Leading University and Research Institution Joins Network of Seven Other Institutions Focused on Parallel Computing

SANTA CLARA, Calif. —  NVIDIA Corp. has recognized the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Innovative Computing Laboratory (ICL) as a CUDA Center of Excellence, noting its adoption of the CUDA programming model in its curriculum, as well as its pioneering research into the development of linear algebra libraries for the high-performance computing community.

UT Knoxville joins a select group of seven universities and research organizations in the U.S. and abroad, including Harvard University, Cambridge University and National Taiwan University, that are designated as a CUDA Center of Excellence. More than 200 universities worldwide teach the CUDA programming model within their curriculum.

CUDA is NVIDIA’s computing architecture that enables its GPUs to be programmed using industry standard programming languages and APIs, opening up their massive parallel processing power to a broad range of applications beyond graphics.

“This award of a CUDA Center of Excellence underscores ICL’s commitment to continue our work at the forefront of high performance, scientific computing, ” said Jack Dongarra, ICL’s director. “We are very proud of this award and excited by the opportunity it affords to pursue our research on NVIDIA’s ground breaking platform.”

Mathematical algorithms are an essential component used by computers to perform linear algebra computations, and ICL’s years of experience in developing open source, mathematical software packages and systems such as LAPACK, ScaLAPACK, ATLAS, and PLASMA will be extended by the establishment of this new center. In particular, ICL’s work on Matrix Algebra for GPU and Multicore Architectures (MAGMA), whose goal is to create a new generation of linear algebra libraries that dramatically cut processing times using hybrid GPU-CPU co-processing systems, will be an area of focus.

“NVIDIA technologies are now well established in the forefront of general purpose, parallel computing. Our work on the development of Linear Algebra Libraries for CUDA-based Hybrid Architectures will further enable and expand these technologies in the general area of high-performance scientific computing. MAGMA, a subset of LAPACK for CUDA-based Hybrid Architectures, is only a first step in this direction,” added Dongarra.

The potential size of the communities impacted by the success of this new CUDA Center of Excellence is significant. A partial listing of the peta-scale ready applications that rely on dense and sparse linear algebra that the MAGMA libraries will encode includes: quantum chemistry, multi-physics supernova simulation, nano-materials, geophysics, computational mechanics, electronic structure of matter and fluid dynamics.

Visit the CUDA Center of Excellence program pages for more information.

About the Innovative Computing Laboratory (ICL)

The Innovative Computing Laboratory, part of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department in UTK’s College of Engineering, is an academic world leader in enabling technology research for scientific computing. With a focus on development of numerical libraries that encode the use of linear algebra in software, tools for performance analysis and benchmarking, and tools for high performance, distributing computing, ICL is located at the heart of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, campus and has been part of the HPC community since 1989. For more information about ICL, visit http:/icl.eecs.utk.edu.

About NVIDIA

NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) awakened the world to the power of computer graphics when it invented the graphics processing unit (GPU) in 1999. Since then, it has consistently set new standards in visual computing with breathtaking, interactive graphics available on devices ranging from portable media players to notebooks to workstations. NVIDIA’s expertise in programmable GPUs has led to breakthroughs in parallel processing which make supercomputing inexpensive and widely accessible. Fortune magazine has ranked NVIDIA #1 in innovation in the semiconductor industry for two years in a row. For more information, see http://www.nvidia.com.

Contact:

Jack Dongarra, Innovative Computing Laboratory, (865) 974-8295, dongarra@eecs.utk.edu

]]> http://www.utk.edu/tntoday/2009/11/19/ut-bookstore-thanksgiving-sale/feed/ 0 http://www.utk.edu/tntoday/2009/11/19/holiday-musicale/ http://www.utk.edu/tntoday/2009/11/19/holiday-musicale/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:17:35 +0000 khintz http://www.utk.edu/tntoday/?p=17127

KNOXVILLE — The School of Music at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is holding a benefit concert to raise money for the program’s scholarship funds.

The Holiday Musicale will be held at the Foundry at the World’s Fair Park from 4 to 6 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 6, 2009. It will feature a wide variety of music performed by students and faculty of the School of Music, along with holiday food and drink.

“This event is a wonderful way to support our scholarship program, which is important to many of our students,” said Roger Stephens, director of the School of Music. “Without these scholarships, many high-potential young musicians would simply not be able to benefit from being a part of our music program.”

The evening will feature music of the season. Music will be provided by the Jazz Quintet, the Smoky Mountain Brass Quintet, the Flute Choir, and the UT Faculty String Quartet.

Hors d’oeuvres and wine will be served. A cash bar also will be available.

The Holiday Musicale is sponsored by Sheena McCall, a wealth management advisor at Merrill Lynch.

Reservations for the Holiday Musicale are required by Tuesday, Dec. 1. The suggested donation is $60 per person. Additional scholarship donations also will be accepted. The School of Music accepts cash, checks, Visa, MasterCard or Discover.

C O N T A C T :

Donna Hundley, (865-974-8935, dhundley@utk.edu)

Developed under the leadership of Indiana University, FutureGrid is one of only two experimental systems in the NSF Track 2 program that funds the most powerful, next-generation scientific supercomputers in the nation.

FutureGrid is a high performance grid test bed that will allow scientists to work collaboratively to develop and test novel approaches to parallel, grid, and cloud computing. These types of computing have become essential to such lifesaving work as medical and life science modeling and drug discovery, as well as to disciplines ranging from physics and environmental science to economic modeling and forecasting.

“FutureGrid will serve as a proving ground for new distributed computing systems and will open up exciting new avenues for scientific, commercial, and governmental collaboration and research,” said Principal Investigator Geoffrey C. Fox, director of the Pervasive Technology Institute (PTI) Digital Science Center and a professor in the IU School of Informatics and Computing at Bloomington. “We envision the grids and clouds of the future not as a single system, but as many linked systems. For this reason we are engaging an incredible set of academic and industry partners throughout the U.S. and in Europe to participate in FutureGrid.”

Cloud technologies — such as Amazon Web Services and the open-source Eucalyptus system — are increasingly used to support online resources used by researchers and the public, and have the potential to make a significant impact on the 21st century economy. The U.S. federal government is also exploring the use of cloud technologies to better serve the public — including the proposed development of a federal computing cloud — and government officials are working with industry partners to establish standards for cloud computing.

“Our participation in FutureGrid will give us a remarkable opportunity to contribute to the evolution of the leading edge computing technology that scientists and engineers need to accelerate their research,” said Jack Dongarra, University Distinguished Professor and Director of UT Knoxville’s Innovative Computing Laboratory (ICL). “We are exceptionally pleased to be part of the outstanding team of collaborators that Prof. Fox has assembled; it brings together some of today’s most creative leaders in the field of high performance distributed computing.”

Other partners in the FutureGrid project include: Purdue University, San Diego Supercomputer Center at University of California San Diego, University of Chicago/Argonne National Labs, University of Florida, University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute, University of Texas at Austin/Texas Advanced Computing Center, University of Virginia, and the Center for Information Services and GWT-TUD from Technische Universitat Dresden.

The FutureGrid test bed will be composed of a high-speed network connected to distributed clusters of high performance computers and will be linked to the TeraGrid—the NSF’s national cyberinfrastructure of high performance computing resources for scientific research. FutureGrid enables systematic reproducible development, testing, and benchmarking of software systems and application codes, which will be the focus of Dr. Dongarra and his ICL team. It will go one important step further than other grids, however, using virtualization technology that will allow the test bed to support a wide range of operating systems.

FutureGrid allows researchers to experiment at all levels, including customizing network protocols and experimenting with new middleware. By using virtual machines running on real hardware, Future Grid will allow scientists to have full control over their testing environments without interfering with other users. Each virtual environment will consists of exactly the software that the scientists needs for an experiment and no more, reducing the amount of complexity found in current systems and allowing computer scientists to do controlled and reproducible experiments. This approach will create a safer, more secure and efficient means to explore emerging approaches to computing and data analysis.

Scientists will have the ability to pursue research interactively and to collaborate internationally, creating unprecedented potential for scientific discovery and innovation as they explore new uses for cloud technologies in science and engineering. FutureGrid will also be available to students at numerous universities in order to encourage collaboration and familiarize the next generation of knowledge workers with these technologies.

About Innovative Computing Laboratory

The Innovative Computing Laboratory (ICL) is a global leader in research and development of enabling technologies and software infrastructure for scientific computing. ICL researchers provide high performance tools for tackling some of today’s most challenging science and engineering problems, and they play a major role in the development of standards for scientific computing generally. As part of the electrical engineering and computer science department at UT Knoxville, ICL is the flagship laboratory of the Center for Information Technology Research (CITR), one of UT Knoxville’s leading centers of excellence.

Kickoff for the Volunteers’ game against the Vanderbilt University Commodores is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET. Neyland Stadium gates will open at 5 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU.

The traditional Vol Walk will begin at 5:20 p.m. at the Torchbearer statue on Volunteer Boulevard, then proceed down Peyton Manning Pass, then left onto Phillip Fulmer Way.

The Pride of the Southland Marching Band will leave the music building at 5:25 p.m. and will proceed along Volunteer Boulevard to Andy Holt Avenue and then on to the stadium.

Due to the Vol Walk and the band march, Volunteer Boulevard from east Andy Holt Avenue to Lake Loudoun Boulevard will be closed to vehicular traffic from 5:20 p.m. to 5:40 p.m. Also, Phillip Fulmer Way from east Andy Holt Avenue to Peyton Manning Pass will be closed from 5:20 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. Parking permit holders in Staff Lot 9 and other parking lots in this area should arrive two hours prior to kickoff in order to avoid vehicle and pedestrian congestion.

The Volunteer Village exhibition area will be open on the Humanities Plaza lawn from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Fans also can attend the College of Arts and Sciences’ Pregame Faculty Showcase, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Held two hours before each home game kickoff in the University Center Ballroom, the showcase is a free 30-minute presentation by a UT faculty member, followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer session. This week, Michael Lofaro, professor of English, will discuss “James Agee at 100: A Centennial Celebration,” a month long celebration that has included lectures, concerts and a museum exhibit.

Only fans with permits can park on campus. UT encourages fans to use shuttle buses from the Knoxville Civic Coliseum, the Old City area of downtown Knoxville, and Farragut High School. Limited public handicapped parking spaces and handicapped shuttle service to the stadium are available on the UT Agriculture Campus, off Neyland Drive.

Many area hotels also offer shuttle service to the game. Check with your hotel’s management for details.

Tennessee Department of Transportation overhead signs and radio broadcasts will advise motorists which interstate exits to take to arrive on campus. The signs also will advise through-traffic on Interstates 40 and 75 to take the I-640 bypass around downtown Knoxville.

UT reminds visitors that all items, including purses, are subject to search at the stadium gates. Certain items remain prohibited inside the stadium, and those items cannot be stored at any stadium gate.

Prohibited items include the following:

• alcoholic beverages, cans, bottles or coolers
• radios without headphones
• open umbrellas
• video cameras
• stadium seats with arms
• large bags or parcels, including backpacks and large purses
• weapons of any kind, including pocketknives

Fans are allowed to bring the following items inside the stadium:

• cushions and seats without arms
• diaper bags that accompany infants
• small cameras, pagers, cell phones and binoculars

In an effort to reduce wait times, the university is offering express entry lanes at Gates 10 and 21. Those fans with no items subject to search may utilize the express lanes for quicker access to the stadium.

Under state law, no smoking will be allowed anywhere inside the gates of Neyland Stadium. Those fans violating the no-smoking regulation may be escorted out of the stadium. No one inside the gates will be allowed to leave and then be readmitted.

A no-fly zone extends over the stadium from one hour before the game until one hour after it ends, prohibiting flights within a 3-nautical-mile radius and lower than 3,000-feet altitude, except as authorized by air traffic control.

Solicitation near stadium gates and along Phillip Fulmer Way is prohibited.

For those driving on campus, Peyton Manning Pass, Middle and Lower Drives, Estabrook Drive and Phillip Fulmer Way from Middle Drive to Tee Martin Drive will be closed 30 minutes before kickoff. Directional parking will be used in Area 9 and Lots 4, 5A and 5B.

A limited number of tickets are available at http://www.uttix.com.

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C O N T A C T :

Jeff Maples (865-974-3061, maples@utk.edu)

Brian Browning (865-974-3061, brian-browning@utk.edu)

Jay Mayfield (865-974-9409, jay.mayfield@tennessee.edu)

Tickets are $59 for lower level seats and $41 for upper level and are on sale now. To receive the special UT employee discount, call (865) 250-3842 or email KnoxGroups@aol.com. Be sure to specify that you are an employee to receive the discount.

For more information about The Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes, visti http://www.radiocitychristmas.com/nationaltour/.

Michael Lofaro

KNOXVILLE — Michael Lofaro, professor of English, will lead this week’s College of Arts and Sciences Pregame Faculty Showcase. His presentation, “James Agee at 100: A Centennial Celebration,” is part of the month long celebration, which has included lectures, concerts and a museum exhibit about the prolific author and his work.

Agee is a Knoxville native and wrote for magazines such as Time, Life, Fortune and The Nation. He wrote the screenplays for the films “The African Queen” and “The Night of the Hunter,” and won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his book “A Death in the Family.”

“James Agee was one of the most perceptive and prolific observers of the turbulent world of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s,” said Lofaro. “It is only in the last few years that the true extent and impact of all his work has begun fully to be realized.”

Lofaro has restored Agee’s intended text of his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “A Death in the Family,” is the general editor of the 10-volume “The Works of James Agee,” and also co-edited “James Agee Rediscovered: The Journals of ‘Let Us Now Praise Famous Men’ and Other New Manuscripts.” In total, he has published 11 books and more than 70 articles.

Lofaro joined the UT faculty in 1975 and was noted in the 1990 Birnbach’s “New and Improved College Book” as one of the four “Best Professors” at UT. He has been honored with the Chancellor’s Citation for Excellence in Academic Outreach, and presently serves as the assistant secretary general of the Fédération Internationale des Langues et Litératures Modernes (FILLM) and on the governing board of the International Association of University Professors of English (IAUPE).

He is a specialist in regionalism, Southern literature and culture, and the frontier and the frontier hero in American life.

He also has served as Senior Fulbright Lecturer in American Studies at the University of Vienna, as a consultant for National Geographic, as a lecturer for the Smithsonian, and has been featured and interviewed on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” The History Channel, A&E and on “The Today Show” in regard to his work.

For 20 years, the Pregame Faculty Showcase has introduced football fans to some of UT Knoxville’s most exceptional faculty members. A new series of showcases will be announced before the 2010 football season.

Each showcase is a 30-minute presentation followed by a 15-minute question-and-answer session. Free and open to the public, the presentations are held two hours before kickoff in the University Center Ballroom.

The showcases were recorded and the webcast archive will be posted online at http://www.artsci.utk.edu/outreach/Pre_Game.asp.

The showcases are sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences, WUOT 91.9 FM, the UT Alumni Association, the UT Office of Alumni Affairs and the UT Athletics Program.

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C O N T A C T :

Beth Gladden (865-974-9008, bgladden@utk.edu)

RB Morris

KNOXVILLE — The James Agee Centennial Celebration, a monthlong series of events marking the 100th birthday of the Knoxville native and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, screenwriter, journalist, author and poet, concludes this weekend with an evening of music at Laurel Theater and lectures at the UT University Center Ballroom and the Knox County downtown public library.

“One Last Weekend with Jim” begins Friday, Nov. 20, at 8 p.m. at Laurel Theater, 1538 Laurel Ave., with an evening of music by Knoxville singer, songwriter, musician, playwright, poet and actor RB Morris. Tickets are $6 for children 12 and under and $10 for students, seniors and Jubilee Community Arts members at the door. General admission tickets are $11 with advance purchase and $12 at the door.

Michael Lofaro, the UT Knoxville English professor and Agee scholar who organized the monthlong series, will speak at the College of Arts and Sciences’ Pregame Faculty Showcase Saturday, Nov. 21. In the University Center ballroom two hours before kickoff of the UT-Vanderbilt football game, Lofaro will discuss “James Agee at One Hundred: A Centennial Celebration.” The free presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

The final event of the weekend will be a lecture by UT Knoxville journalism and electronic media professor Paul Ashdown on “Agee’s Apocrypha: The Lost Writings on Love and Letters,” 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 22, at the Knox County Public Library, 314 West Clinch Ave. This event is free and open to the public.

Born on Nov. 27, 1909, in a home on Highland Avenue near James Agee Street, Agee spent the first seven years of his life in Knoxville before leaving town to attend boarding school. He returned to Knoxville for a year of high school and then left again, eventually graduating from Harvard University.

Agee went on to write for magazines such as Time, Life, Fortune and The Nation. He wrote the screenplays for the films “The African Queen” and “The Night of the Hunter,” and won a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for his book “A Death in the Family.”

Lofaro is the author of “A Death in the Family: A Restoration of the Author’s Text,” which is Volume 1 of the new 10-volume series “The Works of James Agee,” published by the University of Tennessee Press. Lofaro, general editor of the series, is the Lindsay Young Professor of American Literature and American and Cultural Studies at UT.

“Our goal for this series of events was to celebrate Agee’s life and work,” Lofaro said. “Agee was a poet, novelist, journalist, essayist, film reviewer, screenplay writer and cultural critic — and brought a unique voice and sensibility to everything he wrote.”

For more information on the Agee Centennial Celebration, visit http://web.utk.edu/~english/news/agee100.html.

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C O N T A C T :

Michael Lofaro (865-974-4928, mlofaro@utk.edu)

Charles Primm (865-974-5180, primmc@utk.edu)