Central Texas' Future

This is a blog for the members of the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society. It's purpose is to exchange and develop ideas about the future of Central Texas, especially Austin.

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Supercomputing: Transforming Science and Enriching Society

The Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society will hold its next monthly meeting on Tuesday, November 20, 2007. It will be held at the J.J. Pickle Research Center of the University of Texas, at 6:00 p.m. The J.J. Pickle Research Campus (formerly the Balcones Research Center) is located in northwest Austin at the corner of Braker Lane and Burnet Road. A J.J. Pickle Research Campus map and building list is available for visitors to the PRC (http://wwwhost.cc.utexas.edu/maps/prc/). Directions to the TACC can be found at: http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/general/visitor/.

Dr. Jay Boisseau will speak on " Supercomputing: Transforming Science and Enriching Society”

You are invited to a participatory talk led by Dr. Jay Boisseau, director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin. A dynamic and engaging speaker, Boisseau will explain what supercomputing is, why it is fundamental for science discovery, and how it is increasingly important for society, business, homeland security, entertainment, healthcare, and other industries. In addition, Boisseau will share initial results and future plans for Ranger, an unprecedented computational resource, which will be the most powerful supercomputer in the world when it is deployed at the end of the year.

Read “The Beast in the Background” by Avrel Seale, Alcalde, March-April 2007 for more information about the project. (http://www.texasexes.org/alcalde/feature.asp?p=1951)

Attendance is limited to 48. To attend you must prepay by Tuesday, November 13, 2007 at noon.

You can prepay at: www.centexwfs.org/index_Register.htm

Or, send a check to CenTexWFS, PO Box 26947, Austin, TX 78755-0947.

Price: $20 for members, $25 for non-members.

John ("Jay") R. Boisseau graduated with a bachelors degree in astronomy and physics from the University of Virginia in 1986 while also working as a computer consultant. He continued to work in Charlottesville for an additional year as a scientific programmer, and then entered the graduate program in astronomy at The University of Texas at Austin. After obtaining his masters degree in 1990, Boisseau initiated his dissertation research on modeling the dynamics of Type Ia supernovae using Cray supercomputers. This work stimulated his interest in high performance computing, and led him to join the staff of the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center as a programmer analyst in 1994 while continuing his supernova modeling research. At ARSC, Boisseau helped develop and lead several projects and activities in the relatively new center while supporting a growing scientific user community.

Boisseau completed his dissertation and joined the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) in 1996 to advance his career in high performance computing. At SDSC, Dr. Boisseau became an Associate Director and created the Scientific Computing Department, with groups specializing in applications optimization, performance modeling, parallel tools development, grid portals development, and user support.

He led several major SDSC projects for the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI) and also led SDSC's participation in the Department of Defense (DoD) Programming Environments and Training (PET) program. He also founded the IBM Scientific Computing User Group while at SDSC.

In June 2001, Boisseau returned to Austin to become the director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin. Under his direction, TACC has grown in size and stature to become one of the leading academic advanced computing centers in the US.

Boisseau initiated a strong and growing research and development program at TACC while enhancing the computational resources to provide world-class capabilities, culminating in the recent award to TACC of the largest NSF award in UT Austin history: $59 million to acquire one of the most powerful computing system in the world in 2007 and to support US open research for four years. TACC participates as a resource provider and a technology developer in the NSF TeraGrid, with Boisseau serving as the UT Austin PI and a member of the Executive Steering Committee. Boisseau also leads UT Austin's involvement in the High Performance Computing Across Texas (HiPCAT) consortium and is beginning to work with other institutions in the UT System to enhance their research programs by leveraging TACC's advanced computing systems and expertise.

Boisseau's professional activities include performance characteristics of high-end computing systems and microprocessors, and the development of grid technologies and portals for computational science. His newest interest is the application of HPC and grid technologies to computational biology and biomedicine.

For more information about TACC, visit http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/.

For more information about the Central Texas Chapter of the World Future Society, visit http://www.centexwfs.org/.

For more information about the World Future Society, visit http://www.wfs.org/.

Paul Schumann, President
paul.schumann@centexwfs.org
512.632.6586
http://www.centexwfs.org/