Supercomputing & Cyber Security
The Illinois Jobs Now! capital plan, signed by Governor
Pat Quinn in July 2009, provided $60 million to support the
development of the National Petascale Computing Facility (NPCF) at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This
investment will provide a physical home for the Blue Waters
sustained-petaflop supercomputer which is expected to be the most
powerful supercomputer in the world for open scientific research
when it comes online in 2011. The NPCF will also support
state-of-the-art cyber security, including monitoring of all exit
bandwidth.
This recent, significant investment in supercomputing and cyber
security underscores our state's ongoing profile as a place where
high performance computing (HPC) is applied to address real world
problems. Illinois' profile as a supercomputing powerhouse
stretches back over 60 years, when the ORDVAC and ILLIAC I were
developed at the University of Illinois. In the years that
have elapsed, the products and findings have had a profound impact
on science and society.
In the early 1950s, the ORDVAC was used by the Army Ballistic
Research Laboratory for ballistics tests. Currently,
researchers have access to processing one thousand times faster
than the average desktop computer allowing them to investigative,
for example, simulations of the spread of disease in order to
predict and deter a potential epidemic and the design of new
materials required for lithium-air batteries capable of powering
cars for 500 miles on a single charge. Today, scientists from
across the globe are utilizing supercomputers in Illinois for their
research.
Illinois is poised to advance as an HPC leader in the
21st century, and we think the next 60 years of HPC will
be even more remarkable than the past six decades. We invite you to
explore our state's rich history, and hear from many of our leaders
on the ground-breaking work they are doing today.
NIU Jazz Lab Band performs for
SuperComputing Conference via Internet2
An arms race: Jim Barlow
discusses cybersecurity at the
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
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Catalyst Exclusive Guest
Commentaries
Illinois - A Leader in Cyber Security
Information Trust Institute, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Recent major cyber security stories in the national media
have drawn attention to America's vulnerability to cyber attack,
especially after a massive botnet was found to have spent 18 months
stealing private information from over 2,400 companies before it
was finally discovered in January 2010. Such stories have raised
awareness about the urgent need for cyber security research to
combat such threats. More
Illinois Supercomputers Power Scientific Breakthroughs,
Technological Innovations
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Supercomputing may seem remote, or even like something out
of science fiction. But the work done with these extremely powerful
computers touches many facets of our everyday lives, from the
packaging of the coffee at the supermarket to the molecular formula
of pharmaceuticals, from the prediction of severe weather to
understanding our changing climate. And for more than two decades,
some of the most powerful computers in the world have been here in
Illinois, at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
(NCSA). More
Supercomputing = Super Science
Argonne National Laboratory
Illinois is home to one of the world's fastest and most
energy-efficient supercomputers, an IBM Blue Gene/P named
Intrepid. The 163,840-processor machine has a peak
performance of 557 teraflops and is located at Argonne National
Laboratory outside of Chicago. Operated for the U.S.
Department of Energy, the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility
(ALCF) is one of just two leadership computing facilities in the
country that provide access to world-class computation resources as
well as dedicated teams of computational scientists and engineers
to support research efforts across a wide spectrum of scientific
disciplines. More
Toward Petascale and Exascale Resilience
Illinois Institute of Technology
There is good news and bad news in the field of high
performance computing (HPC). The good news is that high performance
computing systems are getting more and more powerful. On the other
hand, they also become bigger. Production systems typically contain
hundreds of thousands of CPU cores these days. As systems continue
to grow in size and complexity, Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) is
dramatically reduced: the number of hours you can run your
application before everything grinds to a halt just keeps getting
smaller. More
Customized Input/Output: Fueling Supercomputing to New
Highs
Illinois Institute of Technology
Supercomputers are critical to contemporary scientific research and
discovery. They are widely used in solving many challenging
scientific problems such as weather forecasting, molecular
structure modeling, quantum mechanical physics, and physical
simulations (e.g. simulation of airplanes in wind tunnels,
simulation of nuclear fusion, etc.). In recent years,
supercomputers have achieved remarkable computational performance.
More
Learn more about Illinois' accomplishments in
Supercomputing and Cyber Security.
NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award Funds
Creation of Tools to Target Web-Based Attacks
DOE to explore scientific cloud computing at
Argonne, Lawrence Berkeley national laboratories
Tools Target Web-Based Attacks
Research Team 'Virtualizes' Supercomputer
Uncovering Hidden
Information
Argonne,
University of Chicago scientists chase deadly MRSA bacteria with
new models
Computational Infrastructure for Economic
Research
Argonne's Leadership Computing Facility working to
get more science per watt
Strong community engagement strengthens
cybersecurity research and development
NCSA-developed tool helps law enforcement
officers investigate cybercrimes
Argonne develops program for cyber security
"Neighborhood Watch"
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Illinois R&D Day
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Illinois Statehouse | Springfield, Illinois
Illinois is proud to be a leader in research and innovation.
Representatives from many of Illinois' world-class research
institutions and businesses will be on hand to showcase their
on-going research efforts with a special focus on work being done
to contribute to a clean and secure energy future.
For further details and to RSVP for the reception click
here.
Participants include: Argonne National Laboratory*,
Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Coal Bureau, Gas
Technology Institute*, Illinois Institute of Technology*, Illinois
State Geological Survey, Illinois State University, National
Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center*, Northern Illinois University*,
Northwestern University*, Southern Illinois University at
Carbondale, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville,
University of Chicago*, University of Illinois at Chicago*,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign*
*Indicates reception sponsor
Wednesday-Thursday, April 21-22,
2010
Fairmont Hotel 200 North Columbus Drive | Chicago, Illinois
Register
Now
Grand Challenges Summit
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Grand Challenges
are a grouping of critical problems that must be addressed and
solved in order to maintain the United States' national security,
quality of life and sustainable future. They are a call to action
and will engage the public to understand the importance of
technology, policy and science to maintain and enhance our standard
of living.
The Chicago 2010 Summit is designed to stimulate the engineering,
science and policy advances needed to solve these four Grand
Challenges:
- Clean Water
- Carbon, Energy and Climate
- Urban Sustainability
- Global Health
More information: Grandchallenges@iit.edu
Presented by Illinois Institute of Technology and Chicago Council
on Science and Technology, in partnership with Northwestern
University, University of Chicago, University of Illinois at
Chicago and
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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As we work to enhance awareness of Illinois' robust and world-class
R&D capabilities, we encourage you to submit ideas for future
ISTC Catalysts. Please email info@ISTCoalition.org.
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