IMA 2002 Summer Program for Graduate Students in Scientific Computing

    During July 1-26, 2002 the University of Kentucky Center for Computational Sciences will be the host of the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications' (IMA) summer graduate program in mathematics.  The course will concentrate on scientific computing with an emphasis on applications including a week on biomathematical computing.  An additional feature will be a two day workshop on how to use the Department of Energy's software for parallel computers at the end of week 3.

    The conference is being organized by

Professor Craig C. Douglas
Email:	douglas@ccs.uky.edu
Telephone:	+1-859-257-2326
eFax:	+1-240-384-7714

The conference administrative assistants are

Ms. Teresa Moody and Mrs. Sandy Leachman
Email:	tmoody@pop.uky.edu and sandy@ukcc.uky.edu
Telephone:	+1-859-257-8737
Fax:	+1-859-323-1029

Topics and Speakers

    There will be a topic a week unless noted.  The ACTS workshop will be at the end of Iain Duff's lectures during the third week.

	Speakers	Topic
	Craig Douglas and Jun Zhang	Parallel Computing and Visualization
	Jerome Jaffré and Jean Roberts	Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations
	Iain Duff	Sparse Matrix Methods
	Tony Drummond and Osni Marques	ACTS workshop
	Toni Kazic	Bioinformatics and Its Relation to Scientific Computing

Parallel Computing and Visualization

    A comprehensive introduction to parallel computing with respect to scientific computing will be given.  No knowledge of parallel computing will be assumed, but some programming language needs to known by the student (e.g., C, C++, or Fortran).  Differences between single and multiple processor algorithms and strategies will be given.  Communication methods (MPI and OpenMP) and visualization techniques will be described.  Students will have ample access to the largest Hewlett-Packard supercomputer on the planet.

Numerical Methods for Partial Differential Equations

Partial differential equations model a wide variety of physical and socio-economic phenomena. Practical applications require numerical solutions for these equations.  The choice of numerical method for an equation is crucial and depends strongly on the particular problem. In this course we will study several methods for different problems and will be concerned with questions of stability, precision, and conservation, with an emphasis on criteria for the choice of a suitable method.

Sparse Matrix Methods

Underlying the solution of most problems in science and engineering are sparse matrices used in either a linear or nonlinear problem formulation.  How to solve sparse matrix problems will be the focus.  Direct and iterative methods for both serial and parallel computers will be developed along with tricks to solve problems faster by transforming matrices into forms easier to work with.

ACTS Workshop

Students will receive hands on experience using a number of the Department of Energy's software ACTS Toolkit for parallel computers.  There will be tutorials and discussion sessions focused on solving specific computational needs of the participants.  See http://acts.nersc.gov for information about the ACTS Toolkit.

Bioinformatics and Its Relation to Scientific Computing

A model of a cellular metabolism involves hundreds of uniquely defined pieces.  Changing one can affect many others.  The state of the art for the design of effective alternatives is almost a trial and error process.  Predicting the metabolic fate of a compound or the metabolic changes produced by an altered enzyme requires the ability to identify which enzymes will react  with the compound and its successors, and determine the extent to which other competing processes will bypass or contribute to the desired effect.  The focus here will be on the models and the computational algorithms for the rational design of cellular metabolism.

Daily Schedule

    We will meet on Monday through Friday.  The first day we will meet at 9:00 to get acquainted.  All lectures will be in 327 McVey Hall unless announced otherwise.  Students are expected to attend all of the lectures.

9:30-10:30	First lecture
10:30-11:00	Break
11:00-12:00	Second lecture
12:00-2:00	Lunch
2:00-4:00	Informal study sessions

In addition, there will be an informal get together on Monday evenings.

Facilities

    The lectures will be held in a conference room with a network capable of sustaining 40 Mbits/second on the Access Grid. We can broadcast the lectures if it is desired to any Access Grid node, opening the possibility that some of the students can be as far away as Moscow or Maui.  There are also traditional and wireless networks throughout CCS.

    The university also has a 224 processor HP Superdome cluster. Each processor is rated at about 3 gigaflops (peak) and has 2 gigabytes of main memory. There are three 64 processor and one 32 processor SMP's with five terabytes of attached disk storage. In addition, there are workstations and PC's.  Students should bring a laptop computer if possible.

    There are apartments, cafeterias, restaurants, bookstores, libraries on or near campus. Lexington is a city of 275,000 people and has many other facilities. Its airport is served by 6 major airlines. Cincinnati is about 75 miles from campus.

    Temporary campus id's will be arranged so that access to university facilities is assured.

Cheers,
Craig C. Douglas

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