NETWORKS

Several major HPC providers, including Dell, Appro, Cray, Juniper Networks, and SGI have stepped up to provide sponsorship support for the annual TeraGrid conference (TG'10) to be held Aug. 2-5 in Pittsburgh, Pa. Also joining this distinguished group as of this date is the HPC Advisory Council. HPCwire is once again the official media sponsor for this year's event.

TG'10 will be widely attended by scientists, engineers, funding agency representatives, and others throughout academia who plan to participate in a full range of research and technical presentations and workshops offered during the course of the conference. Registration is now open and participants can save $70 in registration fees if they sign up before July 1, 2010. Participants also are encouraged to reserve a room at the Sheraton Station Square to ensure accommodations at the TG'10 conference hotel. Room availability and rates are guaranteed only through July 2, 2010.

"We welcome the generous support of all of these organizations, and their commitment to TeraGrid and its community of academic researchers, technologists, students, resource providers, vendors, and government officials interested in advancing cyberinfrastructure for science and society," said conference co-chair Richard Moore, with the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego, a TeraGrid partner.

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), TeraGrid is the world's largest, most comprehensive distributed cyberinfrastructure for open scientific research with resources at 11partner sites around the U.S. to create an integrated, persistent computational resource. TG'10 will highlight some of the major scientific advances enabled by TeraGrid to date, covering significant findings across a wide range of disciplines.

"We view this conference as an opportunity where we, as a community, can gather face-to-face to learn about each other's accomplishments, understand current research and development, and build for future initiatives," said conference co-chair Daniel S. Katz, with the University of Chicago/Argonne National Laboratory, also a TeraGrid partner.

This year's conference is particularly noteworthy since it comes on the cusp of the transition from the current TeraGrid program to NSF's next generation eXtreme Digital (XD) program starting in mid-2011.

"We have a very exciting program this year, where researchers can come and find out about the cyberinfrastructure and high-performance computing available through TeraGrid that will enhance their work," said Shawn Brown, TG'10 Program Committee chair. "Our program spans the spectrum of scientific disciplines engaged by our users, as well as the gamut of technological advances developed by researchers across the world."

Brown, an assistant professor with the University of Pittsburgh and a Research Fellow with the Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center (PSC), a TeraGrid partner, said TG'10 also will emphasize the organization's education and outreach efforts to new communities and the K-12 setting, and highlight the highly successful Scientific Gateways Program. "TG'10 will provide a unique experience to learn about how TeraGrid, and XD beyond, can grow research and communities."

In addition, TG'10 will feature three keynote speakers throughout the event. Gabrielle Allen, from Louisiana State University (LSU), will provide an overview on how computational modeling of complex systems (black holes and neutron stars) has enabled advanced scenarios using large-scale compute resources, distributed grids, and high-speed networks. Bob Wilhelmson, with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), will speak about anticipated science advances with Blue Waters, which comes online in 2011. Tim Killeen, NSF Assistant Director, Geosciences Directorate, is the third and final keynote for the conference. Killeen will discuss the essential role of cyberinfrastructure in the geosciences.