Computer and Information Science

and Engineering

Robert R. BorchersDivision Director

Advanced Computational Infrastructure and Research

ORAP, March 21, 2000

The Information Technology R&D Initiative

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Overview

ITR agenda maps PITAC into ITR and beyond• Fundamental, long-term thematic IT research• Advanced computing for science, engineering, and the Nation• Ethical, social, and economic implications of Information

Revolution• Education and training of America’s IT workforce• Five teraflop computing capability for S&E research

FY 2000 Current Plan• Information technology research - $90 million• Terascale acquisition - $36 million

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ITR Research Agenda

Increase fundamental, long-term, high risk basic research

• Software – security, reliability, scalability, ease of reuse

• Human-Computer Interface and Information Management

• High-End Computing

• Scalable Information Infrastructure

• Socioeconomic, Ethical, Legal & Workforce Implications

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A Vision of the World in 2010

2010

Social , Behavioral, Economic Sciences

Information Sciences

Life Sciences

PhysicalSciences,

Engineering

2000

Social ,Behavioral, EconomicSciences

LifeSciences

PhysicalSciences,

Engineering

Information Sciences

IT2 Research

IT2 Research

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Software

Goals• Increase productivity• Reduce fragility• Strengthen security• Manifest adaptiveness and flexibility

Methods• Seek revolutionary ideas and validate on realistic problems• Increase science base underlying software development• Bring greater engineering discipline to development process• Incorporate self-stability to achieve fault-tolerance, load-

balancing, etc.

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High-End Computing Pyramid

“Familiar problems are made more acute by greater scale, diversity, and performance requirements” – Herb Schorr

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High-End Computing Research

Goals• Develop enabling computational science technologies for all

disciplines

• Advance the fundamental high-end computing state of the art

Methods• Encourage exploration of new ideas in scalable software and

scientific visualization

• Launch a major program for scientific applications

• Establish cross-directorate activity

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Scalable Information Infrastructure:Ubiquitous Connectivity

Satellite

Global

Suburban& rural

Urban

Pico-Cell

Micro-Cell Macro-Cell

In-building

Pico-Cell

Adapted from Tim Hewitt, “UMTS Overview,” TIA inf. Session, ITU Comf., Mpls, MN, Oct. 17-18, 1998

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Socioeconomic, Ethical, Legal & Workforce Implications

Economic and social implications of IT

Interaction between social and computer scientists

Workforce• Understanding the pipeline• Technology for learning• Innovation in education• Mentoring

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• The Presidential Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) recommended:

Major new investments in long-term computing research, including high-end computation, and

Providing a terascale computing system to support future computational and computer science research.

• NSF’s implementation of a terascale system, following a full and open competition, would augment the resources available to the Science and Engineering computation community through the Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) program.

High End Computing in IT2

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Presidential Advisory Commission on Information Technology

• High-end needs highlighted by PITAC– Long-term research in innovative computing technologies & software– Funding leading-edge computing facilities for research

• High-end recommendations by PITAC– Major new investments in long-term research enabling high-end

computation– Terascale equipment acquisition supporting current computational and

computer science research– Integrated research and development plan to create balanced petaflop

systems by 2010

• Addressing these will require coordinated efforts with other IT2 thrusts

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HPCC Workshops Background

• NSF hosted 3 workshops in 1998 to identify HPC challenges• Science workshop findings

– Important applications need large scale computing, large memories, high bandwidth networking and I/O

• Algorithms workshop findings– Algorithm development requires teams with representation of

applications and computer science– Algorithms must demonstrate usefulness for applications on BIG

systems

• Software workshop findings– HPCC potential of large parallel systems can only be partially

fulfilled due to limited programmability, limited understanding of end to end behavior, inadequate data management, …

– Software research is necessary in all of these areas

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850 Projects in 280 Universities

Universities With Projects Using the PACI Supercomputers

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Computational Science Terascale Examples

• Weather and Climate Prediction

• Protein Folding

• Cosmology

• Chemical Kinetics

• Gravitational Waveforms

• Seismology

• Combustion Systems

• Large Scale Economic Systems Analyses

• Materials Sciences

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Capability Computing - Numerical Prediction of Thunderstorms

Same Computer Forecast WithoutNEXRAD Radar Data

Moore, OKTornadic

Storm Missing!

Nat’l WeatherNat’l WeatherService ComputerService Computer

ForecastForecast(unable to(unable torepresentrepresentindividualindividual

thunderstorms)thunderstorms)

Moore, OKTornadic

Storm

2-Hour ARPS Computer Forecast Down to the Scale of Counties -- Run on the

256-Node Origin 2000 at NCSA

Central Oklahoma, May 3 1999, 7:00 pm CDT

7 pm NEXRAD Radar Observations

Moore, OKTornadic

Storm

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Five years ago, this sort of prediction was deemedtheoretically impossible.

Now it’s being done inreal time! With terascale systems it will be routine.

NSF Science and Technology Center for Analysis and Prediction of StormsUniversity of Oklahoma

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Review and Selection Criteria

The normal NSF review criteria will be used, plus examination of:

– Delivery schedules, costs, and system performance

– Evidence that the institution can mount and sustain the system

– Construction and operations budgets, and sources of funds

– Quality and credibility of the following plans:• Physical Facility,

• Computer Acquisition and System Integration,

• Staffing & Management,

• Computing Resource Management,

• Network Connectivity, and

• Education.

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Goals• To use information technology effectively and efficiently• To make computers do what we want• To find out what we wish to know

Research Themes• Active Knowledge• Computer Human Boundary • Human Support and Augmentation

Human-Computer Interaction & Information Management

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Scalability

Heterogeneity

Self-management

Adaptability

Security/privacy

Reliability

Dynamic Networks

Scalable Information Infrastructure:Central Research Issues

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ITR Multidisciplinarity

Multidisciplinary research stressed• Encourages projects simultaneously contributing to IT and

other disciplines

Cross-directorate collaboration and involvement• Extensive consultation in planning process• Multi-directorate ITR Coordinating Committee

• Advises CISE AD• NSF-wide contact point• Responsible for preproposal and full proposal reviews

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Status of ITR Research Competition

Solicitation released Sept. 28, 1999

Project Budgets over $500K• Letters of intent due Nov. 15, 1999

• Preproposals due Jan. 5, 2000 (Panel review early Feb. 2000)

• Full proposals due Apr. 17, 2000 (Panel review mid May 2000)

Project Budgets under $500K• Letters of intent due Jan. 5, 2000

• Full proposals due Feb. 14, 2000 (Panel review mid Mar. 2000)

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ITR Management

Impact Assessment• Annual awardee progress and final reports

• Midterm external reviews, site visits, and/or PI meetings for research project awards with budgets above $500K

• Internal tracking of all awards

• Reporting to external groups, e.g., PITAC, OSTP, OMB, and interagency ITR working group

• External Program Evaluation planned in FY2003

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Challenges and Opportunities

Involving teaching faculty

Role of research institutes

Support for research/engineering staff

Changing Federal IT support picture, e.g.,• Possible change in DARPA research emphases

• Possible increase NIH participation

• No FY 2000 Terascale hardware funding for DOE

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Challenges/Opportunities

Forging collaborative interdisciplinary environments, e.g.,• IT and Biology in bioinformatics

• IT and Physics in quantum computing

• IT and Chemistry in molecular switching

• Computer Science and Computational Sciences...

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ITR Management

Review Process• CISE and other directorates participate, as relevant

• Multi-level

• Pre-proposal, full-proposal, site-visit (as necessary)

• Final award decision by AD/CISE in consultation with other ADs

Awards• 30% of program funding in ~ $2M-$4M/year awards

• 40% of program funding in ~$1M/year awards

• 30% of program funding in ~$150K/year awards