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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 379 records · Page 21

Making Advanced Scientific Algorithms and Big Scientific Data Management More Accessible

Synchrotrons such as the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are known as user facilities. They are sources of extremely bright X-ray beams, and scientists come from all over the world to perform experiments that require these beams. As the complexity of experiments has increased, and the size and rates of data sets has exploded, managing, analyzing and presenting the data collected at synchrotrons has been an increasing challenge. The ALS has partnered with high performance computing, fast networking, and applied mathematics groups to create a"super-facility", giving users simultaneous access to the experimental, computational, and algorithmic resources to overcome this challenge. This combination forms an efficient closed loop, where data despite its high rate and volume is transferred and processed, in many cases immediately and automatically, on appropriate compute resources, and results are extracted, visualized, and presented to users or to the experimental control system, both to provide immediate insight and to guide decisions about subsequent experiments during beam-time. In this paper, We will present work done on advanced tomographic reconstruction algorithms to support users of the 3D micron-scale imaging instrument (Beamline 8.3.2, hard X-ray micro-tomography).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Berkeley Lab 2nd Grader Outreach

The Berkeley Lab IT Department sponsored a community outreach program aimed at teaching young children about computers and networks. Second graders from LeConte Elementary School joined Lab IT Staff for a day of in-depth exercises and fun.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Next generation experimental data access at NSLS-II

The NSLS-II network and computing infrastructure has been significantly updated recently. The re-IP process in 2020-2021 enabled the NSLS-II network to be routable to the rest of the BNL campus. Then, standardization of the operating systems and deployment procedures helped to deliver a consistent environment to workstations and servers used by all NSLS-II beamlines. In particular, the RedHat Enterprise Linux 8 was deployed to 700+ machines using the RedHat Satellite infrastructure management product, and all critical services (IOCs, databases, etc.) were migrated to the new OS. NFS users’ home directories are consistent across all of the machines, which eliminates the need for the individual configuration of the user environment on each host. The standard suite of software packages is available to the beamline staff and users, which includes the system packages (deployed via RPM) as well as the conda environments for data acquisition and analysis. Security measures were implemented to comply with the industry standards, which include multi-factor authentication (using Duo), secure screen lock for the beamline machines, and advanced access control to the experimental data that is stored in shared central storage available on all hosts. These major enhancements facilitated sharing the experimental data (currently for a number of selected beamlines, with a plan to extend it to the whole facility in the nearest future) with the users via an externally facing JupyterHub instance. The beamlines keep using the Bluesky data acquisition framework to orchestrate their experiments, and the new infrastructure enabled them to use a next-generation data access library called tiled.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Toward higher-radix switches with co-packaged optics for improved network locality in data center and HPC networks [Invited]

In this work, we study the network locality improvements that can be achieved by using co-packaged optics in data center and high-performance computing (HPC) networks. The increased escape bandwidth offered by co-packaged optics can enable switches with speeds of 51.2 Tb/s and beyond. From a network architecture perspective, the key advantages of introducing co-packaged optics at the switch points include the implementation of large-scale topologies of >12,000 end points with 4× higher bisection bandwidth and the reduction of the required number of switches by >40% compared with state-of-the-art approaches. From a network operation perspective, improved network locality and faster operation can be achieved since the higher-radix switches can mitigate the impact of network contention. Placing applications under fewer leaf switches reduces the number of packets that cross the spine switches in a leaf-spine topology. The proposed scheme is evaluated via discrete-event simulations: we initially evaluate the network locality properties of the system by using virtual-machine traces from a production data center, and we subsequently quantify the performance improvements by simulating an all-to-all pattern for a variety of message sizes over a number of nodes. The results suggest that co-packaged optics form a promising solution for keeping up with bandwidth scaling in future networks. The virtual-machine analysis shows that large-scale applications can be placed under up to 50% fewer first-level switches, while the network analysis shows speedups of up to 7.1, which translates to execution time reductions of up to 26% and 42.7% for applications with communication ratios of 0.3 and 0.5, respectively.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Integrating large-scale functional genomics data to dissect metabolic networks for hydrogen production

The goal of this project is to identify gene networks that are critical for efficient biohydrogen production by leveraging variation in gene content and gene expression in independently isolated Rhodopseudomonas palustris strains. Coexpression methods were applied to large data sets that we have collected to define probabilistic causal gene networks. To our knowledge this a first systems level approach that takes advantage of strain-to strain variability to computationally define networks critical for a particular bacterial phenotypic trait.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Fusion Energy Sciences Network Requirements Review: Mild-cycle Update

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) world-class research infrastructure provides the research community with premier observational, experimental, computational, and network capabilities. Each user facility is designed to provide unique capabilities to advance core DOE mission science for its sponsor SC program and to stimulate a rich discovery and innovation ecosystem. Research communities gather and flourish around each user facility, bringing together diverse perspectives. The continual reinvention of the practice of science — as users and staff forge novel approaches expressed in research workflows — unlocks new discoveries and propels scientific progress.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Hybrid PDES Simulation of HPC Networks Using Zombie Packets

Although high-fidelity network simulations have proven to be reliable and cost-effective tools to peer into architectural questions for high-performance computing (HPC) networks, they incur a high resource cost. The time spent in simulating a single millisecond of network traffic in the highest detail can take hours, even for static, well-behaved traffic patterns such as uniform random. Surrogate models offer a significant reduction in runtime, yet they cannot serve as complete replacements and should only be used when appropriate. Thus, there is a need for hybrid modeling, where high-fidelity simulation and surrogates run side-by-side. Here, we present a surrogate model for HPC networks in which: packets bypass the network, while the network state is left untouched, i.e., suspended. To bypass the network, we use historical data to estimate the arrival time at which every packet should be scheduled at; to suspend the network, all in-flight packets are scheduled to arrive at their destinations, and are kept in the system to awaken as zombies when switching back to high-fidelity. Speedup for a hybrid model is relative to the proportion of surrogate to high-fidelity. This light-weight surrogate obtained up to 76× speedup. Keeping the zombies in the network showed an increase in the accuracy of the high-fidelity simulation on restart when compared to restarting the network from an empty state.

HPC networks↗

Porosity evolution under increasing tension in wire-arc additively manufactured aluminum using in-situ micro-computed tomography and convolutional neural network

Internal defects such as porosities are often formed in additively manufactured metal components. The pores nucleate, grow, and coalesce to form cracks under loads, leading to eventual catastrophic failure. Here, in this paper, the full-field porosity evolution, including pore growth and coalescence in a wire-arc additively manufactured (WAAM) aluminum alloy cylinder under tension is observed with in-situ X-ray micro-computed tomography (μCT). The pore size distribution, density, and tensile stress are calculated from the volumetric images analyzed by a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm, which provides rapid analysis of 12,950 slice images from μCT volumetric images at the reference state and 13 tensile strains. The results show the quantitative evolution of the growth and coalescence of macropores under tension. A strong correlation is found between the local pore volume fraction and the true tensile stress when the tensile strain is larger than 5%.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Virtual Infrastructure Twins: Software Testing Platforms for Computing-Instrument Ecosystems

Science ecosystems are being built by federating computing systems and instruments located at geographically distributed sites over wide-area networks. These computing-instrument ecosystems are expected to support complex workflows that incorporate remote, automated AI-driven science experiments. Their realization, however, requires various designs to be explored and software components to be developed, in order to support the orchestration of distributed computations and experiments. It is often too expensive, infeasible, or disruptive for the entire ecosystem to be available during the typically long software development and testing periods. We propose a Virtual Infrastructure Twin (VIT) of the ecosystem that emulates its network and computing components, and incorporates its instrument software simulators. It provides a software environment nearly identical to the ecosystem to support early development and testing, and design space exploration. We present a brief overview of previous digital infrastructure twins that culminated in the VIT concept, including (i) the virtual science network environment for developing software-defined networking solutions, and (ii) the virtual federated science instrument environment for testing the federation software stack and remote instrument control software. We briefly describe VITs for Nion microscope steering and access to GPU systems.

Rao, Nageswara↗

Virtual Infrastructure Twins: Software Testing Platforms for Computing-Instrument Ecosystems

Science ecosystems are being built by federating computing systems and instruments located at geographically distributed sites over wide-area networks. These computing-instrument ecosystems are expected to support complex workflows that incorporate remote, automated AI-driven science experiments. Their realization, however, requires various designs to be explored and software components to be developed, in order to support the orchestration of distributed computations and experiments. It is often too expensive, infeasible, or disruptive for the entire ecosystem to be available during the typically long software development and testing periods. We propose a Virtual Infrastructure Twin (VIT) of the ecosystem that emulates its network and computing components, and incorporates its instrument software simulators. It provides a software environment nearly identical to the ecosystem to support early development and testing, and design space exploration. We present a brief overview of previous digital infrastructure twins that culminated in the VIT concept, including (i) the virtual science network environment for developing software-defined networking solutions, and (ii) the virtual federated science instrument environment for testing the federation software stack and remote instrument control software. We briefly describe VITs for Nion microscope steering and access to GPU systems.

Rao, Nageswara↗

Joint Design of Multimodal Transit Networks and Shared Autonomous Mobility Fleets

Providing quality transit service to travelers in low-density areas, particularly travelers without personal vehicles, is a constant challenge for transit agencies. The advent of fully-autonomous vehicles (AVs) and their inclusion in mobility service fleets may allow transit agencies to offer better service and/or reduce their own capital and operational costs. This study focuses on the problem of allocating resources between transit patterns and operating (or subsidizing) shared-use AV mobility services (SAMSs) in a large metropolitan area. To address this question, a joint transit network redesign and SAMS fleet size determination problem (JTNR-SFSDP) is introduced, and a bi-level mathematical programming formulation and solution approach are presented. The upper-level problem modifies a transit network frequency setting problem (TNFSP) formulation via incorporating SAMS fleet size as a decision variable and allowing the removal of bus routes. The lower-level problem consists of a dynamic combined mode choice-traveler assignment problem (DCMC-TAP) formulation. The heuristic solution procedure involves solving the upper-level problem using a nonlinear programming solver and solving the lower-level problem using an iterative agent-based assignment-simulation approach. To illustrate the effectiveness of the modeling framework, this study uses traveler demand from Chicago along with the regions existing multimodal transit network. The computational results indicate significant traveler benefits, in terms of improved average traveler wait times, associated with optimizing the joint design of multimodal transit networks and SAMS fleets compared with the initial transit network design.

bi-level programming↗

False Positive and False Negative Effects on Network Attacks

Robustness against attacks serves as evidence for complex network structures and failure mechanisms that lie behind them. Most often, due to detection capability limitation or good disguises, attacks on networks are subject to false positives and false negatives, meaning that functional nodes may be falsely regarded as compromised by the attacker and vice versa. In this work, we initiate a study of false positive/negative effects on network robustness against three fundamental types of attack strategies, namely, random attacks (RA), localized attacks (LA), and targeted attack (TA). By developing a general mathematical framework based upon the percolation model, we investigate analytically and by numerical simulations of attack robustness with false positive/negative rate (FPR/FNR) on three benchmark models including Erdős-Rényi (ER) networks, random regular (RR) networks, and scale-free (SF) networks. We show that ER networks are equivalently robust against RA and LA only when FPR equals zero or the initial network is intact. We find several interesting crossovers in RR and SF networks when FPR is taken into consideration. By defining the cost of attack, we observe diminishing marginal attack efficiency for RA, LA, and TA. Our finding highlights the potential risk of underestimating or ignoring FPR in understanding attack robustness. The results may provide insights into ways of enhancing robustness of network architecture and improve the level of protection of critical infrastructures.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Scalable training of trustworthy and energy-efficient predictive graph foundation models for atomistic materials modeling: a case study with HydraGNN

We present our work on developing and training scalable, trustworthy, and energy-efficient predictive graph foundation models (GFMs) using HydraGNN, a multi-headed graph convolutional neural network architecture. HydraGNN expands the boundaries of graph neural network (GNN) computations in both training scale and data diversity. It abstracts over message passing algorithms, allowing both reproduction of and comparison across algorithmic innovations that define nearest-neighbor convolution in GNNs. This work discusses a series of optimizations that have allowed scaling up the GFMs training to tens of thousands of GPUs on datasets consisting of hundreds of millions of graphs. Our GFMs use multitask learning (MTL) to simultaneously learn graph-level and node-level properties of atomistic structures, such as energy and atomic forces. Using over 154 million atomistic structures for training, we illustrate the performance of our approach along with the lessons learned on two state-of-the-art US Department of Energy (US-DOE) supercomputers, namely the Perlmutter petascale system at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center and the Frontier exascale system at Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility. The HydraGNN architecture enables the GFM to achieve near-linear strong scaling performance using more than 2000 GPUs on Perlmutter and 16,000 GPUs on Frontier.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Understanding the Performance and Potential of Cloud Computing for Scientific Applications

In this paper, commercial clouds bring a great opportunity to the scientific computing area. Scientific applications usually require significant resources, however not all scientists have access to sufficient high-end computing systems, may of which can be found in the Top500 list. Cloud Computing has gained the attention of scientists as a competitive resource to run HPC applications at a potentially lower cost. But as a different infrastructure, it is unclear whether clouds are capable of running scientific applications with a reasonable performance per money spent. This work studies the performance of public clouds and places this performance in context to price. We evaluate the raw performance of different services of AWS cloud in terms of the basic resources, such as compute, memory, network and I/O. We also evaluate the performance of the scientific applications running in the cloud. This paper aims to assess the ability of the cloud to perform well, as well as to evaluate the cost of the cloud running scientific applications. We developed a full set of metrics and conducted a comprehensive performance evlauation over the Amazon cloud. We evaluated EC2, S3, EBS and DynamoDB among the many Amazon AWS services. We evaluated the memory sub-system performance with CacheBench, the network performance with iperf, processor and network performance with the HPL benchmark application, and shared storage with NFS and PVFS in addition to S3. We also evaluated a real scientific computing application through the Swift parallel scripting system at scale. Armed with both detailed benchmarks to gauge expected performance and a detailed monetary cost analysis, we expect this paper will be a recipe cookbook for scientists to help them decide where to deploy and run their scientific applications between public clouds, private clouds, or hybrid clouds.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Implementation and Investigation of a Weather- and Jam Density-tuned Network Perimeter Controller

This paper implements and evaluates the performance of a network fundamental diagram (NFD) proportional-integral perimeter controller (PC) using base tuned parameters (clear weather conditions and a base jam density of 160 veh/km/lane). The parameters were then re-tuned separately for different weather conditions and jam density values (reflecting different percentage of trucks), resulting in two new control methods: a weather-tuned perimeter controller (WTPC) and a jam density-tuned perimeter controller (JTPC). The WTPC was shown to outperform the no control strategy and the PC for different weather conditions. Specifically, the WTPC decreased the congestion inside the protected network (PN) and improved the overall performance of the full network (FN) by decreasing the average vehicle travel time, decreasing the vehicle total delay, increasing the average vehicle speed and decreasing the average vehicle fuel consumption. Alternatively, the JTPC was shown to perform similar to the PC for jam densities higher than the base-case jam density used in the PC (in our case 160 veh/km/lane). However, the JTPC outperformed the PC for smaller jam densities given that these smaller jam densities result in queues spilling back faster to upstream traffic signals. The results demonstrate the need to tune the controller to the actual jam density especially when the jam density decreases (e.g. trucks are introduced to the network). http://pubsindex.trb.org/

42 ENGINEERING↗

Recurrent Neural Network Language Models for Open Vocabulary Event-Level Cyber Anomaly Detection

Automated analysis methods are crucial aids for monitoring and defending a network to protect the sensitive or confidential data it hosts. This work introduces a flexible, powerful, and unsupervised approach to detecting anomalous behavior in computer and network logs; one that largely eliminates domain-dependent feature engineering employed by existing methods. By treating system logs as threads of interleaved ``sentences'' (event log lines) to train online unsupervised neural network language models, our approach provides an adaptive model of normal network behavior. We compare the effectiveness of both standard and bidirectional recurrent neural network language models at detecting malicious activity within network log data. Extending these models, we introduce a tiered recurrent architecture, which provides context by modeling sequences of users' actions over time. Compared to isolation forests and Principal Components Analysis (PCA), two popular anomaly detection algorithms, we observe superior performance on the Los Alamos National Laboratory Cyber Security dataset. For log-line-level predictions, our best performing character-based model provides test set anomaly scores ranking red team events in the 98th percentile on average, and yields 0.97 area under the receiver operator characteristic curve, demonstrating the strong fine-grained anomaly detection performance of this approach on open vocabulary logging sources.

Cyber Analysis, Deep Learning, language analysis, ↗

Lowering the computational barrier: Partially Bayesian neural networks for transparency in medical imaging AI

Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) can provide clinicians with fast and accurate predictions that are highly valuable for high-stakes medical decision-making, such as in brain tumor segmentation and treatment planning. However, these models largely lack transparency about the uncertainty in their predictions, potentially giving clinicians a false sense of reliability that may lead to grave consequences in patient care. Growing calls for Transparent and Responsible AI have promoted Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) to capture and communicate uncertainty in a systematic and principled manner. However, traditional Bayesian UQ methods remain prohibitively costly for large, million-dimensional tumor segmentation DNNs such as the U-Net. In this work, we discuss a computationally-efficient UQ approach via the partially Bayesian neural networks (pBNN). In pBNN, only a single layer, strategically selected based on gradient-based sensitivity analysis, is targeted for Bayesian inference. We illustrate the effectiveness of pBNN in capturing the full uncertainty for a 7.8-million parameter U-Net. We also demonstrate how practitioners and model developers can use the pBNN's predictions to better understand the model's capabilities and behavior.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗