| News |
| Conference: SciDAC 2005 |
| Meeting grows in scope as project progresses |
| Dr Anthony Mezzacappa |
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On June 26-30, 2005, at the Grand Hyatt on Union Square in San Francisco, several hundred computational
scientists from around the world came together to celebrate computational science. Scientists
from the SciDAC program as well as other agencies and nations were joined by applied
mathematicians and computer scientists to highlight the many occasions in the past year on which
computation has successfully led to scientific discovery in a variety of fields: lattice quantum chromodynamics,
accelerator modeling, chemistry, biology, materials science, Earth and climate science, astrophysics, and combustion and
fusion energy science.
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Sharing science at SciDAC 2005: the poster session at the conference. |
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The advances made in numerical methods and computer science, and the multidisciplinary collaboration
cutting across science, mathematics, and computer science that enabled these discoveries, were also highlighted.
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The scope and import of the meeting was well summarized in the opening remarks of Dr Michael
Strayer, Associate Director, Office of Science (ASCR) and Director, SciDAC: "SciDAC is also undergoing
a transformation. This meeting is a prime example. Last year it was a small programmatic meeting
tracking progress in SciDAC. This year, we have a major computational science meeting with a variety
of disciplines and enabling technologies represented. SciDAC 2005 should position itself as a new
corner stone for Computational Science and its impact on science."
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The scientific program began with one of the DOE's great traditions and core missions: energy research.
Computation has been seminal to the critical advances that have been made in this arena.
Of course, deciphering our world, whether for its own sake or for practical purposes, will require
explorations on all of its scales. Computational science has been an important tool in this arena.
From explorations of quantum chromodynamics - the fundamental theory that describes how
quarks make up the protons and neutrons of which we are composed - to explorations of the
complex biomolecules that are the building blocks of life and explorations of some of the most violent
phenomena in the universe, computation has provided not only significant insight, but often
the only means by which we have been able to explore and begin to understand these complex, multicomponent
systems.
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While our ultimate target remains scientific discovery, at a fundamental level the world is
mathematical. Equations ultimately govern the evolution of the systems of interest to us, be they physical,
chemical, or biological systems.
The development and choice of discretizations of these underlying equations is often a critical deciding
factor in whether or not one is able to model such systems stably, faithfully, and practically, while the algorithms
that solve the resultant discrete equations are the complementary, critical ingredient in the
recipe to model the natural world.
The use of parallel computing platforms, especially at the terascale, and the trend toward even larger
numbers of processors, continue to present significant challenges in the development and implementation
of these algorithms.
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Computational scientists often speak of their "workflows." A workflow, as the name suggests, is
the sum total of all complex and interlocking tasks, from simulation set up, execution, and I/O, to
visualization and scientific discovery.
For the computational scientist, enabling such workflows presents myriad, significant challenges,
and it is computer scientists who are called upon at such times to address these challenges.
Simulations are currently generating data at the staggering rate of tens of terabytes per simulation,
over the course of days. In the next few years, these data-generation rates are expected to climb exponentially
to hundreds of terabytes per simulation, performed over the course of months. The output,
management, movement, analysis, and visualization of these data will be our key to unlocking their
meaning. And there is no hope of generating such data to begin with, or of scientific discovery,
without stable computing platforms and a sufficiently high and sustained performance of scientific
applications codes on them.
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Thus, scientific discovery in the realm of computational science at the terascale and beyond will
occur at the intersection of science, applied mathematics, and computer science. The SciDAC
program was constructed to mirror this reality, and the 2005 conference was just the beginning.
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This year's conference, SciDAC 2006, will be held on June 25-30 in Denver, Colorado. Chairman: Bill Tang, PPPL.
Dr Anthony Mezzacappa is Group Leader for Theoretical Astrophysics, Physics Division, ORNL, and Chair, SciDAC 2005.
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For more information
SciDAC 2005 Conference Proceedings
www.iop.org/EJ/toc/1742-6596/16/1.
SciDAC 2006 home page
www.scidac.org/Conference2006.
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