Three SBU students are chosen to present their work at SC13

IACS funds their trip to encourage early career opportunities 

Na Zhang Abstract Research Poster

Three PhD Stony Brook graduate students were chosen to present their research at the SuperComputing 2013 (SC13) annual conference held this year in Denver, Colorado. Na Zhang, Chao Gao, and Yufei Ren were selected from among 36 applicants to give a talk and present a poster as part of the Doctoral Showcase Program. Here on campus, these students are from three different departments with three different advisors, but they all shared in the success of presenting their early stage work to a prestigious audience from all corners of the world.

Stony Brook’s Institute for Advanced Computational Science (IACS) funded their trip. “SC13 is the premiere conference worldwide in high-powered computing where all elements of the computer industry, academia and the national laboratories meet to exchange ideas and advertise their wares,” said IACS Director Robert Harrison. “IACS is excited to take a leadership role in advancing computational science on a very broad front across SBU and all of SUNY, and it is a privilege to support these talented students in presenting their research and also striving to advance their careers.”

Chao Gao Abstract Research Poster

Each student participated in a “lightning round of short time-controlled presentations” that consisted of 4 slides with no more than 45 seconds per slide. Timing was automatic so there was no way to move to the next slide or to return to a slide. According to Alistair Rendell and Wojtek James Goscinski, the program’s Chair and Co-Chair, “ This is a very challenging format and it's [the student’s job] job to consider how to best communicate [his/her] project using images and text and tightly controlled timings.”

Na is with the Applied Mathematics and Statistics Department under the tutelage of Professor Yuefan Deng. Her work involves modeling platelets. “I learned a lot [at SC13] from tutorials, workshops, great papers, posters, scientific visualizations, and the latest HPC products. Most important of all, I got a clearer idea of how the entire HPC field works: Most of the time I just work on an application, just as a user. It was a great opportunity for me to have a look at each component of supercomputers, architectures, the latest software and even to talk to technicians who work in this frontier.”

Chao is with the Biomedical Engineering Department working with Professor Danny Bluestein. His work involves blood flow simulation. “My research project uses supercomputing for Biomedical research, to help understand the mechanisms of platelet activation and thrombus formation on the cellular and molecular level through multi-scale modeling and simulation. This conference helped me understand the building blocks and working mechanisms of the supercomputer so I can become a better user and fully exploit the power of supercomputers to address biomedical problems.”

Yufei Ren Abstract Research Poster

Yufei is with the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department with Dr. Dantong Yu from Brookhaven National Laboratory as his adviser. His research involves high performance data transfer and storage area networks, and he has published two technical papers, both as the first author, in SuperComputing conferences 2012 and 2013 respectively. "Attending the conference expanded my research perspective through discussing advanced research topics and exchanging fresh ideas with researchers from both academia and industry. Also I presented our group's technical paper, about high performance data transfer system click here, and my research to showcase our contributions to the supercomputing research community."

The Institute for Advanced Computational Science engages faculty, students and postdocs from a wide variety of academic backgrounds, all of whom have research interests that involve the use of high-performance and data-intensive computing. The pervasive entrepreneurial, think-tank culture of networking and support at IACS enables those who participate in their events to make connections that elevate careers and electrify curiosity. Students and postdocs conducting research in computational science are of particular interest to institute faculty, and every effort is made to generate support and promote opportunities to help further their careers in relevant fields. To find out more about IACS and the schedule of events, see the events tab.