SC11 March Newsletter
Follow SC11:
SC11 will feature the latest scientific and technical innovations from around the world. Bringing together
scientists, engineers, researchers, educators, programmers, system administrators and managers, SC11
will be the forum for demonstrating how these developments are driving new ideas, new discoveries and
new industries. The SC11 thrust is: Data Intensive Science; the theme is Connecting Communities; and the
technical program focus is on sustained performance. As we head toward yet another great conference, this
newsletter will serve as a resource for preparations, deadlines and news regarding the conference.
HEADLINES:
* Message from SC11 General Chair
* March Feature: Communities Program–Building on Past Successes
* SC11 Housing Now Open
* New: Scientific Visualization Showcase
* New: Technical Program Expanded to Six Full Days
* Technical Paper Abstracts Due April 1; Full Papers Due April 8
* ACM Gordon Bell Prize Abstracts Due April 1; Full Papers Due April 8
* Disruptive Technologies Accepting Submissions
* SCinet Opens "Research Sandbox" Call for Proposals
* Broader Engagement–Invitation to Participate
* Tutorials Expand Scope to Include Broader Engagement
* Assemble Your Student Cluster Competition Teams and Apply
* The Student Volunteers Program Expects Larger Turnout in SC11
* Call for Interest in SC Leadership Roles
* Important Dates
* Seattle: Metronatural
The SC11 Conference is shaping up to be a very high-quality experience, and we look forward to having you
participate in all the conference has to offer. Past attendees regularly highlight the quality of the technical program,
the ability to learn about the latest technological products and services, and they highlight the value of networking
with people from around the world.
The SC11 theme is Connecting Communities through HPC. The Communities Program focuses on this theme by
engaging and supporting new communities attending the annual conference. The Communities Program recruits
students, educators, researchers, under-represented communities, and non-traditional fields of study from across
the globe. The program helps to introduce people to the full range of Conference offerings and helps to extend
their network of colleagues and collaborators. Read more about the Communities Program in this issue.
We have introduced two new aspects of the Conference since the last newsletter: (1) To expand the breadth of
high-quality technical sessions for SC11, we are including a full day of Technical Program sessions on the last
Friday of the week (November 18); and (2) To enable researchers to highlight HPC applications that advance
science and engineering, we are providing a Scientific Visualization Showcase. Details about each of these
aspects are covered later in the newsletter and are also available on the website (sc11.supercomputing.org).
Whether you have been attending the SC Conference series for many years, or whether 2011 will be your first
SC Conference, we look forward to having you join us in Seattle to connect with the global HPC community.
To learn more about SC11 Conference offerings, browse the website (sc11.supercomputing.org), view the
podcasts that provide more insight into the Conference offerings, and be a part of the buzz of high performance
computing via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
Scott Lathrop, SC11 Chair
March Feature: Communities Program–Building on Past Successes
Over the past years, the SC Communities Program has engaged students, educators and new researchers in an
effort to help them become mainstream contributors to future SC conferences. A variety of programs were provided,
according to the needs and the roles of the participants: Broader Engagement for underrepresented groups;
Education for HPC educators; Student Cluster Competition and Student Volunteers for proactive student participations;
and International Ambassadors to cater to the needs of international participants (which grew to more than
20% of the SC constituents in SC10).
The SC10 Communities Program was very successful in bridging new communities with the old. We observed
unprecedented mingling of the Communities participants with the traditional Technical Program participants and
exhibitors, due in part to the additional special programs, such as Broader Engagement and Education "add-ons,"
the Student Job Fair, George Michael Memorial HPC Ph.D. Fellowship, and the Mentoring Program, as well as
building interpersonal relationships with activities such as the Saturday Night Communities Social.
Based on this success, the SC11 Communities Program is planning a number of new activities to further broaden
the encompassing experience of new participants, as well as strengthen the bridge between new and old
communities. These include: additional financial support in many programs to bring even more participants into
the program, especially for both US domestic and international underrepresented groups; HPC outreach activities
to smaller colleges and local high schools; career-building activities such as HPC workforce development; and the
Broader Engagement "Mezzanine" program that will cater to returning participants to encourage an accelerated
deepening of the engagement on the technical program side of SC11.
SC11 Housing Now Open
Reserve your hotel room early to ensure you get just the right match for your needs. Be sure to use the official
SC11 housing website so you can take advantage of the special prices we negotiated for conference attendees.
Choose among 18 hotels, all within walking distance of the convention center, with costs ranging from $129 to
$213 per night, offering lots of choices.
A new feature this year is that we also arranged for free Internet access–at almost all hotels–for people who
register using the SC11 housing website.
IMPORTANT NOTE: SC11 works exclusively with The Housing Connection (THC) to provide hotel reservations.
Any other housing organizations claiming to be affiliated with SC11 are NOT official partners; avoid problems by
using the authorized SC11 reservation site.
For more information: sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=hotels.html
Questions: housing@info.supercomputing.org
New: Scientific Visualization Showcase
New for SC11 is the Scientific Visualization Showcase. This area of the Technical Program will rely on competitive
selection visualizations with a goal to have an event and place at the conference that collects and showcases
state-of-the-art scientific visualizations that relate to HPC problems.
The Scientific Visualization Showcase will be presented in a museum/art exhibit-style environment so that
attendees can experience and enjoy the latest in science and engineering HPC results expressed through
state-of-the-art visualization technologies.
We encourage participation–both in submissions and attendance at the conference–from people and areas that
normally do not get involved with SC.
We are very interested in creating a repository of images and clips
that can be used for education, motivation and
to explain science and
engineering systems, particularly in HPC activities.
Submissions Open: Monday, March 21, 2011
Submissions Due: Friday, July 22, 2011
Notification: Friday, August 19, 2011
Questions: vis_showcase@info.supercomputing.org
New: Technical Program Extended to Six Full Days
For the first time ever, SC11 will have a full day of technical program events on Friday, expanding
the Technical
Program from 5 1/2 days to a full 6 days. On Friday, November 18, SC11 will offer tutorials and workshops in
addition to the normal panel sessions. This expansion is designed to provide increased technical information for
attendees as well as the opportunity to offer new topics and areas, while maintaining our high technical standards
and competitive acceptance criteria. The submission process for these events is included in submissions for the
workshop, panel and tutorial sessions.
The Technical Program is a major component of SC11, with the persistent conference goal that all selected work
is regarded in the highest esteem. The Technical Program is also one of the broadest, with activities focused on
high performance computing, networking, storage, and analysis. The program explores the latest and most
innovative work in applications, programming environments, system software, operating systems, architectures,
data intensive computing, storage, networking, security for HPC, grids and clouds through a wide range of venues.
The submission process for these events is provided on the submissions site (submissions.supercomputing.org).
For more information: www.sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=techprogram.html
Questions: techprogram@info.supercomputing.org
Technical Paper Abstracts Due April 1; Full Papers Due April 8
The Technical Papers program is the premier forum for disseminating innovative and important advances in high
performance computing in the areas of architecture/networking, performance analysis, system software,
applications, grids/clouds, and storage from academic, government and corporate institutions around the world.
A two-part submission process is again being used this year, with abstracts due by April 1 and full papers by
April 8. The Papers Committee will select submissions via a rigorous anonymous peer-review process with
originality, technical soundness, timeliness, and impact as the predominant acceptance criteria. SC11 anticipates
an acceptance rate of 20-25% and will value papers that focus on sustained performance and/or data intensive
science. Awards will be given for Best Paper and Best Student Paper.
Abstracts due: Friday, April 1, 2011
Papers due: Friday, April 8, 2011
Notification: Wednesday, July 1, 2011
For more information: www.sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=papers.html
Questions: papers@info.supercomputing.org
ACM Gordon Bell Prize Abstracts Due April 1; Full Papers Due April 8
The Gordon Bell Prize is awarded each year to recognize outstanding achievement in high performance
computing. Administered by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), financial support for the annual
$10,000 award is provided by Gordon Bell, a pioneer in high performance and parallel computing. The purpose
of the award is to track the progress of parallel computing, with particular emphasis on rewarding innovation in
applying HPC to applications in science. Finalists will present their results in a technical session during the
conference.
Gordon Bell prizes have been awarded every year since 1987. Prizes may be awarded for peak performance
as well as special achievements in scalability, time-to-solution on important science and engineering problems
and low price/performance. Finalists will present their results in a technical session during the conference.
Abstracts due: Friday, April 1, 2011
Papers due: Friday, April 8, 2011
Submission Site: submissions.supercomputing.org
Notification: Wednesday, July 1, 2011
For more information: sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=awards.html
Questions: awards@info.supercomputing.org
Disruptive Technologies Accepting Submissions
The Disruptive Technologies program is currently accepting submissions for its forum. A disruptive technology is
a technological innovation or product that may eventually supplant an existing dominant technology or product in
the marketplace. For SC11, Disruptive Technologies will serve as a forum for examining technologies that could
significantly reshape the high performance computing, networking, storage and data analysis ecosystem in the
next five to fifteen years, but which are not common in today's systems. Disruptive Technologies will showcase
these technologies in panel sessions and an exhibition showcase.
Submissions due: July 25, 2011
Submission Site: submissions.supercomputing.org
For more information: sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=disrupttech.html
Questions: disruptive-techs@info.supercomputing.org
SCinet Opens "Research Sandbox" Call for Proposals
SCinet provides a leading edge, high-performance network, assembled to support the high performance
computing, storage and networking needs of the exhibitors and attendees of the SC conference series.
Through the SCinet Research Sandbox (SRS), it also seeks to foster developments in network research which
is necessary to support advances in the critical infrastructures that connect high-performance, distributed
computing resources.
SC11 is now soliciting submissions for participation in the SCinet SRS, which allows researchers with innovative
network approaches to experimentally test their ideas in the unique environment of the SCinet network.
Submissions should describe the nature of the experiments, desired outcomes, the relevance to the HPC
community, as well as a description of the network requirements and vendor collaborations (if appropriate).
The SC11 SRS will for the first time feature a 10 Gbps, multi-vendor OpenFlow network testbed
(see www.openflowswitch.org ). OpenFlow allows the creation of software-defined network policy which
stands to be a significant innovation in HPC. Note that use of the OpenFlow testbed is not required.
Those whose submissions are accepted will present their experiment in a technical panel session.
Proposals Due : Friday, June 1, 2011
For more information: www.sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=scinetsandbox.html
Questions: scinet-sandbox@info.supercomputing.org
Broader Engagement–Invitation to Participate
The primary objective of the Broader Engagement (BE) program is to broaden the participation and engagement
of underrepresented groups in the field of HPC. Most importantly, BE participants enjoy full access to the conference
technical program and exhibits.
We invite applications from deserving candidates for the BE Program. We also provide BE alumni and other
technically savvy applicants an opportunity to join the BE community and enjoy the full technical program as well
as tutorials, with partial support from the conference.
Last year, the Broader Engagement Program supported 122 participants from various categories (undergraduate
students, graduate students, faculty, and professionals), many of whom were attending SC for the first time.
The participants were introduced to the field of HPC through various networking, mentoring and educational
activities. Our mentor-protêgê program was 100% successful in matching mentees with experienced HPC
professionals (mentors). The Student Career Fair, co-organized with the student volunteer community, was
well-attended and had recruiters from leading groups in industry, academia and government laboratories.
The views of BE alumni can be accessed at: isntv.blip.tv/file/4464195/#.
More news about BE at Intel Broadcast is available at: software.intel.com/en-us/articles/IACatSC10.
Submissions close: August 14, 2011
Notification: September 12, 2011
For more information: sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=broadeng.html
Questions: be@info.supercomputing.org
Tutorials Expand Scope to Include Broader Engagement
Among the most valued and attended component of the SC Technical Program is the Tutorials–they communicate
the latest wave of technology, scalable architectures, networks, storage, computational science, programming tools,
scientific data management, visualization, and HPC advances.
Tutorials cover a broad range of expertise, in both developing research and mature areas. For SC11, we recognize
the need to provide tutorials in both the basic foundational topics for entry-level practitioners and to extend the
space of consideration for greater impact within the community.
This year the Tutorials Committee is seeking to engage the BE Program by expanding the acceptable topic areas
to include all computing-related disciplines, regardless of whether they come from research, education, or industry.
Therefore, the Tutorials Committee welcomes competitive submissions from BE participants. Consideration will be
given to applicants with disabilities and other underrepresented groups. This initiative will work collaboratively
with the formal thrust area of BE at SC and coordinate to achieve the highest quality tutorial program.
Assemble Your Student Cluster Competition Teams and Apply
SC11 will again feature the Student Cluster Competition as an opportunity to showcase student expertise in a
friendly yet spirited competition. The competition will feature small teams that compete to harness the incredible
power of current-generation cluster hardware. In a real-time challenge, teams of six undergraduate and/or high
school students will build a small cluster of their own design on the SC exhibit floor and race to demonstrate the
greatest sustained performance across a series of applications. Held in collaboration with the Communities
Program, the Student Cluster Competition is designed to introduce the next generation of students to the high
performance computing community, so assemble your teams and apply to participate!
Please note that important dates for the competition have changed and are earlier for the 2011 conference than
previous years.
Submissions open: February 11, 2011
Submissions close: April 15, 2011
Notification: May 6, 2011
For more information: www.sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=studentcluster.html
Questions: student-cluster-competition@info.supercomputing.org
The Student Volunteers Program Expects Larger Turnout in SC11
SC11 is providing more opportunities for students to participate in the Student Volunteer Program. This year,
because of the expanded technical program week and new program elements, such as State of the Practice and
Scientific Visualization Showcase, we anticipate the need for a larger number of volunteers than in previous years.
In addition, we are also seeking to further diversify the participant demography. Additional funds beyond normal
volunteer support may be available on a limited basis for underrepresented and international applicants.
In addition to helping with the administration of the conference, student volunteers also have the opportunity
to learn about and discuss the latest HPC and networking technologies and meet leading researchers from
around the world. We encourage undergraduate and graduate students to apply. When not volunteering,
the students will be able to participate in the Technical Program, the Exhibits, and Communities events,
such as the Student Job Fair.
Submissions open: April 1, 2011
Submissions close: August 12, 2011
Notification: September 9, 2011
For more information: sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=studvol.html
Questions: student-vols@info.supercomputing.org
Call for Interest in SC Leadership Roles
Have you ever been interested in contributing to the SC conference, or do you have a colleague whose experience
and expertise can contribute greatly? The SC Steering Committee is seeking future leaders for the SC Conference
Series, and this is your opportunity to apply or nominate a qualified candidate for the roles below.
Conference General Chair
Nominations for the SC14 General Chair are now open and will close on June 17, 2011. Desired experience
includes:
• Managing large, complex projects in which the people executing the project do not all report directly to the
manager
• SC or equivalent experience, for example, head of two or more previous subcommittees
• Visionary in our community
• Able to set strategic direction (and delegate its execution)
• Willing and able to make the conference her/his top priority for the year of the conference
• Managing a large budget (~$5M)
Members of the SC Steering Committee
Nominations for two openings on the SC Steering committee are now open and will close on September 16, 2011.
Desired experience includes:
• Visionary in our community
• Willing and able to commit time to attend three one-, day in-person meetings and monthly one-hour teleconferences
Other Leadership Positions in the Conference Committee
The Steering Committee keeps a list of people interested in leadership roles on the conference and provides these
names to upcoming General Chairs for possible inclusion on their committees.
Nomination Process
To nominate a person or to nominate yourself for a role in the SC Conference, send an email giving the candidate's
name, a short paragraph describing how the candidate meets the above criteria, and a recent curriculum vitae
(CV) that highlights professional and SC experience.
Please send letters of interest in future General Chair, SC Steering Committee and other leadership positions
to Wilfred Pinfold (wilfred.pinfold@intel.com)
SC11 Important Dates
Be sure to always check the SC11 Important Dates page for key conference application, nomination, submission,
and notification deadlines.
Important dates: www.sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=dates.html
Seattle: Metronatural
"Whether metro or natural," Seattle offers you and your family a variety of sites to see and things to do.
Seattle boasts many museums, the historic underground city, the famous Pike Place Market - featuring the first
Starbucks - and the Space Needle within the metro area. Pristine waterways, two mountain ranges, and three
natural parks surround the city. In addition, a world-class wine region lies just west of Seattle.
Seattle's Convention and Visitors Bureau: www.visitseattle.org/
Visiting Seattle: www.seattle.gov/visiting/
For more information: www.sc11.supercomputing.org/?pg=travel.html
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