SC2002 News

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November Edition, November 7, 2002
Here is the latest news about the SC2002 conference. If you would prefer not to receive this information, please send an email to majordomo@ncsa.uiuc.edu with the words "unsubscribe SC2002newsletter" in the body of the email. You can also find the latest information at.

SC2002, under the theme "From Terabytes to Insights," will be held Nov. 16-22 in Baltimore, Md., USA

DOE'S ROBERT HARRISON TO RECEIVE 2002 SIDNEY FERNBACH AWARD
Robert J. Harrison, an internationally recognized quantum chemist who is the principal architect of the Northwest Computational Chemistry Software (NWChem), has been named as the recipient of the IEEE Computer Society's 2002 Sidney Fernbach Award. The Fernbach Award, which will be presented during the SC2002 Awards Program on Thursday, Nov. 21, honors Sidney Fernbach, one of the pioneers in the development and application of high performance computers for the solution of large computational problems. Harrison worked at DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory before joining the staff at Oak Ridge National Laboratory this past summer.

Here is additional information about the importance of Harrison's work as noted in the nomination submitted by Horst Simon, director of DOE's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center: "In quantum chemistry there are a number of computational packages, ranging from the pioneering effort called "GAUSSIAN" which was part of John Pople's Nobel Prize-winning work, to more recent commercial packages designed to run on workstations. NWChem is the first large-scale effort to produce such a code, and the attendant algorithms, for massively parallel computers. Harrison is its principal architect, and is clearly the intellectual power behind its development. Because this code is publicly distributed-and not sold commercially-it has the potential to revolutionize the discipline."

The Sidney Fernbach Award was established by the IEEE Computer Society in 1992 and is awarded for outstanding contributions in the application of high performance computers using innovative approaches.

RAY ORBACH, DIRECTOR OF OFFICE OF SCIENCE AT U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, TO ADDRESS SC2002 CONFERENCE
Raymond L. Orbach, Director of the Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy, will discuss "High End Computation and Scientific Discovery" at SC2002. Orbach will open the second day of the conference's technical program, speaking at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 20.

As director of DOE's Office of Science, Orbach oversees DOE's Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program. Launched last year, SciDAC aims to develop the scientific computing software and hardware infrastructure needed to use terascale computers to advance fundamental research in several areas related to the department's missions, including climate modeling, fusion energy sciences, chemical sciences, nuclear astrophysics, high energy physics and high-performance computing.

Read the SC2002 news release about this year's invited speakers at . Click on "News Releases."

LAST-MINUTE ADVICE FOR CHANGING, CANCELING HOTEL ROOMS
Here's some last-minute news from the SC2002 Housing coordinator Debbie Huszar:

All conference hotels are currently in "sold out" status. If you need to make a NEW reservation, please contact the Baltimore Area Convention & Visitors Association (BACVA) Housing Bureau Call Center at 506-433-7966. If you need to change or cancel an existing reservation, please contact your hotel directly. A list of hotels and phone numbers is available on the SC2002 Website at in the "Housing" section. Be aware that the hotels will enforce the $150 cancellation penalties after Nov 7 - no exceptions.

Changes And Early Departures
Early departures: Changes to existing reservations must be made directly with your hotel. At time of check-in, verify your departure date. Lack of notification may result in an early departure fee (at the discretion of individual hotels).

All hotels are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Guest rooms, common areas, meeting facilities and transportation services are within ADA requirements.

Meeting Room Space
Exhibitors who require meeting room or reception space at any of the conference hotels should contact Debbie Huszar at info@taskhandlers.com or call 503.722.2262.

TRANSPORTATION BETWEEN AIRPORT, HOTELS, CONVENTION CENTER
Most of the conference hotels are located within easy walking distance of the Baltimore Convention Center (BCC). Because of the hotels' proximity, conference busing will NOT be provided this year. There are skywalks for some of the hotels adjacent to the BCC. See the Housing Map at in the "Housing" section for details.

Car rental services are available at the airport, train station and most hotels. Check with your hotel for the specific car rental service on their property. SuperShuttle (800-258-3826) provides transportation services to and from the Baltimore (BWI) airport at half-hour intervals from 5:45 a.m. until 11:45 p.m. Go to the service desk in the baggage area to get a boarding pass for the shuttle. First trip from hotels arrives at BWI at 6:55 a.m. Their rate is currently $11 one-way or $18 round trip. Round trip tickets are available at BWI only.

Taxi service and private town car services are approximately $15-$40 plus tip, one-way from BWI to the conference hotels. BWI Limo Service (aka Private Car) is offering conference participants a one-way rate of $28 from BWI to any hotel in the Inner Harbor/Downtown area or back to the airport from the hotels or convention center. Call, 800-685-0888 or 410-519-0000 for reservations.

Direct light rail service is now available to downtown Baltimore from BWI. The airport station is conveniently right outside the baggage claim area. The service, which stops at a station adjacent to the convention center, operates every 17 minutes, 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday and holidays. One-way fare is $1.35 between the airport and the convention center.

BANDWIDTH CHALLENGE COMPETITORS' TIMES ANNOUNCED
The third annual High-Performance Bandwidth Challenge has drawn seven entrants, each of which will be seeking to maximize use of SCinet, the high-capacity network built especially for the SC conference.

Here's a schedule of the Bandwidth Challenge demos:

Tuesday, Nov. 19
2 p.m. - Data Reservoir
3 p.m. - Global Telescience Featuring IPv6

Wednesday, Nov. 20
11 a.m. - Grid Datafarm for a HEP Application
12 p.m. - Bandwidth to the World
1 p.m. - Terascale Computation for 3D Tele-immersion
2 p.m. - Data Services and Visualization
3 p.m. - Bandwidth Gluttony
4 p.m. - Simulations Using Cactus, Globus and Visapult

Judging will be done on Thursday, Nov. 21, with the results announced at the Awards session at 1:30 Thursday afternoon.

For more information, including a description of each challenger, go to and click on "Bandwidth Challenge 2002".

SC2002 POSTS RECORD FOR LARGEST NUMBER OF EXHIBITORS
Storage Computer Corporation of Nashua, NH, became the last vendor to be squeezed into the SC2002 Exhibition, bringing the total number of industry exhibits to 122. The 2002 conference has also drawn 99 research exhibitors, for a total of 221 - the most ever in the history of the conference. As conference exhibits manager Don Collier puts it, "We are totally out of Exhibitor Kits and space and time."

EXHIBITORS' NOTES
Here is our second edition of Exhibitor Notes, short news items from SC2002 exhibitors. At the most, we will have only one more issue of SC News before the conference, so exhibitors who would like to tell the SC audience about plans for their booth should send items asap to SC News Editor Jon Bashor at JBashor@lbl.gov. Long items will be edited. Limit one news item per exhibitor.

PLATFORM COMPUTING BUILDS "TRUE GRID" AT SUPERCOMPUTING 2002
In a compelling demonstration of collaboration and interoperability through Grid computing, Platform Computing (Booth #1205) and seven business partners will create a "True Grid" from the SC2002 show floor, incorporating IT resources across North America. Using Grid software Platform MultiCluster, Platform Globus and the Globus Toolkit, Platform and its partners Apple, Dell, HP, IBM, Microway, RLX and SGI, will build a heterogeneous Grid integrating the system, cluster and Grid middleware levels. Deployments like this are being used to simulate real-life Grid computing for federal applications ranging from the design of defense systems to intelligence operations.

HPC industry veteran Rene' Copeland, Platform's vice president, government and life sciences, will turn on Platform's "True Grid" at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 19. Immediately following this, Ian Lumb, Grid solutions manager, will host a theatre presentation titled "True Grid: Enabling Extreme Interoperability Through Grid Computing," to describe how Grid software can help organizations to leverage high degrees of heterogeneity as a corporate strength.

At the show, Copeland will also be announcing the creation of a new Platform division to develop and customize distributed and Grid computing solutions for the U.S. Federal Government. Numerous partners are presenting along side Platform at their booth. In addition, on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 2.30 p.m., Platform's Lumb will present "Crossing the IT Chasm: Taking Applications from the Cluster to the Grid". Lumb will discuss how to transition from clusters to a Grid Computing model and the associated benefits for collaboration, high-throughput computing and data management.

For the complete theatre schedule please visit.

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