange Blossom

Presenters: Janet Davis (Grinnell College), Jeanne Albrecht (Williams College), Melissa O’Neill (Harvey Mudd College), Megan Thomas (California State University, Stanislaus)

Research- and teaching-oriented institutions differ greatly in expectations for new faculty, available resources, and relationships with colleagues and students. In this panel, we will present advice for those making the transition from a research-oriented institution to a primarily teaching-oriented institution. In discussing the job search and the first few years at a teaching institution, our focus will be on contrasts between the two environments and surprises we encountered.