A new collaborative scientific initiative at Harvard'

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• A new collaborative scientific initiative at
  Harvard.

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One-Slide IIC

• Proposal-driven, from within Harvard
• Projects focus on areas where computers are key
  to new science widely applicable results
• Technical focus Branches
• Instrumentation
• Databases Provenance
• Analysis Simulations
• Visualization
• Distributed Computing (e.g. GRID, Semantic Web)
• Matrix organization Projects by Branches
• Education Train Future Consumers Producers of
  Computational Science

Goal Fill the void in, highly value, and learn
from, the emerging field of computational
science.
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Astronomical Medicine
A joint venture of FAS-Astronomy
HMS/BWH-Surgical Planning Lab Work shown here
is from the 2005 Junior Thesis of Michelle
Borkin, Harvard College.
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Filling the Gap between Science and Computer
Science
Scientific disciplines
Computer Science departments
Increasingly, core problems in science require
computational solution Typically hire/home
grow computationalists, but often lack the
expertise or funding to go beyond the immediate
pressing need
Focused on finding elegant solutions to basic
computer science challenges Often see specific,
applied problems as outside their interests
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Workflow Continuum
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Workflow
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IIC branches address shared workflow challenges

• Challenges common to data-intensive science
• Data acquisition
• Data processing, storage, and access
• Deriving meaningful insight from large datasets
• Maximizing understanding through visual
  representation
• Sharing knowledge and computing resources across
  geographically dispersed researchers

IIC branches
Instrumentation
Databases/ Provenance
Analysis Simulations
Visualization
Distributed Computing
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Continuum
Computational Science Missing at Most
Universities
Pure Discipline Science (e.g. Einstein)
Pure Computer Science (e.g. Turing)
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IIC Organization Research and Education
Provost
Dean, Physical Sciences
Assoc Provost
IIC Director
Dir of Admin Operations
Dir of Research
Assoc Dir, Instrumentation
Assoc Dir, Visualization
Assoc Dir, Databases/Data Provenance
Assoc Dir, Distributed Computing
Assoc Dir, Analysis Simulation
Dir of Education Outreach
Education Outreach staff
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Project 1 (Proj Mgr 1)
Project 2 (Proj Mgr 2)
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Project 3 (Proj Mgr 3)
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Etc.
CIO (systems)
Knowledge mgmt
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IIC Organization Admin and Operations
Provost
Assoc Provost
Dean, Physical Sciences
IIC Director
Dir of Research
Dir of Admin Operations
Dir of Education Outreach
Finance
Admin
Note admin roles expected to be played by 1-2
staff members at outset staff will grow with
overall IIC growth
Facilities
Development
HR
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(No Transcript)
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Barnards Perseus
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H-? emission,WHAM/SHASSA Surveys (see Finkbeiner
2003)
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Numerical Simulation of Star Formation

• MHD turbulence gives t0 conditions Jeans
  mass1 Msun
• 50 Msun, 0.38 pc, navg3 x 105 ptcls/cc
• forms 50 objects
• T10 K
• SPH, no B or L, G
• movie1.4 free-fall times

Bate, Bonnell Bromm 2002 (UKAFF)
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GoalStatistical Comparison of Real and
Synthesized Star Formation
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Measuring Motions Molecular Line Maps
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Radio Spectral-line Observations of Interstellar
Clouds
Radio Spectral-Line Survey
Alves, Lada Lada 1999
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Velocity from Spectroscopy
Observed Spectrum
Telescope ? Spectrometer
1.5
1.0
Intensity
0.5
0.0
-0.5
All thanks to Doppler
400
350
300
250
200
150
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"Velocity"
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Velocity from Spectroscopy
Observed Spectrum
Telescope ? Spectrometer
1.5
1.0
Intensity
0.5
0.0
-0.5
All thanks to Doppler
400
350
300
250
200
150
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"Velocity"
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Barnards Perseus
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Astronomical Medicine
Excerpts from Junior Thesis of Michelle Borkin
(Harvard College) IIC Contacts AG (FAS)
Michael Halle (HMS/BWH/SPL)
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IC 348
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Astronomical Medicine
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Astronomical Medicine
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Astronomical Medicine
After Medical Treatment
Before Medical Treatment
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3D Slicer Demo
IIC contacts Michael Halle Ron Kikinis
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IIC Research Branches
Instrumentation
Analysis Simulations
Databases/ Provenance
Distributed Computing
Visualization
Improved data acquisition. Novel hardware
approaches (e.g. GPUs, sensors).
Development of efficient algorithms.
Cross-disciplinary comparative tools (e.g.
statistical).
Management, and rapid retrieval, of
data. Research reproducibility where did the
data come from? How?
e-Science aspects of large collaborations. Sharin
g of data and computational resources and tools
in real-time.
Physically meaningful combination of diverse data
types.
IIC projects will bring together IIC experts from
relevant branches with discipline scientists to
address a pressing computing challenge facing the
discipline, that has broad application
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3D Slicer
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Distributed Computing Large Databases Large
Synoptic Survey Telescope
Optimized for time domain scan mode deep
mode 7 square degree field 6.5m effective
aperture 24th mag in 20 sec gt 5
Tbyte/night Real-time analysis
Simultaneous multiple science goals
IIC contact Christopher Stubbs (FAS)
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Relative optical survey power
based on AW 270 LSST design
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Challenges at the LHC

• For each experiment (4 total)
• 10s of Petabytes/year of data logged
• 2000 Collaborators
• 40 Countries
• 160 Institutions (Universities, National
  Laboratories)
• CPU intensive
• Global distribution of data
• Test with  Data Challenges 

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CPU vs. Collaboration Size
Earth Simulator
LHC Exp.
Current accelerator Exp.
Grav. Wave
Nuclear Exp.
Astronomy
Atmospheric Chemistry Group
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Data Handling and Computation for Physics Analysis
event filter (selection reconstruction)
detector
processed data
event summary data
raw data
batch physics analysis
event reprocessing
analysis objects (extracted by physics topic)
event simulation
interactive physics analysis
les.robertson_at_cern.ch
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Workflowa.k.a. The Scientific Method (in the
Age of the Age of High-Speed Networks, Fast
Processors, Mass Storage, and Miniature Devices)
IIC contact Matt Welsh, FAS