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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. 



Watch

NIU Jazz Lab Band performs for SuperComputing Conference via Internet2

An arms race: Jim Barlow discusses cybersecurity at the
National Center for Supercomputing Applications

NCSA Video 

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Learn

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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Engage


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



grand_challenges_center

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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Click on a link and learn more about Illinois' leadership in supercomputing & cyber security.

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ISTC Catalyst Archives

February 2010
Wind Power

January 2010
Catalyzing Collaborations

December 2009
Federal Budget R&D Highlights

November 2009
Advanced Materials

October 2009
Smart Grid

September 2009
Emerging Electronics

August 2009
Leadership in Nanotechnology

July 2009
2010 BIO International Convention

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