A CENIC View with Birds, CI and Public Art

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A CENIC View with Birds, CI and Public Art

April 2024

Frank Würthwein. Message from the Director.

Dear SDSC Staff, Collaborators, Partners and All Friends:

Since my last message, we have begun the final quarter of the academic year, which has flown by with the many activities going on at SDSC.

Two activities that I would like to recall are AI-themed events, 5NRP and FABRIC KNIT 8, highlighting future-forward cyber capabilities for research and education communities. These overlapping workshops were co-located at UC San Diego last month, with some joint programming.

Keynote speaker U.S. National Science Foundation Director Katie Antypas delivered the opening address. Workshop activities included hands-on tutorials for NRP, Expanse and Voyager—including explanations of the commonalities and differences between these three supercomputers. Additionally, 5NRP spotlighted the “CENIC AIR” initiative—a collaboration between CENIC and SDSC to bring AI resources for education to the California State University (CSU) system and others. This effort is aimed at advancing AI education across the U.S. by reducing the total cost of ownership of AI infrastructure.

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News Highlights

TIDE high-performance graphical processing computing server rack in a datacenter.

SDSC and SDSU Receive CENIC Award for Equitable CI

The TIDE cyberinfrastructure, which is interconnected and accessed via the CENIC network, was recently awarded the 2024 Innovations in Networking Award for Equitable Access to Cyberinfrastructure for broadening access to HPC resources for CSU researchers and students.

A woman selects from a colorful array of vegetables at an outdoor market.

Using AI and Data Science to ReNOURISH Food Deserts

Millions of Americans live in food deserts where ultraprocessed foods are abundant and fresh food is scarce, giving rise to large health disparities in diabetes and related diseases. The NOURISH platform is designed to help small businesses increase access to healthy, sustainable food.

Police car light in front of a blurred crowd of people.

SDSC Hosts New SDSU Portal for Minority Healthcare

Hubzero at SDSC helped develop the portal called HealthLINK Center Health Science Research Portal (HSRP). It provides users with an array of population-based minority research data that can be utilized for biomedical, behavioral and clinical services.

Broadening Access to Bridge the Data Innovation and Computing Infrastructure Gap

SDSC and the University of Utah have announced a national-scale pilot project aimed at a service ecosystem to make access to and use of scientific data open and equitable across a broad range of communities.

Researcher Spotlight

Chief Data Science Officer Receives CENIC Award

CENIC has presented its 2024 Christine Haska Distinguished Service Award to İlkay Altıntaş, chief data science officer at SDSC. Altıntaş received the award in honor of her many contributions to the data science research and education community.

SDSC Launches Women in High Performance Computing Group

Subha Sivagnanam and Claire Stirm led the effort for a new initiative, which resulted in SDSC becoming an official affiliate of Women in High-Performance Computing (WHPC). It’s a national organization aimed at supporting women engaged in the HPC community.

Two teenage girls in front of a poster highlighting bird research.

Science Writer Mentors High School Students Who Showcase Data Science Project at Bird Festival

SDSC’s Kimberly Bruch prepared high school interns for their Western bluebird research poster presentation at the 2024 San Diego Bird Festival, which included hundreds of participants focused on ornithology and birding.

A partially opened ear of corn on the cob.

Supercomputing Sims in Study of Corn to Address Food Insecurity Reveal Surprising Results

UC San Diego’s Edwin Solares used high-performance computing resources at SDSC and UC Irvine to study genomic features in maize which resulted in the discovery of a tiny ribonucleic acid (RNA). The project is part of his mission to help address the growing concern of food insecurity.

Around SDSC

Sunlight shining between the SDSC building's east wings.

SDSC Women Nominated and Featured in SC24 Women History Month Profile

The SC24 Women in History Month profile celebrating women in HPC features SDSC’s Sandra Gesing, Christine Kirkpatrick, Subha Sivagnanam, Claire Stirm and Mary Thomas.

SDSC and Affiliates Offer Two Workshops at PEARC24

SDSC leadership has worked with several affiliates to present two workshops at PEARC this year: "Empowering Careers: Bringing WHPC’s Impact to the PEARC Community” and "Providing Cutting-Edge Computing Testbeds to the Science and Engineering Community."

SDSC Interns Create App for UC San Diego’s Stuart Collection

High school students who participated in the UCSD Anita Borg Leadership and Engagement (ABLE) program through SDSC developed a new app for the campus Stuart Collection accessible through the Google Play store.

5NRP and FABRIC KNIT 8 Workshops Held at UC San Diego

SDSC hosted the Fifth National Research Platform (5NRP) workshop March 19–22, 2024. The AI-focused workshop highlighted cyberinfrastructure collaboration and opportunities for designing and implementing future-forward cyber capabilities for research and education communities.