Computing Sciences Summer Program 2024: Talks & Events

Summer Program Kickoff

Who: Ana Kupresanin and Stefan Wild
When: June 4, time 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Where: B50 Auditorium

Stefan Wild directs the Applied Mathematics and Computational Research (AMCR) Division in the Computing Sciences Area at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). AMCR conducts research and development in mathematical modeling, simulation and analysis, algorithm design, computer system architecture, and high-performance software implementation. Wild came to Berkeley Lab in December of 2022 from Argonne National Laboratory, where he was a senior computational mathematician and deputy division director of the Mathematics and Computer Science Division.

Topic TBD

Rebecca Hartman-Baker and Charles Lively

Who: Rebecca Hartman-Baker and Charles Lively
When: June 6, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Where: B59-4102

Bio: Rebecca Hartman-Baker leads the User Engagement Group at NERSC, where she is responsible for engagement with the NERSC user community to increase user productivity via advocacy, support, training, and the provisioning of usable computing environments. She began her career at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she worked as a postdoc and then as a scientific computing liaison in the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility. Before joining NERSC in 2015, she worked at the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Australia, where she coached two teams to the Student Cluster Competition at the annual Supercomputing conference, led the HPC training program for a time, and was in charge of the decision-making process for determining the architecture of the petascale supercomputer installed there in 2014. Rebecca earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Bio: Charles Lively III, PhD is a Science Engagement Engineer and HPC Consultant in the User Engagement Group (UEG) at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) Center. Charles earned his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University and his research interests are in the area of Performance Modeling and Optimization of large-scale applications and energy-aware computing.

Topic TBD

Xiaoye (Sherry) Li

Who: Xiaoye (Sherry) Li
When: June 11, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Where: B59-4102

Bio: Sherry Li is a Senior Scientist in the Applied Mathematics and Computational Research Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She has worked on diverse problems in high-performance scientific computations, including parallel computing, sparse matrix computations, high precision arithmetic, and combinatorial scientific computing. She is the lead developer of SuperLU, a widely-used sparse direct solver, and has contributed to the development of several other mathematical libraries, including ARPREC, LAPACK, PDSLin, STRUMPACK, and XBLAS. She earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and B.S. in Computer Science from Tsinghua Univ. in China. She has served on the editorial boards of the SIAM J. Scientific Comput. and ACM Trans. Math. Software, as well as many program committees of the scientific conferences. She is a SIAM Fellow and an ACM Senior Member.

Literature Surveys and Reviews: Where do we stand?

Jean Luca Bez

Who: Jean Luca Bez
When: July 13, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Where: B59-4102

Abstract: Newton himself once stated: "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." The research we conduct always builds upon previous contributions seeking to create something new and valuable to society. Its usefulness is measured in comparison with earlier research in the area. Navigating the myriad of research papers from journals to conferences can be daunting. In this talk, we will cover some strategies and tips for surveying the existing literature to build new contributions and comparing your work with what other researchers are proposing.

Bio: Jean Luca is a Career-Track Data Management Research Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), USA. He is passionate about High-Performance I/O, Parallel I/O, Education, and Competitive Programming. His research focuses on optimizing the I/O performance of scientific applications by exploring access patterns, automatic tuning, and reconfiguration using machine learning techniques, I/O forwarding, I/O scheduling, and novel storage solutions.

Topic TBD

Jonathan Carter

Who: Jonathan Carter
When: June 18, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Where: B59-3101

Bio: Jonathan Carter is the Associate Laboratory Director for Computing Sciences at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). The Computing Sciences Area at Berkeley Lab encompasses the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Division (NERSC), the Scientific Networking Division (home to the Energy Sciences Network, ESnet) and the Computational Research Division.

Panel: Career Paths

Who: Ann Almgren, other panelists TBD
When: June 19, 3 - 4 p.m.
Where: TBD

Abstract: In this panel, participants in the CS Area Summer Program will have a unique opportunity to get to know how three of our staff members arrived at different levels in their careers.

Scientific Data Collaborations: Team Science through Data and Software

Who: Shreyas Cholia
When: June 20, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Where: B59-3101

Abstract: TBD

Topic TBD

Dan Martin

Who: Dan Martin
When: June 25, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Where: B59-4102

Bio: Dan Martin is a computational scientist and group leader for the Applied Numerical Algorithms Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. After earning his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from U.C. Berkeley, Dan joined ANAG and Berkeley Lab as a post-doc in 1998. He has published in a broad range of application areas including projection methods for incompressible flow, adaptive methods for MHD, phase-field dynamics in materials, and Ice sheet modeling. His research involves the development of algorithms and software for solving systems of PDEs using adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) finite volume schemes, high (4th)-order finite volume schemes for conservation laws on mapped meshes, and Chombo development and support. Current applications of interest are developing the BISICLES AMR ice sheet model as a part of the SCIDAC-funded ProSPect application partnership, and some development work related to the COGENT gyrokinetic modeling code, which is being developed in partnership with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a part of the Edge Simulation Laboratory (ESL) collaboration.

Topic TBD

Who: Keshang (John) Wu
When: June 27, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Where: B59-4102

Abstract: TBD

Topic TBD

Per-Olof Persson

Who: Per-Olaf Persson
When: July 2, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Where: B59-3101

Bio: Per-Olof Persson is since 2008 a Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Mathematician Faculty Scientist/Engineer at the Berkeley Lab. Before then, he was an Instructor of Applied Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from where he also received his PhD in 2005. In his thesis, Persson developed the DistMesh algorithm which is now a widely used unstructured meshing technique for implicit geometries and deforming domains. He has also worked for several years with the development of commercial numerical software, in the finite element package Comsol Multiphysics. His current research interests are in high-order discontinuous Galerkin methods for computational fluid and solid mechanics. He has developed new efficient numerical discretizations, scalable parallel preconditioners and nonlinear solvers, space-time and curved mesh generators, adjoint formulations for optimization, and IMEX schemes for high-order partitioned multiphysics solvers. He has applied his methods to important real-world problems such as the simulation of turbulent flow problems in flapping flight and vertical axis wind-turbines, quality factor predictions for micromechanical resonators, and noise prediction for aeroacoustic phenomena.

Topic TBD

Anastasiia Butko

Who: Anastasiia Butko
When: July 9, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Where: B59-3101

Bio: Anastasiia Butko, Ph.D. is a Research Scientist in the Computational Research Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), CA. Her research interests lie in the general area of computer architecture, with particular emphasis on high-performance computing, emerging and heterogeneous technologies, associated parallel programming and architectural simulation techniques. Broadly, her research addresses the question of how alternative technologies can provide continuing performance scaling in the approaching Post-Moore’s Law era. Her primary research projects include development of the EDA tools for fast superconducting logic design, development of the classical ISA for quantum processor control, development of the fast and flexible System-on-Chip generators using Chisel DSL. Dr. Butko received her Ph.D. in Microelectronics from the University of Montpellier, France (2015). Her doctoral thesis developed fast and accurate simulation techniques for many-core architectures exploration. Her graduate work has been conducted within the European project MontBlanc, which aims to design a new supercomputer architecture using low-power embedded technologies. Dr. Butko received her MSc. Degree in Microelectronics from UM2, France and MSc and BSc Degrees in Digital Electronics from NTUU "KPI", Ukraine. During her Master she participated on the international program of double diploma between Montpellier and Kiev universities.

LaTex Workshop

Lipi Gupta

Who: Lipi Gupta
When: July 9, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Where: Zoom Only

Abstract: For participants: This is an interactive activity, and it is encouraged that anyone participating have access to a LaTeX compiler.

Bio: Lipi Gupta defended her Ph. D. in Physics at the University of Chicago in July 2021. She was awarded an Office of Science Graduate Student Research Program award from the US Department of Energy to complete her Ph.D research at the SLAC National Accelerator Lab in Menlo Park, California. At SLAC, Lipi worked on studying how to apply machine learning techniques to improve particle accelerator operation and control. Lipi also has a background in nonlinear beam dynamics, focusing on sextupole magnet resonance elimination, through her research at University of Chicago and research conducted while earning a Bachelor of Arts in Physics with a minor in mathematics at Cornell University.

Topic TBD

Who: Hannah Klion
When: July 11, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m. 
Where: B59-3101

Abstract: TBD

Topic TBD

Who: Nan Ding
When: July 16, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Where: B59-3101

Abstract: TBD

Topic TBD

Who: Zarija Lukić
When: July 18, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Where: B59-3101

Abstract: TBD

Scientific Applications in the NESAP Program

Who: Andrew Naylor, Mukul Dave, and Wenbin Xu
When: July 23, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Where: B59-3101

Abstract: TBD

Topic TBD

Who: Silvia Crivelli
When: July 25, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Where: B59-3101

Abstract: TBD

Topic TBD

Who: Michael Mahoney
When: July 30, 11 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Where: TBD

Abstract: TBD

Behavioral-Based Interviewing Workshop: Effective Interviewing Techniques

Who: Bill Cannan
When: August 1, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Where: TBD

Abstract: Past Behavior is the best predictor of future performance! Behavioral-based interviewing is a competency-based interviewing technique in which employers evaluate a candidate's past behavior in different situations in order to predict their future performance. This technique is the new norm for academic and industry-based organizations searching for talent. This workshop will provide information and tools to help you prepare for your next interview including an overview of the behavioral-based interview process, sample questions, and techniques on how to prepare.

Bio: Bill Cannan is the Sr. HR Division Partner that supports Computing Sciences and IT. Bill has over 20 years of HR related experience as a recruiter and HR Generalist in both industry and National Lab environments. This includes over 12 years at Berkeley Lab and three years with Lawrence Livermore National Lab. Bill is responsible for providing both strategic and hands-on full cycle Human Resources support and consultation to employees and managers.

Summer Program Poster Session

Who: All Summer Program Participants are Welcome to Attend
When: August 6, Time TBA
Where: B59, Room/Location TBA