It’s rap! The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at UT Austin welcomed more than 100 participants to the 7th annual TACC Symposium for Texas Researchers (TACCSTER). This event exists to serve TACC’s community of users across Texas, including students, scientists, engineers, and academics who use supercomputing resources to further their research goals.
This multi-day event will run from September 23-25 and will feature invited speakers, lightning talks, tutorials, poster sessions, one-on-one meetings with computing experts, data center tours, and a town hall with TACC leaders. It included a style Q&A and an interactive event. Panel discussion on expanding participation and opportunity through innovative programs, networking and collaboration opportunities.
“TACCSTER is our flagship event to interact with and learn from those of you who use and trust our systems,” said Joe Allen, head of campus engagement at TACC. “Most of the participants are experts in their fields and are involved in computing research. The symposium will allow us to network with other scientists using high-performance computing and learn more about what goes on behind the scenes at TACC. We have a unique opportunity to see what is happening.”
A total of 51 posters were presented at this symposium from 10 different Texas-based institutions. (Source: TACC)
Keynote: How HPC is revolutionizing storm surge modeling, Clint Dawson, Auden Institute for Computational Engineering and Science, Austin, Utah
This year’s keynote speaker, Clint Dawson, gave an impactful talk titled How HPC is revolutionizing storm surge modeling. Dawson is chair of the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics and director of the Computational Hydraulics Group at the Auden Institute for Computational Engineering and Science.
“Without HPC, we wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing today,” Dawson said.
Earlier this year, Dawson received the University of Texas at Austin’s Chancellor’s Research Impact Award for his work on data-driven storm surge modeling, which has had a major impact on Texas’ response to natural disasters.
When Dawson delivered the TACCSTER keynote on September 24, Hurricane Helen was rapidly approaching Florida. The hurricane, now a Category 4 hurricane, made landfall on September 26, setting storm surge records along the Florida Gulf Coast, an area particularly vulnerable to storm-induced flooding due to shallow waters. Helen is one of the most powerful hurricanes to hit the United States.
Dawson and his team used TACC’s Frontera supercomputer to model Hurricane Helen using data released every six hours by the National Hurricane Center.
“We used Frontera every day, multiple times a day,” Dawson said. “We need at least a few thousand cores. Speed is important. We want to finish a 5-day hurricane simulation in 15 minutes, so we have time to process the results and post them before the next forecast. Because we can secure it.”
Dawson is currently working on a global model containing 600,000 historical and synthetic hurricanes to train artificial intelligence (AI) models and understand storm swarms in different parts of the world. I’m here.
“My group is deeply involved in machine learning to see what we can get out of these algorithms. Our goal is to develop a high-resolution or hybrid composite flood risk analysis system,” Dawson said. he concluded.
Clint Dawson (left) and Stella Offner (right) from the Auden Institute at UT Austin gave impactful keynote speeches. (Source: TACC)
Keynote: Expanding the Frontiers of Astrophysics: From Galaxies to Individual Stars, Stella Offner, Auden Institute for Computational Engineering and Science, Austin, Utah
Stella Offner gave the second keynote lecture entitled “Expanding the Frontiers of Astrophysics: From Galaxies to Individual Stars.”
Offner is the new director of the NSF-Simmons AI Cosmic Origins Laboratory, which is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Simmons Foundation to develop AI technology for astronomical research and accelerate the pace of scientific discovery. is.
“HPC is the lifeblood of my research,” Offner said as he began his talk. “And that’s one of the main reasons I came to UT. The most important qualification for me right now is being a long-time TACC user.”
Star formation is a very important process in astrophysics. It powers the evolution of galaxies, is responsible for the distribution of heavy elements in the universe, determines planetary systems, and supports life on Earth.
“This involves dynamic ranges and processes that take more than 10 million years and span more than 24 orders of magnitude in density and 11 orders of magnitude in spatial scale. These simulations far exceed conditions that can be achieved in the laboratory. This is why we need TACC.”
“The Frontera supercomputer has enabled the most physically accurate simulation of star formation to date. This calculation includes cosmic rays for the first time. All the magnetic processes we need And we’re the first researchers to start at the scale of galaxies and zoom down to more than 11 orders of magnitude in physics.”
“Center Situation” Lecture
TACC Executive Director Dan Stanzione presented the “State of the Center” highlighting several milestones.
The center continues to upgrade, deploy, and evolve the mix of infrastructure and systems in operation for its users, including the introduction of TACC’s large-scale production system, Stampede3, and its AI-focused system, Vista. The center began construction of the National Science Foundation Leader-Class Computing Facility (NSF LCCF). Horizon, part of the NSF LCCF, is the center’s next large-scale system with 10x improved simulation performance and 100x improved performance for AI applications compared to the current leader-class system, Frontera. It will be. Horizon is scheduled to enter production in 2026.
Additionally, TACC has expanded its user reach across the country. The center currently has users from six different federal agencies: NSF, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Defense, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. TACC also supports a wide range of Texas academic institutions, including the UT System and UT Austin, and has expanded partnerships with Texas Tech University, Texas A&M University, and the University of North Texas.
“One thing we’ve learned in 70 years of scientific computing is that innovation never stops,” Stanzione says. “We intend to navigate all complexities with the stability and scale needed to support our customers on their research journeys.”
TACC Executive Director Dan Stanzione thanked all participants and shared the center’s milestones over the past year. (Source: TACC)
students, students, more students
TACCSTER is an important event for students as it provides an opportunity to present their work in an interdisciplinary environment.
“Students can test and practice their science communication skills. They also learn about the research their colleagues are doing, get inspired, learn new techniques, and receive feedback on their own research.” said Mr. Allen.
At the symposium, 51 posters from 10 different Texas-based institutions were presented, and four students were selected for the “Best Poster Award.”
Heiki Chan, Arlington, Utah
An in-depth analysis of social media users’ veracity stance toward factual claims about climate change
“What excites me most is the potential of my research to make sense of vast amounts of unstructured information, especially from social media. Developing methods that can automatically classify and analyze social media data Competencies have wide-ranging applications, from understanding public discourse to combating misinformation.”
Shoaib Mansoori, Dallas, Utah
Theoretical study of carrier transport in two-layer transition metal dichalcogenides
“My research deals with materials such as transition metal dichalcogenides, which have unique properties that can lead to advances in transistor technology. The idea that I can contribute to the development of new possibilities keeps me motivated. Every step forward, whether it’s a new insight or a small breakthrough, adds to the picture, and that’s rewarding for me.”
Liting Huang, Austin, Utah
Simulating Mosquito Population After Hurricane Harvey
“My research may one day be useful in future public health crises. There is no model for this problem, so everything I try is new and I work to make it interesting and exciting.” I’m here.”
Marissa Lama, Austin, Utah (not pictured)
Towards adaptive direction selection in unconstrained deterministic non-derivative optimization
“My research was completed under TACC’s Cyberinfrastructure Research for Social Change REU program. What excites me most about this research is its flexibility and wide range of applications. Optimizing functions without relying on gradient information opens up the possibility of solving complex problems in ways that are not normally explored.”
Congratulations to all student poster winners! (Photos from left to right): 1. Haiqi Zhang, An in-depth analysis of social media users’ veracity with factual claims about climate change, Arlington, Utah. 2. Shoaib Mansoori, Theoretical Study of Carrier Transport in Bilayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides, Dallas, Utah. 3. Liting Huang, Simulating Mosquito Populations After Hurricane Harvey, Austin, Utah. 4. Marissa Lama (not pictured), Toward Adaptive Selection of Direction in Unconstrained Deterministic Derivative-Free Optimization, UT Austin (Source: TACC)
See you in 2025!
Overall, TACC leadership and TACCSTER 2024 organizers hope that the symposium was a great experience.
“Our goal is to bring together researchers from across the great state of Texas to benefit from the power of cross-scientific collaboration and learn more about how to use computational technology and supercomputers to solve research problems. It’s about finding common ground,” Allen concluded. “We look forward to seeing you in 2025!”
This article was first published by TACC and is reprinted here with permission from TACC. Faith Singer is a communications specialist at TACC.
Image above: During TACCSTER 2024, participants participated in four tutorials. Containers for HPC reproducibility: Build, deploy, and optimize. CUDA Programming: Basic C and Fortran Concepts. Modern C++ for computational science. Reproducible ML workflows and deployments with Tapis. (Source: TACC)
The UT System Research Cyberinfrastructure (UTRC) program provides access to advanced computing capabilities to researchers at all UT System institutions. TACC resources available through UTRC include high-performance computers, high-capacity data storage, high-bandwidth data access, extensive software libraries, training support, and computational expertise.
