ASC15 Towards Universe, Life, and Smog

May 19, 2015

Since thousands of scientists have been devoting their efforts to studying the disturbing problems on universe, life and smog, it sounds to be the pie in the sky for college students to challenge the three conundrums. However, on May 18, 2015 ASC Students Supercomputer Challenge (ASC15) will be held in Taiyuan University of Technology. On the occasion, nearly 100 students from 16 universities’ participating teams worldwide will try to improve supercomputer’s contribution for the three conundrums through their wisdom and creation.

There are 7 valuable questions chosen to be solved in the final contest of ASC15, which is around the corner. These questions aims to systematically inspect college students’ knowledge and capability in supercomputer application of edge-cutting science researches. These questions are composed of the data process software Gridding, which is used in the largest international astronomy cooperation project SKA (square kilometer array telescope); the nano scale molecular dynamics software NAMD, which is extensively applied to life science; and the air quality numerical model WRF-CHEM, which is the most advanced and widely used. All of the questions directly point to the calculating efficiency in universal exploration, life origination and smog prediction. It also rises more attention to the doubt that whether undergraduates are able to accomplish.

Gridding is one of the most time-consuming steps in SKA data processing. In the universal exploration, scientists cannot directly unscramble data that radio telescope has received. However, they need to process these data into sky pictures, and then to conduct research for star tracks, the birth of star, and the destruction of planets etc. contract to the sky pictures in different period. Simply speaking, software Gridding is used to transfer data that machine understands to pictures that scientists understand. Nevertheless, the data produced by SKA per second is expected to exceed 12TB, equal to 3.5 times of International Bandwidth of China’s Internet at the end of 2013, and nearly 50% of the massive astronomy data are needed to be processed through Gridding. However, according to current technology, processing such vast data needs to employ Extra-flops supercomputer. In this case, let alone the first step investment, the annual power consumption related is also the numerable financial burden. As a result, the scientists from SKA hope that Gridding can be integrated into many-core on MIC and to be optimized through ASC15 competition, as well as significantly improve data processing speed. All this would decrease the thirsty demand of high performance computing platform. The best optimization from ASC15 final will be provided to SKA organization for reference and adoption.

NAMD can simulate large molecular systems in massively parallel computers, ranging from several hundred cores for typical simulations to more than 500,000 cores for the largest simulations. It won 2002 Gordon Bell Award, which is regarded as the highest honors in supercomputer field, and 2012 Sidney Fernbach Award. Therefore, NAMD is a one of the “pearls” on the “crown” in the field.

WRF-CHEM has become the main technological software for the smog and PM2.5 particles, PM10 particles, sulfur dioxide and other harmful ingredients in the air. As is known to all, to prevent smog needs deep understanding of smog. The value of WRF-CHEM is that scientists can use it to simulate the forming process of smog on the supercomputer, and find out the real reason of smog forming by comparing the results of changing different chemistry reaction parameters with the actually detected result. However, because of the complex chemistry components in the air, the closer the model approaches to the reality, the more calculation and time the computers need. Therefore, improving the operating efficiency of WRF-CHEM contributes to faster development of smog studies.

Technology advancement not only allow us to solve the problems that were impossible to be overcome before, but also find more problems that remain to be solved. At the meantime, with the deepening understanding of nature, our abilities to tame and improve nature are also enhanced. For the students participating in ASC15, it is not only important for them to triumph in the competition, but also to make further understanding of the world and to step forward in the profound and gorgeous science world.

ASC Student Supercomputer Challenge is the largest college supercomputer competition initiated in Asia, proposed by China and organized by supercomputer experts and organizations in Japan, Russia, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, China Hong Kong and Taiwan, and it is positively supported by the scholars and organizations in the U.S and European countries as well. ASC aims to promote the supercomputing talents’ communication and cultivation, to advance the supercomputing application level, and developing ability, and then promote industry innovation.

 

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