Chris Green shows a video for his presentation on HEP Pattern recognition with an Automata processor. Photo credit: Saba Sehrish

SC15, the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis, took place from Nov. 15 to 20 in Austin, TX. Fermilab sent 12 Computing employees to the conference, six of whom gave presentations or led demonstrations. Presentations included: “Exploring Spark for HEP Analysis,” “WireCAP,” “Computing facility evolution for HEP,” “HEPMAP,” “Federated cloud demonstration,” “MDTM,” and “Visual elevation of an HEP algorithm using Spark and Paraview.”

SC15 is a valuable annual tradition for Computing employees because it creates a platform for people with similar interests to exchange information and collaborate, keeps employees up-to-date with the latest industry trends and developments and provides the opportunity to share updates about the latest projects at Fermilab. 

A few of this year’s conference attendees explained what they learned at SC15 and what they found to be the highlights of the conference.

What we learned:
“Big data analytics and machine learning are growing areas in supercomputing. HEP computing should look to leverage advances in machine learning made in other fields. GPU vendors hope to employ deep learning techniques in the quest for the self-driving car. These same techniques can be used to classify HEP events. The GPU vendors are interested in hearing about HEP use cases for deep learning.” –Jim Simone, attendee

“We had discussions with vendors about how to write specifications for purchases and the need to give vendors sufficient time and information to do proper architecture of potential solutions. Our needs are often different from mainstream HPC computing, so it's important to clearly describe our requirements.” – Stuart Fuess,  presenter

“Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which has been dormant in the CPU and accelerated computing markets with no new releases in the past several years, is finally making a comeback and has an impressive road map that is in competition with Intel. Most of their future plans are under non-disclosure agreement, but I would be more than happy to discuss their roadmap if anyone would like to come talk to me in person.”  –Amitoj Singh, technical coordinator

SC15 highlights:
“Through our workshop presentation and demonstration at the DOE booth, we were able to successfully introduce an example of what kind of science we do at Fermilab to several researchers, students and lab staff members from different scientific fields. During the presentation, it was quite exciting to see the interest among the audience as they learned about the use of new technology to address a high energy physics analysis. Several interesting follow up discussions during the demonstration may lead to future collaborations.” –Saba Sehrish, presenter

“My favorite part of the conference is the invited talks, including the award recipient talks. They usually have something interesting to say about trends in computing hardware and software, and also interesting science applications.”  –James Kowalkowski, attendee

“I enjoyed talking about the science and computing that we do at Fermilab with fellow attendees.
Many people recall hearing about Fermilab in the news and they were interested in hearing more about the neutrino physics program, CMS physics and lattice QCD.” –Jim Simone, attendee

“The most valuable part of the conference for me was a tutorial on HPX, which is a modern C++ runtime for parallel and distributed computing. This software is of interest to me for the LDRD project of which I am the principle investigator.” –Marc Paterno, attendee

“I enjoyed meeting with conference attendees and exploring the fringes of the exhibit halls where there is always an eager vendor selling a niche product. With my recent promotion to SCF deputy quadrant head, I represented a wider subset of Computing at SC15 than in past years. This change meant meeting with old contacts and finding areas where we could forge new relationships. There is always a sense of accomplishment and excitement when you can find a common interest that benefits both parties, and this usually comes through an interactive dialogue.” –Amitoj Singh, technical coordinator

Chief Information Officer Rob Roser

I wanted to share with you what I believe to be the best takeaways from the director’s Dec. 18 All-Hands meeting speech. Please take these points to heart.

First and foremost, thanks to all of us, the laboratory had a remarkably successful year. Depending on how one measures, one could certainly make the case that it was perhaps its most successful year on record. Just look around at all the building that is going on. The g-2 experiment is on track for first data taking in 2017; Mu2E and the short-baseline neutrino program construction are well underway; ICARUS, the very successful liquid argon detector in Italy, is coming to Fermilab along with its scientific team to participate in our short-baseline program; The DUNE collaboration has launched, has well over 800 members from 26 countries and has gone from being a vision to what is now a well-oiled machine as it prepares for its science. In addition, CERN, for the first time in its history, has agreed to partner with another lab to facilitate a scientific program outside its own campus. And perhaps most significantly, DOE granted LBNF Critical Decision-3a status, allowing us to spend $300 million dollars over the next few years to build the caverns in South Dakota and prepare that site for the liquid argon detectors.

If anyone thought the lab was on shaky ground and its long-term future in doubt, that is no longer the case. That doesn’t mean that we don’t have to deliver each and every day, but we as a field and as a laboratory have made amazing strides.

In Computing, we have had a similar success story. We have launched the budget and planning system as well as source-to-pay major finance initiatives this year; Workday is operating smoothly and efficiently; and we successfully transitioned email to the cloud as a service just to name a few CCD accomplishments.  In SCD, a new vision of HEPCloud has emerged and has gotten unprecedented support, both from the Office of High Energy Physics and ASCR (Office of Science’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research). Computing folks successfully competed in the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program, and we have four new funded projects from this new initiative. Significantly, Computing has been added as a primary theme in the overall lab strategic plan (on par with LBNF/DUNE and Accelerator Science Research) signifying the Lab's recognition of the importance of Computing as well as our ability to execute. Finally, our governance systems were re-certified, and we are again ISO20K-certified for the next three years. Remarkable! And I could go on….

Fermilab―and Computing―had a spectacular year. We should be proud of what we have accomplished. I would like to thank each and every one of you for making such a difference this year. Have a happy New Year. I look forward to working with you all in 2016.

~Rob

Rich Eckert Jr.
Service Operations Support/Desktop Engineering

I am a Windows desktop engineer who joined Fermilab in September 2014. My team and I are responsible for managing all aspects of the Windows environment here at Fermilab. My day-to-day tasks involve assisting with tier-3 desktop support requests and incidents that require research or broad Windows knowledge, working with the SCCM engineers in creating and deploying software packages to centrally managed Windows computers, conducting tests and project organization. 

Recently, I assisted in the rollout of OneDrive for Business and  was an “on-the-ground” support team member as part of the Exchange email migration project.

Currently, I am finalizing the 2015 PC Refresh project for which I managed all aspects.  I am also expanding the loaner pool to include a greater variety and age of equipment to better meet everyone’s needs, and  I  have been more involved with the Tech Store with regard to custom orders and organization.  When I’m not working on projects or assisting with support issues, I’m looking for ways to move Fermilab forward by finding ways to help automate tasks and processes.  I like research and development and building systems and processes that have the capability to help us and our end users. 

Outside of work, life is challenging but exciting with my wife, son, daughter and two dogs. I am a Leader for my son’s Cub Scout Den, my daughter is on a travel soccer team, and my wife runs her own massage therapy business. I love the Bulls, Bears, Cubs and Blackhawks.  In my spare time, I am either playing video games, building Legos with my kids or working on home improvements.

Rob Kutschke
Systems for Scientific Applications/Scientific Software Infrastructure/Framework and Software Technology

Several years ago, the leadership of the Scientific Computing Division took steps to increase the visibility and recognition of the scientific contributions made by members of the SCD scientific staff.  One step was the formation of the SCD Scientific Programs quadrant, which is organized into departments; one of my roles is as head of the Intensity Frontier Department.

In this role, I organize a monthly meeting at which we discuss a broad spectrum of topics of interest to the scientific staff.  This includes the cool stuff, such as the prospects for new experiments and the status of ongoing experiments; it also includes the less-cool but very necessary stuff, such as the giving feedback towards the updating of the lab's policy on scientific appointments and discussions with members of various advisory councils.  After about a year of these meetings I believe that we all know each other much better; we understand the scientific goals and challenges of each experiment much better; and we have a much better understanding of the many roles our that our colleagues play in their experiments.

Another important role as head of the SCD-SP-IF department is to ensure that the scientific accomplishments of each department member are highly visible when the time comes for annual reviews and promotions. But the fun part is learning about the scientific and technical challenges that my colleagues face and, together, discussing how to address them.