1. NCSA In Partnership with OAS-ARTCA Office of Science, Technology, and Innovation
Danny Powell
Executive Director
National Center for Supercomputing Applications
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Seventh Meeting of the Inter-American
Committee on Science and Technology
Washington, DC
October 18, 2012

2. Basic Facts about NCSA
Applied Research Unit of the University of Illinois
Established in 1986 with funding from NSF and State of Illinois
Physical Facilities
NCSA Building: 140,000 sq.ft.
Data Center: 80,000 sq.ft. (20,000 sq.ft. raised floor)
Computing Resources
Mid-Range Supercomputing systems: ~150 TF
11+ Petaflop (Largest NSF-funded compute system) – Blue Waters - Cray
Archival storage system: 500+ PB (and growing)
Staff FTE – 90% Technical Staff
Funding - State/National/International/Industrial sources – 88% project partnerships
International Program institutions from 14+ countries
Industrial Program companies (Fortune 50/100/500, smaller tech companies)
Intellectual Property (IP) - Open source – openly shared (vast majority)
Seventh Meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Science and Technology

3. NCSA – Mission / Goals As an NSF-funded National Center
Provide high end compute and data resources to scientists and engineers.
As an Applications-Support center
Work with those scientists/engineers/industry/government communities and teams to
Understand what it is they are trying to do
Provide them with (or develop where needed) the tools, software systems, expertise and services to achieve their goals in ways that haven’t been available to them to date.
Seventh Meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Science and Technology

4. NCSA Bridges Basic Research and Commercialization with Application
Phase 2
Design/
Development
Phase 3
Prototyping
Phase 4
Production/
Deployment
Phase 0
Concept/
Vision
Phase 1
Feasibility
Product Life Cycle
Theoretical
&
Basic
Research
Applied
Prototyping
&
Development
Optimization
&
Robustification
Commercialization
&
Production
(.com or .org)
NCSA
Bridges the Gap
BETWEEN
Basic Research & Commercialization
Industry’s interests cross the lines between basic research, applied development and commercialization. NCSA lives in all three categories and specializes in the center. This model could effectively be replicated across the nation in order to reach an entire supply chain.
Application
Universities
& Labs
Private
Industry
Seventh Meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Science and Technology

5. Outline Basic info about NCSA Blue Waters – PetaScale Computer
Advanced Information Systems
Examples of current scientific support role
Seventh Meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Science and Technology

6. THREE industrial sectors are clearly represented: manufacturing, technology, oil & gas, plus a smattering of others.
Seventh Meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Science and Technology

7. Seventh Meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Science and Technology

8. Effective Global Science - It’s Not All About the Technology
Increasingly, more key, complex R&D issues require “Team Science”
Increasingly, more effective Team Science projects include interdisciplinary and international cooperation
Successful interdisciplinary/international collaborations require effective collaborative cyber-infrastructure frameworks
Successful interdisciplinary/international collaborations require effective relationships
Successful scientific relations, more often require time and effort and trust
The “Social Engineering” aspects of successful interdisciplinary/international activities are more difficult than the “Technical Engineering” aspects
Seventh Meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Science and Technology

9. International Founding member of OAS-ARTCA
Current, active partner of OAS-ARTCA
Joint projects (Pan American Advanced Studies Institute)(Radical Innovation Summit)
Enabling supercomputing resources for the OAS-ARTCA Hemispheric Scalable Research Challenge
Executive Immersion Program – participating resource
Active participant in multiple working groups – providing network infrastructure for video conference meetings
Additional active collaborations with:
Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, England, France, Germany, Guatemala, New Zealand, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Tanzania, West Indies,
Seventh Meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Science and Technology

10. International Goals
Important that we, as a Global Community, have the opportunities and the environments (technical/social/political) to effectively work together on important problems
Together we can solve more challenges (and more effectively) than we can individually
Education
Hazard planning and response
Technology driven economic development
Public health
Environmental management
Climate modeling
Scientific discovery
Human engineered systems
Seventh Meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Science and Technology

11. Example of International Partnership: Natural Hazard Assessment / Response
6 years ago - Initially a Seismic Risk Assessment/Planning Tool
Consequence based risk management for seismic events
Consortium of 8 universities- Built for Memphis, Tennessee
Selected by European Consortium as best platform
Picked up and used by multiple countries
Austria, China, Korea, New Zealand, Turkey, West Indies, others..
Discussions w/ MesoAmerica, India, Jamaica, Lebanon, Costa Rica ..
Extended by international community
Multi-Hazard – Emergency Response
Improvement on existing features (e.g. transportation models)
New models (housing relocation, plume modeling, socio-economic, …)
New Open Source Consortium – looking to share
Setting up processes, management – looking for more participation
Share the technology – share the improvements – coordinate training
Integrate new community models (urban planning, environmental management, medical response, …)
Seventh Meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Science and Technology

12. Conclusion
NCSA is one of many partners, and one of many significant assets of the OAS-ARTCA efforts
We were a founding member
We have been, and will continue to be actively involved in OAS-ARTCA activities
Scientific R&D is a global “contact sport”. We have a long history of collaborating with international partners – and a strong desire to extend the relationships we have with our Central / South American and Caribbean partners.
We would be happy to discuss potential opportunities !
NCSA website: ncsa.illinois.edu
Contact info:
Danny Powell
Seventh Meeting of the Inter-American Committee on Science and Technology