Inside XSEDE - December 2018

A Note from XSEDE PI, John Towns

All — The end of the calendar year is a time often taken for some reflection. With the hustle and bustle of day-to-day activities, it is often hard to really appreciate what has been happening over the course of many months. The opening of this year was a bit of a trial for the project given that I was seriously sick and the team conducted an NSF review without my ability to do more than observe silently. While that was a difficult situation, the team demonstrated its ability to perform well without the leader. This is a testament to the excellence of the team and also a clear signal refuting a concern I have heard a number of times, namely, that the project was overly dependent of the PI. While I never believed that, this provided a clear demonstration of it.

The project has faced several other challenges throughout the year. In particular, after just coming off the (semi-)retirement of Ralph Roskies, we also saw the (semi-)retirement of Nancy Wilkins-Diehr. Both were significant losses to the project and to the long-term efforts we have been pursuing. As dear friends and trusted colleagues, this was particularly troubling for me. But yet again, the team showed its resilience and this became a wonderful opportunity for two of our teammates to step up and fill the void each left. I thank both Phil Blood and Bob Sinkovits for their eagerness to bring new perspectives to the Senior Management Team.

Along the way this year, we have also had several other folks leave the project and again others have stepped up to take on those roles and bring new ideas and new energy to the project as a whole. The ability for the project to handily address such transitions is a clear sign of the strength of the team and its ability to respond to such challenges and address them with relative ease.

All of this complements the wonderful accomplishments over the past year. Despite the organizational challenges, we have executed on our plans superbly. This is clearly reflected in the the reports from both of the reviews with NSF this year. I want to pull a quote from the June review report that really shows where we are as a project:

The XSEDE2 team and resources are critical to the effective operation and success of the NSF advanced computing infrastructure and the impact on the national science investment. They are to be commended for their excellent service and infrastructure in supporting the NSF advanced computing ecosystem. The team serves as the dynamic force that both keeps the operation flowing and the disparate groups connected. The fact that the leadership has built a culture of excellence and trust is apparent in the smooth transition in key personnel on the project, and provides confidence that the team will continue to provide excellent support and service to the NSF advanced computing ecosystem. They have effectively addressed many of the issues that tend to bring down these types of projects such as setting clear limits for PI collaborations, unrealistic milestones, PI engagement, and community outreach with enthusiasm and passion.

The panel recognizes that much of the excellence and success of XSEDE is a result of the people and their skills, expertise in the HPC field and dedication. The expertise contained within the organization should not be underestimated and is a valuable resource to the CI community in its own right.

It is an immense honor to lead this team and to be able to share our success with NSF and the rest of the community. As the holiday season runs its course, I again cannot help but be humbled by the dedication and support of everyone on the team. It is only through the efforts of everyone facing into our challenges and relentlessly pursuing our goals that such success is possible.

It is my sincere wish that each and every one of your takes pride in our individual and collective accomplishments, and considers the incredible team of which we are all a part. Likewise, I also hope that everyone takes this season to spend time with family and friends to enjoy their company and to celebrate those relationships. I, for one, feel incredibly blessed and look forward to that time over the next couple of weeks.

My deepest thanks and sincerest wishes for a joyous holiday season to all!

-John

Apply for XSEDE Project Improvement Funds (PIF)

Have a creative idea for improving XSEDE and the things we're doing? Apply for funding for a short-term project through the Project Improvement Fund (PIF). Talk to your manager or visit the PIF wiki page to learn more.

Based on feedback from those that have submitted ideas in the past, we've updated and simplified the submission tool to make it easier to get your ideas in front of our leadership team.

Get your idea submitted in four steps (from the wiki):

Review the XSEDE Goals and remember that alignment to these goals is an important consideration given to all improvement idea submissions.
Collect your thoughts on something that you believe would improve the XSEDE project and is aligned to the XSEDE Goals.
Contact any L2 Director and ask them to review your improvement idea. The L2 Director that reviews your improvement idea and provides feedback, will be referred to as your "L2 Sponsor." L2 Directors have been asked to be responsive to review requests from staff members that wish to submit an improvement idea. They have also been asked to coach submitters on producing well written idea submissions.
After receiving approval from your L2 Sponsor, submit your Improvement Idea via the online PIF Submission form . Note: L2 Sponsor approval is required for an improvement idea submission to be considered by the SMT.

If you have any questions or comments, please send them to pif@xsede.org .

XSEDE Cyberinfrastructure Integration Updates

XSEDE's Web SSO service is used by applications provided by XSEDE and by XSEDE community members, including the XSEDE User Portal (XUP), the Community Software Repository (CSR), science gateways and other research portals, training websites, and more. Using the XSEDE Web SSO service, any application can use XSEDE user IDs as the basis for its sign-on mechanism. The Web SSO service is based on Globus Auth , an OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 service provided by the Globus team at the University of Chicago. For more information about the Web SSO service, see XSEDE's website .

Welcome, New Members of the XSEDE Advisory Board (XAB)

XSEDE recently welcomed four new members to the XSEDE Advisory Board:

Lisa Arafune, Director of the Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation (CASC)
Ken Bloom, professor of Physics & Astronomy at the University of Nebraska
Rudi Eigenmann, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Delaware
Ani Ural, Director of the Computational Biomechanics and Solid Mechanics Laboratory at Villanova University

We are grateful for the expertise and commitment they will bring to XSEDE as we move forward.

Recent NSF Solicitations of Potential Interest to Our Community

NSF has recently released a few solicitations which may be of interest to the larger XSEDE community. Feel free to share, and refer those interested in collaborating with XSEDE on a solicitation to the guidelines found on our website.

Solicitation #19-537 : Mid-scale Research Infrastructure-1 (Mid-scale RI-1)

Solicitation #19-542 : Mid-scale Research Infrastructure 2 (Mid-scale RI-2)

Solicitation #19-524 : Training-based Workforce Development for Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (CyberTraining)

Solicitation #19-512 : CISE Community Research Infrastructure (CCRI)

Solicitation #19-534 : Advanced Computing Systems & Services: Adapting to the Rapid Evolution of Science and Engineering Research

Apply by Feb. 4 for the 2019 International HPC Summer School Program

Graduate students and postdoctoral scholars are invited to apply for the tenth International Summer School on HPC Challenges in Computational Sciences, to be held from July 7 to 12, 2019, at the campus of the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) in Kobe, Japan.

Applications are due Feb 4, 2019. The expense-paid program will benefit scholars from around the world who use advanced computing in their research. The ideal candidate does not need to be an expert in HPC! More information and how to apply may be found at the link below.