Abstract: While the “classical” HPC workload continues to be in ever-higher demand, HPC-like workloads are beginning to infiltrate many other aspects of the computing ecosystem. Model-parallel AI workloads in vision and language are exploding, as well as the need for computing in response to pandemics and natural disasters. HPC is becoming key in medical imaging and personalized medicine, in urban traffic management, in precision agriculture, and beyond. Pervasive sensors and “cheap data” is driving demand for edge computing – and for every edge device, there is a datacenter somewhere providing computing upstream. This talk will give an overview of the fast-evolving workloads, the modes of service required to support them, and what this means for underlying software and systems from the view of the Texas Advanced Computing Center. The talk will also note what resources are available to researchers at A&M from TACC and how to get them.

Bio: Dr. Dan Stanzione, Associate Vice President for Research at The University of Texas at Austin since 2018 and Executive Director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) since 2014, is a nationally recognized leader in high performance computing. He is the principal investigator (PI) for a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to deploy Frontera, which is the fastest supercomputer at any U.S. university. Stanzione is also the PI of TACC's Stampede2 and Wrangler systems, supercomputers for high performance computing and for data-focused applications, respectively. For six years he was co-PI of CyVerse, a large-scale NSF life sciences cyberinfrastructure. Stanzione was also a co-PI for TACC's Ranger and Lonestar supercomputers, large-scale NSF systems previously deployed at UT Austin. Stanzione received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and his master's degree and doctorate in computer engineering from Clemson University.

Abstract: This talk will set forth the vision and investment priorities for the NSF Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (OAC). Advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) systems are increasingly important to science and engineering (S&E) discovery. This talk outlines OAC’s integrative vision and holistic approach to developing, provisioning, and maintaining CI systems that balance innovation and stability to support the higher education/advanced research enterprise.

Bio: Amy Friedlander is currently the Deputy Office Director for the Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE/OAC), where she has served as since November, 2014. Since joining NSF in 2010, she has led several strategic activities, including both initial coordination of the Public Access Initiative and the activities that culminated in the widely-distributed report Rebuilding the Mosaic (2011). In addition to her position in OAC, Dr. Friedlander plays a central role in NSF’s data management policies and activities that address the foundation’s policies and management of administrative data as well as the research data resulting from NSF’s investments.

Prior to her NSF appointment, Dr. Friedlander held positions in the private non-profit and for-profit sectors. Among other projects, she participated in the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access, funded largely by NSF; led the initial strategic planning for the Library of Congress’ National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NSIIPP); and served as editor-in-chief of the ACM Journal on Computing and Cultural Heritage. At the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), she was the founding editor of D-Lib Magazine (www.dlib.org) and the author of a series of studies of the historical development large-scale technology-intensive infrastructures in the U.S.

Dr. Friedlander graduated from Vassar College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She holds the M.A. and Ph.D. from Emory University and the M.S.L.I.S. from The Catholic University of America. She pursued postdoctoral work on quantitative methods and computer-assisted social science research at the Newberry Library in Chicago, IL.