Author Archives: Stem Trek

For starters…

Climate Change, Food Security, Fresh Water, Poverty, Disease, Energy, Human Capital Development, and World Peace!

At the 2014 Southern African Development Community High Performance Computing (SADC-HPC) Forum meeting, a whitepaper by Jackson Phiri (University of Zambia), et al, titled “Cyberinfrastructure: An urgent need for SADC leadership to address food security in sub-Saharan Africa” set the platform for a broader discussion about the impact of climate change and how it could affect their shared vision of prosperity and peace. Their conclusion…

HPC (with related analytics & decision support systems) is critically important for sustaining people, societies and essential ecosystem functions.

Food insecurity and access to fresh water have been historical drivers of conflict in developing nations, and are growing concerns for the peaceful and diplomatic region. The SADC population is expected to double in some places by 2050 and quadruple in others by 2100. More than one fourth are currently 

I hope you will join us in Pretoria. Register today!

By Elizabeth Leake, STEM-Trek

I was pleased to read the recent New York Times article titled “Travel Industry Responds to Rise in Solo Sojourners.” Twenty-four percent of people who travel abroad are alone. I’ve traveled often over the past 10 years, and it’s almost always solo because it’s usually work-related.

Traveling alone can present security challenges, but I’ve always felt safe; probably because I’m experienced and know what to watch out for. I have some tips for anyone who is reluctant to strike out on their own. Exercising common sense, and following these rules could prevent you from having a bad experience.

Physical Security

Before leaving home, put a hold on snail mail and newspapers, and set …

By Elizabeth Leake, STEM-Trek

South Africa’s Kruger National Park was the perfect setting for the conservation-themed, Ninth Annual Center for High Performance Computing’s (CHPC) National Meeting titled “Towards an Energy-Efficient HPC System.” Additional meetings were co-located Dec. 1-5, 2014, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC) HPC Forum, HPC Advisory Council, and the Industrial HPC Advisory Forum.

CHPC Director Happy Sithole opened the conference by thanking conference sponsors, especially its diamond sponsor, Intel, and welcoming 305 HPC enthusiasts from 19 countries and 12 research arenas, including SADC delegates, system administrators, researchers, computational scientists, and industry affiliates. Ninety-two South African students presented posters, or competed for a chance to represent South Africa in July at the HPC Advisory Council International Supercomputing Conference (HPCAC-ISC) Student Cluster Competition in Frankfurt, Germany.

Kruger is one of South Africa’s largest national parks, and …

By Guest Blogger Jim Guibault (United Airlines pilot)

Having breakfast at a little cafe in Hong Kong, I had an epiphany. All these years of international flying, I’ve been trying to describe the feelings of traveling the world – the exotic, strange, and wonderful. But this morning I realized what I’ve never articulated: the sense of normalcy! Be it in Asia, Europe, South or Central America, watching people go about their daily lives reinforces that there are no “Those People.” It’s all “us.” Sure, there are minor differences, but no more prominent than the regional differences you see across America. Schoolchildren heading to class, old folks buying their morning groceries, business people grabbing a cup of joe on their way to the office …

Dear friends;

You may recall that Mary Ann Leung (Sustainable Horizons) and I served as SC14 Broader Engagement (SC-BE) program chair and deputy chair, respectively. Since we worked so well together, we plan to continue our efforts to promote a more diverse community at many more science, technology, engineering, and mathematics conferences in the future.

For starters, the National Science Foundation is supporting a Sustainable Horizons workshop for past SC-BE participants to help them prepare successful SC15 technical poster submissions. Anyone who has attended SC through the BE program is encouraged to apply by Jan.30.

The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory sponsored the first WeFold camp last summer under the direction of SC-BE program committee member Silvia Crivelli (LBNL). The immersive experience acquainted ten undergraduate scholars from diverse backgrounds with molecular modeling and protein folding skills so they could begin to …

Robert Dunn, Jr. was born in Saginaw, Michigan in 1985. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science (CS) from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) in 2011, and is making progress toward a CS graduate degree. His thesis involves the use of Google Glass technology to reduce the amount of time it takes for emergency teams to respond after a traffic accident. Robert was one of more than 20 million people involved in automobile or motorcycle crashes in 2011. Thankfully, he only suffered a bad case of road rash, but the experience enlightened him to the difficulty injured motorcyclists would have calling 9-1-1. He therefore hopes to develop life-saving, smart technologies that will automatically alert responders, in addition to giving motorcyclists a safe way to view the console without taking their eyes off of the road.

“The Supercomputing Conference Broader Engagement (SC-BE) program, and those who are involved, continue …