SDSC Hosts First Annual Industry Partners Research Review

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The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego will host its first annual research review for current and prospective industrial partners and affiliates as part of a broader strategy to foster increased collaborations that may benefit from the center’s extensive research capabilities.

The 2013 Industry Partner Program Research Review will be held from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. on June 12 at SDSC, an Organized Research Unit of UC San Diego located on the northwest end of campus. Existing partners from sectors such as information technology, biotech, utilities, transportation, and civil engineering are encouraged to register. Prospective partners from these and any other areas also are invited to attend.

Participants will learn about SDSC’s diverse research activities; including its wide expertise in advanced computing and storage, managing the deluge of ‘Big Data’ now being generated by commercial laboratories, academia, and government institutions; and how the Center is leading the way in emerging areas such as data mining and predictive analytics.

More information about the research review, including registration details, can be found at http://www.sdsc.edu/Events/ipp2013/index.html.

“Beginning with its roots in private industry (SDSC was founded by General Atomics Corporation in 1985), SDSC has a proud history of conducting ‘applied R&D’ and operating production-quality computing infrastructure for large user communities, making for natural synergies with industrial partners,” said SDSC Director Michael Norman. “We view this annual research review as an excellent opportunity to highlight success stories in working with current partners, and to showcase our extensive capabilities to potential new partners.”

The review is being organized around a half-day agenda, beginning with registration and networking activities, followed by a series of presentations by many of SDSC’s principal investigators and researchers. The day will conclude with a reception, further networking opportunities, and tours of SDSC’s data centers.

Planned presentation topics encompass SDSC’s Big Data initiatives including the Center for Large Scale Data Systems (CLDS); workflow technologies for bioinformatics; predictive analytics and data mining research and applications conducted by SDSC’s Predictive Analytics Center of Excellence (PACE); social network analysis research; computer systems performance prediction; and setting up and managing high-performance computing clusters.

Also highlighted will be Gordon, SDSC’s unique Big Data analytics supercomputer utilizing massive amounts of flash memory and virtual shared memory technologies to accelerate predictive analytics, data mining, and other “data-intensive” computing problems emerging throughout the scientific community and commercial enterprise.

“Our research and educational programs in Big Data and predictive analytics such as CLDS and PACE have catalyzed SDSC’s industrial engagement in recent years,” noted Chaitan Baru, SDSC’s associate director for data initiatives. “The research review permits us to showcase results from those programs as well as other areas of potential interest to industry.” Baru also heads up the CLDS. PACE is directed by SDSC scientist Natasha Balac, whose expertise is in predictive analytics and data mining.

“SDSC is a unique resource in Southern California for talent and infrastructure in advanced computing,” added Ron Hawkins, SDSC’s director of industry relations. “Convening an annual research review focused on the specific needs of industry provides SDSC an opportunity to further demonstrate how companies in Southern California and beyond can benefit from working with the center’s researchers and using its facilities to achieve their business objectives.”