May 1, 2023 An Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) Developer Session will be held from 11-noon CT on Wednesday, May 24, 2023 on porting strategies for ALCFs upcoming Aurora exascale-class supercomputer for two applications: the XGC gyrokinetic plasma physics code and the HACC cosmology code. Registration is here.

Speakers will be Esteban Rangle, assistant computer scientist, and Aaron Scheinberg , of the ALCF. Scheinberg is a computational scientist and consultant focusing on exascale computing, scientific application performance, particle-based methods, magnetic fusion simulations, and GPU programming. Rangel joined the Computational Science (CPS) division at Argonne National Laboratory as a staff scientist in July 2021. He became a postdoc at the ALCF after receiving his PhD in Computer Science from Northwestern University in 2018. He began contributing to the HACC codebase as a graduate student, where much of the work towards his PhD thesis was designing and implementing scalable analysis software for N-body cosmological simulations.

Theywill discuss lessons learned and tools that were crucial in porting these applications to Argonnes exascale machine. For the XGC portion of the talk, Scheinberg will discuss the lessons learned from running on diverse new machines (Polaris, Sunspot, and recently Frontier), the unique challenges of Aurora, and how these inform our plans as Aurora becomes available.

For the HACC portion, Rangel will cover the tools and development strategies used to port HACC from CUDA to SYCL, the challenges of supporting multiple codebases (CUDA/HIP/SYCL) in HACC, and the optimizations made to improve performance for the Intel Xe GPUs.

The gyrokinetic plasma physics code XGC has been offloaded almost entirely to GPU via Kokkos and Cabana over the course of ECP. In addition to accelerating computation, we find that communication patterns and memory usage must be very flexible to maintain a code base that is performant across architectures and scales. The XGC portion of the talk will cover the progress made; the lessons learned from running on diverse new machines (Polaris, Sunspot, and recently Frontier); the unique challenges of Aurora; and how these inform our plans as Aurora becomes available.

The HACC application uses CUDA as programming model on GPUs and since CUDA is propriety language the application developers have to convert their kernels to programming model suitable for Aurora.The HACC portion of the talk will discuss the tools and development strategies used to port HACC from CUDA to SYCL. We will cover the challenges of supporting multiple codebases (CUDA/HIP/SYCL) in HACC, and the optimizations made to improve performance for the Intel Xe GPUs.

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ALCF Developer Session May 24: Preparing XGC and HACC to Run ... - insideHPC

Graduate commencement student speaker Kristine Umeh called it a COVID reckoning.

As the world shut down in spring 2020, Umeh was graduating from Northeastern University with a bachelors degree in chemical engineering and Chinese language and culture. But her experience in co-ops and internships made her realize that she wanted to pursue something else. Instead, the technology world beckoned.

I thought to myself the technology industry is really booming right now, and I want to get a chance to be part of that experience, Umeh said.

Thanks to the Align Master of Science in Computer Science program at Northeastern Universitys Khoury College of Computer Sciences, her inexperience in the field was not a problem.

I decided I had nothing to lose by getting that education, Umeh said. And it was also at Northeastern, so I had the chance to be a double Husky, so I thought, yeah, that sounds fun.

Umeh will deliver a speech about her experience during graduate commencement exercises at Fenway Park at 10 a.m. on Sunday, May 7.

Hers was a unique experience.

Originally from Nigeria, Umeh came to Northeastern in 2015 as a first-year student at the age of 16, having skipped a grade in elementary school. She pursued chemical engineering as she said she was attracted to the opportunity to form the curriculum as she progressed. She also remembered singing Chinese songs and learning Chinese words in elementary school, so decided to further explore that language and culture. Finally, she took acting and music classes, ending up just short of a music performance major.

I had friends at other universities in the U.S., friends in the United Kingdom and Nigeria who didnt have that flexibility in their schedule, Umeh said.

In fact, Umeh said it was flexibility and creativity that attracted her to the technology field.

It sounds cliche, but you really can do anything: coding, be in Cloud, be a project manager, do back-end development, Umeh said. I like understanding whats going on in terms of technology. A lot of people dont know whats going on, and its important.

People talk about artificial intelligence and ChatGPT taking over the world, and a lot of people are wowed by it, Umeh continued. But its just an algorithm, its just a code. Its an algorithm and a model and it can be better.

But there was one problem with pursuing tech. Umeh didnt have any computer science background.

Thats where the Align program came in.

Align provides a direct pathway to a masters of science in data science or computer science for students from all undergraduate backgroundsno prior experience is required.

Umeh enrolled in September 2020 and moved to California to attend the program at Northeastern Universitys San Francisco campus.

During undergrad, I had the chance to travel a lot, and I really appreciated it. It gave me the certainty that I could go to the global campuses, Umeh said. So, it wasnt hard for me to make the decision to leave Boston and move to California because I had that experience.

Her experiences in co-ops also gave her confidence.

First, she had the confidence to change career paths.

I feel like if I didnt go to Northeastern and have co-ops, I would have had the realization that I didnt want to do (chemical engineering) until much later, Umeh said.

Co-ops also gave her confidence that she would succeed in her new field.

I had confidence that I would succeed in this program because I knew they had co-ops embedded and that I would get a chance to work in this industry, Umeh said.

In fact, her second co-op as a graduate student, at Lululemon, led to her current part-time job with the company.

And she has the confidence to give a graduation speech, insisting she is not nervous.

I really have a gift in public speaking and it really comes naturally to me, Umeh said. I always enjoyed giving speeches. I used to be nervous as a child, but now I accept that I have a gift, and I have something to say and that people listen when I speak, so Ive decided to hone into that craft.

Umeh said she hoped to share this confidence with all the graduates on Sunday.

I want it to be a moment of pride for everybody, Umeh said. I hope that people see that first of all, you can be a double Husky without being at the Boston campus, I want people to know about Align and I want all the graduates at all the colleges to feel accomplished, feel proud of everything theyve done over the year or two years, because grad school is not easy.

But as long as they have this degree, and this Northeastern connection, they are going to go on to accomplish way more than they know, Umeh said.

Cyrus Moulton is a Northeastern Global News reporter. Email him at c.moulton@northeastern.edu. Follow him on Twitter @MoultonCyrus.

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Graduate Commencement Speaker Reflects on 'COVID Reckoning' - Northeastern University

The Expanding Computing Education Pathways (ECEP) Alliance exemplifies The University of Texas at Austins (UT Austin) commitment to building and diversifying on ramps to the knowledge economy for our nation's students and citizens.

Today marks a new milestone in the ECEP mission.

The Alliance has accepted seven new member states, increasing membership to a total of 29 states and the territory of Puerto Rico. ECEP welcomes Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to the most recent cohort of states broadening participation in K-16 computing.

With support from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) andGoogle.org, the ECEP Alliance will work with these new states to improve equitable capacity for, access to, participation in, and experiences of quality computing education.

States working with the ECEP Alliance pursue systemic change that results in more diverse students pursuing educational paths in computer science.

By gathering advocates from across the computing education ecosystem, ECEP states build the teams needed to advance computer science education and educational policy reform, said Sarah Dunton, director of the ECEP Alliance. This diversity of voices and expertise helps states to focus conversations on equity in computer science education and build sustainable strategies.

Since 2012, the ECEP Alliance has been funded through grants from the NSF, serving as an integral partner in the mission to broaden participation in computing.

As one of the NSFs programs broadening participation in computing Alliances, ECEP is leading systemic change across states, said NSF Program Officer Allyson Kennedy. ECEPs data-driven and context-specific approaches help state policymakers identify which students are missing from K-16 computing pathways. NSF deeply appreciates ECEPs integral role in supporting the vital mission to broaden participation in computing.

Nicole Brenner, Google.orgs education manager, said: "We believe deeply in our collective responsibility to expand access to computer science education across the country, especially for communities underrepresented in technical fields. We're excited to welcome additional states to the alliance and to continue our support of ECEP's critical work to empower state leaders and educators to drive systemic change."

For this cohort, ECEP accepted applicants that were both advancing strategically and states that were just beginning to define the work that is required to advance state-wide broadening participation in computing (BPC) initiatives. Applicants were asked to identify obstacles, strategies, goals, and successes in their proposals.

Illinois is thrilled to join ECEP, said Caroline Sanchez Crozier, CEO & Founder of Latinx DLN. The national statistics for Latinos in the tech workforce needs to increase and more closely reflect our countrys population, since it currently consists of only 8% Latinos and 2% Latinas.

She added: ECEP will help Illinois accelerate that change by joining advocates and leaders like the Illinois State Board of Education, higher education, LULAC, CS4IL, Latinx DLN, and others in an effort to disrupt the tech status quo with innovation, resources, and greater representation of educators of color upskilled with computer science in all K-12 classrooms.

The new states join a network of leaders working to untangle the complex web of factors that produce inequitable outcomes for marginalized students. States will interrogate state data to identify specific student populations that have not previously been included in computing pathways; explore their states educational ecosystems and policies to determine the root causes of disparities in access and participation in computer science education; and identify equity-explicit policies to address systemic barriers to broadening participation in computing.

As an ECEP state, Maine will be well-supported in its ongoing efforts to provide universal access to computer science education for all students and to continue to broaden participation in all aspects of computer science learning, said Emma-Marie Banks, a computer science specialist at the Maine Department of Education.

The ECEP Alliance is headquartered at the Texas Advanced Computing Center at UT Austin. More information can be found atecepalliance.orgor by contacting ECEP Principal Investigator, Carol L. Fletcher atcfletcher@tacc.utexas.edu

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ECEP Alliance Adds Seven New States to Broaden Participation in ... - The University of Texas at Austin

Russias ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine, commencing in February 2022, is continuing to cause immense upheaval and destruction, and Ukrainians continue to fight to defend their nation-state. Last fall, MIT launched its MIT-Ukraine program, an effort to find ways to leverage the Institutes expertise and resources to help a country devastated by war. This has meant confronting new challenges. MIT-Ukraine is part of MISTI, the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives, an international education program that usually sends students abroad on internships with host companies. But that is not feasible in Ukraine while the country is enveloped in war. Instead, the MIT-Ukraine program is implementing other types of projects to help Ukrainians, including working with those who have been displaced by the invasion, inside and outside the country.

To learn more, MIT News talked to Elizabeth Wood, professor of history at MIT, co-director of the MIT-Eurasia program within MISTI, and head of the MIT-Ukraine program, and to Svitlana Krasynska, program manager of MIT-Ukraine. We also solicited input from others involved in the program, including Andrii Zahorodnii and Dima Yanovsky, MIT undergraduates from Ukraine; Yevheniia Polishchuk, director of the Scholar Support Office in Ukraine and a professor at Kyiv National Economic University; and Svetlana Boriskina, a principal research scientist in MITs Department of Mechanical Engineering. This is an account of the programs origins and goals.

Wood: At its core, the MIT-Ukraine program differs from the traditional MISTI program, which is designed to help students gain an appreciation of a different culture by working in it. In this case, we cant send students to Ukraine. But we are trying to engage MIT faculty and students so that the students are working to meet the needs of the Ukrainian people. We are doing something that is aligned with purpose: solving real problems of a real society thats in real crisis.

We have tremendous student interest and very good faculty interest. I had a student write me and say Dear Professor Wood, Id like to work on refugees in Ukraine. I wrote back immediately to him. The next day we got an email from his father, who is an MIT alum, saying, This is what I love about MIT, a professor responds to a student right away. The gentlemen also said, I have small family foundation. It may not seem like much, but we could give you $75,000 to support the MIT-Ukraine program. Having a gift like that is really critical. With one email, we got a grant that sets up the finances we need to start.

Krasynska: There are three directions that we pursue in this program. One is to use existing coursework and labwork across the MIT campus to direct work toward Ukraine-focused projects. For example, there is a digital humanities course where we have six UROP students designing a platform for Ukrainian scholars all over the world. This is a project spearheaded by Ukraines Scholar Support Office at the Ministry of Education, which is trying to give the displaced scholars one place [online] where they can go to for support, collaboration, and information about professional opportunities. The MIT students are building this platform, including an interactive map of scientists locations and areas of expertise.

Another example is the water and sanitation course Susan Murcott is teaching, where a group of students is working on designing innovative and carbon-neutral water distribution systems. The students are researching the existing issues with water distribution in Ukraine. Not only have many buildings and much critical infrastructure been bombed and destroyed, but Ukraine also has outdated and overly centralized Soviet-built water distribution systems that are vulnerable to outages and attacks. So, the students are working with Ukrainian water experts to develop a new set of ideas on how to distribute water more efficiently.

The second program direction is focused on supporting Ukrainian scientists, both in Ukraine and in other countries. Many scientists have lost their labs in the war due to the shelling of university buildings and the destruction of critical infrastructure. Thousands of scientists have also lost funding and home institutions. We are trying to see how we can support some of these scientists by facilitating their collaboration with MIT researchers.

Finally, because this is a MISTI program, we have to think creatively about what meaningful and engaging internships might look like. First, we are developing opportunities for MIT students to work with Ukrainian organizations and companies virtually. Second, we are looking into creating internships that are Ukraine-focused but based in other countries, mainly in Europe, where there are significant Ukrainian refugee populations. We are currently working on placing students virtually, as well as in-person, in different countries, such as Spain, Finland, Switzerland, and Poland, for this upcoming summer.

So, those are our three key program directions: Using existing coursework and lab work, supporting science and research, and creating virtual and third-country internships.

Wood: Its been really exciting working directly with the six students on the scholarship support project. They want to keep scientists connected to Ukraine so that brain drain doesnt destroy the country once the war is over. If so many people flee and just settle in Warsaw or Krakow, then the country has lost, too.

Yevheniia Polishchuk is the lead within Ukraines Scholar Support Office on the project to build the database for displaced scientists.

Polishchuk: Colleagues and students from MIT are lending their support to the Scholar Support Office in Ukraine, collaborating to create a cutting-edge digital platform aimed at serving the Ukrainian science diaspora. This initiative came in response to the large number of scientists who were forced to flee Ukraine due to the Russian invasion. It is estimated that over 5,000 Ukrainian scholars were affected by this crisis, and many of them are eager to connect with their professional community and contribute to the postwar rebuilding of their homeland.

The platform will function as a hub for Ukrainian scholars, uniting individuals from different waves of migration and facilitating communication and collaboration on future projects. One of the key features of the platform will be a world map that highlights the locations of Ukrainian scientists, making it easier to find and connect with fellow professionals.

The teams from both organizations are meeting regularly to discuss the vision and characteristics of the platform. From the Scholar Support Office, Dr. Igor Lyman and I are providing critical input, while Professor Wood, Dr. Krasynska, and students from MIT are offering ideas on how the platform can be optimized to best serve the needs of the Ukrainian science diaspora.

The platform was presented at the Second Conference on the Ukraine Crisis, exploring the impact on the science sector and supporting initiatives, hosted by the International Science Council and ALLEA (All European Academies) in March, where participants shared feedback and expressed enthusiasm. Users are eagerly awaiting the official launch of the platform, which will be accompanied by training for administrators. This collaborative effort is a crucial step toward preserving the the human capital of Ukraine, an essential resource for the nation's future development.

Meanwhile, Svetlana Boriskina, a principal research scientist in MITs Department of Mechanical Engineering, is working with Ukrainian researchers to bolster their own research opportunities.

Boriskina: The Russian invasion of Ukraine was both long-expected and still unbelievable for me personally when it happened. The lives of people in my hometown Kharkiv including my family have been changed drastically, due to its close proximity to the Ukraine-Russia border. Kharkiv is also a major academic and research center of Ukraine, a home of many universities and research facilities whose operation has been disrupted or completely halted by the invasion. Employees of these institutions worked heroically to protect the equipment and personnel, to limit the damage done by Russian bombs, and to create the conditions for rebuilding after the war.

For the past year, I have [wanted] to help the Ukrainian research community survive, and to provide postwar educational and work opportunities for students and researchers who found refuge in the West, so they would choose to return and rebuild. First, it was important to spread the awareness of the great potential of Ukrainian academia and national research facilities, to make U.S. and EU researchers interested in pursuing collaborations. I hope my article Optics in Ukraine, published in Optics and Photonics News last year helped this goal.

Over the IAP period this winter, I worked with three great UROP students Tatiana Vassiliev and Michael Kubera from MIT, and Juliana Mytko from Wellesley College on building the science communication infrastructure to help connect MIT PIs and Ukrainian researchers around potential joint research projects. We recruited several MIT faculty members as proposal reviewers for the National Research Foundation of Ukraine, and have also been working on establishing contacts with institutions hosting Ukrainian students and researchers fleeing the war. These include the Institute of Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and Tel Aviv University in Israel. We plan research collaboration and student exchanges with these institutions, as well as helping Ukrainian research groups in Kharkiv to visit MIT. We are looking for additional fundraising opportunities to support these collaborations.

I firmly believe that with the help of the international community, Ukrainian science can once again succeed. But it does need our help, and MIT can and should play a leading role in this effort.

Other MIT-Ukraine projects are aimed at giving school-age students additional academic opportunities. Andrii Zahorodnii, a junior in brain and cognitive sciences, and Dima Yanovsky, a senior in electrical engineering and computer science, launched their own MIT-Ukraine project, to work with advanced computer science students from Ukraine at an instructional camp in Europe this summer.

Zahorodnii: Dima and I are developing an innovative educational program for Ukraines most talented high schoolers, through a new partnership with MIT.Back in Ukraine, there are brilliant kids that have the potential to become the next leaders and ensure that the future is bright for all of us. These young people are growing up during a time of war and hardship, but they possess a unique perspective that will be invaluable as the country moves forward. However, right now what they so desperately need is an opportunity to reach their potential.We want to equip Ukrainian kids with the skills, knowledge, and confidence they need to rebuild Ukraine into a thriving, European nation. A nation that will prove to the world that it is never time to give up. That is our vision.

Yanovsky: Andrii was at MIT a year prior to me. When I visited campus right after being accepted, Andrii hosted me in Cambridge for a few days. So, naturally, all we talked about was how to help Ukraine. More specifically, trying to help kids of our generation. This was when the idea of the educational program was born.

Zahorodnii: Im extremely grateful for the opportunity I was given to study here, at MIT. Now that I am here, and especially during this hard time, I feel an overwhelming urge to do everything I can for the community that brought me up. When Dima came to MIT and shared my enthusiasm, we decided to get serious with our ideas.

Some MIT faculty had already been studying Ukraine before the invasion. Brent D. Ryan, an associate provost at MIT and associate professor of urban design and public policy, had been researching Ukraines large industrial cities. Some of his former Fulbright scholars are supporting a project to refurbish abandoned dormitories in Ukraine to create housing for internally displaced persons who have been forced to move within the country.

Krasynska: Last year Professor Brent Ryan hosted two Ukrainian fellows who were at MIT on Fulbright scholarships. These fellows have been involved with a fairly large nonprofit organization in Ukraine that identifies abandoned or underutilized buildings and then uses sustainable materials to refurbish them for the internally displaced families. The project, called Co-Haty, prides itself on involving local communities where these building projects are located, as well as the people who will be living in these refurbished buildings, in the reconstruction process. This helps foster a sense of community and ownership in the project for those benefiting from it. Two MIT graduate architecture students will be working with the Co-Haty project as full-time interns this coming summer. The internships will be partly remote, with students working virtually for part of the time and partly in person with travel to Zurich, where some of the Ukrainian partners are located. Among other things, they will work to to source the materials strategically, design the buildings, and develop many other aspects of this important program.

Wood: The Co-Haty program is thus doubly symbolic. Its both repurposing material, so thats environmentally sound, but its also moving away from the Soviet past and making Ukraine a fully modern, European country, which is so important to the Ukrainians right now.

Ultimately, Krasynska and Wood say, they hope faculty and students can continue developing scalable projects, with the assistance of MIT-Ukraine.

Krasynska: The situation is enormously overwhelming, when I think about the scale of destruction. But what Ive learned is that we all contribute little things. When I was bringing in supplies [to Ukraine], I would deliver four suitcases of tourniquets and bandages, and think, This is nothing. But there are millions of people who can bring four suitcases of supplies, and if each can even save one life, that is worth everything. So, we need to think about how these projects add up. We might refurbish one building at first, and house three families, but if we put together a team, we can build a lot of homes and place a lot of families. Its important to understand the collective nature of these small projects. Thats how you win the battle, each person adds their piece.

Wood: There are faculty who are working on projects, there are students working on projects, and the MIT-Ukraine program is trying to be a hub and a clearinghouse to help, without dominating anyones projects but letting things grow.

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In a time of war, a new effort to help - MIT News

Maria Sellers, a South Vermillion Community School Corp. educator, is receiving statewide recognition for her efforts to advance computer science education in Indiana.

She has been named the inaugural Nextech Computer Science Teacher of the Year, according to an announcement from the nonprofit, which works to to create equitable access to computer science education for K-12 students in Indiana.

The award recognizes educators whose achievements advance the education of students beyond the mere use of technology, according to a news release.

They go above and beyond to inspire students to view computer science in a new light, engage students in disciplined computer science curriculum aligned with Indiana standards and create opportunities for all students to participate, according to the release.

Sellers began her career as a music teacher but found her calling in computer science, a discipline she has championed as an educator and coach.

She has taught in the South Vermillion Community School Corp. in Clinton since 2003. For her first 10 years, she taught music to elementary students.

In 2012, she reached back to her own middle school experience with computer science and became an eLearning specialist. She returned to the middle school classroom to teach computer science in 2016.

It did not take long for her to realize the corporations good technology intentions needed to be expanded, and thus began her campaign, in her words, to drive the CS bus, and ensure it stopped for students of all ages, according to the release.

Her enthusiasm paid off in 2016 when Sellers began teaching computer science at the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade levels.

She eventually brought computer science courses to all grades K-8. In 2021, computer science was expanded to the high school.

Marias enthusiasm for computer science cannot be contained to her own classroom or even her own school corporation, said Nextech President Karen Jung. Shes helped train more than 200 Indiana educators, expanding computer science throughout the state.

Additionally, Sellers coaches the South Vermillion middle school Vex Robotics Teams, which has experienced competition on the world stage. She also coaches the 4-H Tech Changemakers Club, the Girls Who Code Club, and the CodeCats Club, and is a computer science fundamentals facilitator for Code.org and Nextech.

In 2021, two of Sellers teams from South Vermillion Middle School were among eight schools statewide to have computer science projects highlighted at the Indiana Statehouse as part of the Nextech CSforGood Showcase.

In 2022, Sellers eighth graders participated in Project Lead The Way App Creators, a nonprofit organization that provides transformative learning experiences for PreK-12 students and teachers across the U.S.

Two groups from that effort were chosen to present at the Indiana CSforGood competition and took home first and second place wins. Another team from Sellers seventh grade Project Lead the Way Computer Science for Innovators and Makers made it to the CSforGood finals as well.

The high school-level iCats group (the schools nickname is the Wildcats) focuses on computer science careers and serves as the schools troubleshooting department, repairing iPad software issues and helping teachers implement technology in the classroom.

Jung said Sellers is the perfect teacher to win the inaugural Computer Science Teacher of the Year award.

Maria is a force of nature, Jung said. Her work with these students and teachers throughout Indiana will have ripple effects for generations and help Indiana fill its huge demand for highly skilled tech talent.

Sellers will be honored during TechPoints 24th annual Mira Awards gala recognizing the best of tech in Indiana.

TechPoint, a nonprofit, is the states growth initiative for the digital economy. It works to expand the talent pipeline and partners with Nextech.

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South Vermilllion teacher first Nextech computer science teacher of ... - Terre Haute Tribune Star