HPCwire: Supercomputing Conference Turns 20

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November 16, 2008

Supercomputing Conference Turns 20

Q&A with SC08 General Chair Patricia Teller

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After more than a year of planning, the 20th annual Supercomputing conference (SC08) kicks off on Monday in Austin, Texas. SC08's general chair, Patricia J. Teller, is a veteran of past SC conferences and is currently a professor at the University of Texas (UTEP) at El Paso. We got the opportunity to ask Professor Teller a little bit about her background, what went into planning this year's event, and what we can look forward to this week.

HPCwire: First, can you tell us a little about your day job as a Professor with the Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at El Paso and any other activities you are currently involved in?

Patricia Teller: As a professor, I am involved in research, teaching and service. With respect to research, I am currently working with six Ph.D. students, a master's student, two undergraduates, and a research specialist, as well as collaborators at New Mexico State University, IBM, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, University of Oregon, ParaTools, Inc., Sandia National Laboratories, and University of Delaware. Our present research foci are dynamic adaptation of operating systems and computer architectures; performance evaluation, modeling, and enhancements, in particular with regard to. I/O, checkpoint/restart, and multi-core architectures; parallel and distributed computing; workload characterization; and education. I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in the systems areas, e.g., computer architecture, operating systems, and parallel and distributed computing. In addition, I serve on committees at the department, college and university levels; am UTEP's representative to HiPCAT, High Performance Computing Across Texas, and the AHPCRC, the Army High Performance Computing Research Center; am a member of the program committees of other conferences; and serve on the TeraGrid Science Advisory Board, the IPlant EOT Advisory Board, and the SC Steering Committee.

HPCwire: It is apparent you have a deep interest in high performance computing and computer science, in general. What roles do you believe these technologies will play in our economy over the next 5 to 10 years?

Teller: As we all know, high performance computing has become a catalyst for advancing the state-of-the-art in science, engineering, and other disciplines. Such advances are critical to national and global interests, financial and scientific. For example, these advances will help provide accurate weather and climate forecasting, design new pharmaceuticals, and support advanced manufacturing design. Accordingly, computer science is being and will continue to be an important component of multi-disciplinary research and the industries that benefit from this research. At SC08, we will be focusing on two key areas -- Biomedical Informatics and Energy. As an example of the breadth of research HPC can contribute to, our Energy Thrust will address everything from better use of existing energy resources to developing future energy sources such as fusion and biomass.

HPCwire: Can you point to a specific technology or trend in HPC that is changing the nature of supercomputing?

Teller: Multicore processors certainly is one of those technologies, and, as you will see, this is quite apparent in the SC08 Technical Program.

HPCwire: Turning to the conference: In the past you have been involved in SC as a member of the Steering Committee. What is it like being the program chair?

Teller: I have served the conference in many ways: on the Technical Papers Committee, the Tutorials Committee, the Technical Program Committee, and the Steering Committee, and as Student Volunteer Chair, Invited Speakers Chair, and Finance Chair -- and maybe in other capacities too! Now, as Conference General Chair, I have a role that draws on these varied experiences, but also brings with it a lot of responsibility and effort. Being the General Chair, and having a great committee, once the vision is formed and conveyed, and the ball starts rolling, the chair's role is to make sure it stays on course and to support the efforts of the committee members.

For me, this has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience, which would not have occurred if I were not nominated and elected by the SC Steering Committee, if the President of UTEP, Dr. Diana Natalicio, did not support my involvement, if my husband, Joe, did not support the many hours that I have spent in the planning process instead of doing other things, and if all the wonderful people on the SC08 committee did not commit and deliver. Working with the SC08 committee has been a joy and I look forward to experiencing, with them, the fruits of our efforts.

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