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At least 55 records · Page 3

Bringing Advanced Computational Techniques to Energy Research (BACTER)

This report briefly summarizes the achievements of the BACTER training program in computational biology, sponsored by the US Department of Energy’s SciDAC and Genomics:GTL programs. We thank them for their support and generosity over the course of this interdisciplinary training initiative. We began in 2004 with a small group of dedicated graduate students and postdocs. Our goal was to enhance training of quantitative scientists in biological areas of relevance to the DOE mission, as well as to integrate biological scientists and cross-train them in areas of quantitative research. Our early students have now matriculated and gone on to postdoctoral positions at Yale, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, and Imperial College, while others have taken positions in local biotech firms here in Madison based on their positive experiences with the research climate here. Two former postdocs went into faculty jobs (University of California Merced and Northern Illinois University) while others went on for additional postdoctoral training (Purdue, Duke) and still others went on into industry. Over the course of time, we have experimented with new training activities, including embedded science writers and scientific programmers. Our final training experiment was to train two computational and experimental students/postdocs to work in unison on new projects, to see whether this would accelerate transfer of knowledge and scientific discovery. As evidenced by the high-quality publications and career trajectories of our trainees, and the rapid progress of cross-training projects initiated during our final year, our efforts were very successful in understanding how to better advance the role of quantitative science in bioenergy research and to train the next generation of researchers to help make biofuels a viable energy source for to help meet the needs of the US population.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Analytical and Computational Advances, Opportunities, and Challenges in Marine Organic Biogeochemistry in an Era of “Omics”

Advances in sampling tools, analytical methods, and data handling capabilities have been fundamental to the growth of marine organic biogeochemistry over the past four decades. There has always been a strong feedback between analytical advances and scientific advances. However, whereas advances in analytical technology were often the driving force that made possible progress in elucidating the sources and fate of organic matter in the ocean in the first decades of marine organic biogeochemistry, today process-based scientific questions should drive analytical developments. Several paradigm shifts and challenges for the future are related to the intersection between analytical progress and scientific evolution. Untargeted “molecular headhunting” for its own sake is now being subsumed into process-driven targeted investigations that ask new questions and thus require new analytical capabilities. However, there are still major gaps in characterizing the chemical composition and biochemical behavior of macromolecules, as well as in generating reference standards for relevant types of organic matter. Field-based measurements are now routinely complemented by controlled laboratory experiments and in situ rate measurements of key biogeochemical processes. And finally, the multidisciplinary investigations that are becoming more common generate large and diverse datasets, requiring innovative computational tools to integrate often disparate data sets, including better global coverage and mapping. Here, we compile examples of developments in analytical methods that have enabled transformative scientific advances since 2004, and we project some challenges and opportunities in the near future. We believe that addressing these challenges and capitalizing on these opportunities will ensure continued progress in understanding the cycling of organic carbon in the ocean.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Quantum Computing: Advancing Fundamental Physics

The field of Quantum Information Science (QIS) is a rapidly growing field, with an expanding number of potential applications that explore the capabilities of currently available noisy quantum devices and promise to eventually solve problems beyond anything that classical systems can accomplish. In the past few years, this expectation for transformational applications has translated to a lot of attention, both from the media (reaching the scientific community and the general public) and the government funding agencies and technology industry.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Advanced Computational Framework for Environmental Management ZEM, Version 1.x

Typically environmental management problems require analysis of large and complex data sets originating from concurrent data streams with different data collection frequencies and pedigree. These big data sets require on-the-fly integration into a series of models with different complexity for various types of model analyses where the data are applied as soft and hard model constraints. This is needed to provide fast iterative model analyses based on the latest available data to guide decision-making. Furthermore, the data and model are associated with uncertainties. The uncertainties are probabilistic (e.g. measurement errors) and non-probabilistic (unknowns, e.g. alternative conceptual models characterizing site conditions). To address all of these issues, we have developed an integrated framework for real-time data and model analyses for environmental decision-making called ZEM. The framework allows for seamless and on-the-fly integration of data and modeling results for robust and scientifically-defensible decision-making applying advanced decision analyses tools such as Bayesian- Information-Gap Decision Theory (BIG-DT). The framework also includes advanced methods for optimization that are capable of dealing with a large number of unknown model parameters, and surrogate (reduced order) modeling capabilities based on support vector regression techniques. The framework is coded in Julia, a state-of-the-art high-performance programing language (http://julialang.org). The ZEM framework is open-source and can be applied to any environmental management site. The framework will be open-source and released under GPL V3 license.

Vesselinov, VelimirV.↗

Contingency Analysis Post-Processing With Advanced Computing and Visualization

Contingency analysis is a critical function widely used in energy management systems to assess the impact of power system component failures. Its outputs are important for power system operation for improved situational awareness, power system planning studies, and power market operations. With the increased complexity of power system modeling and simulation caused by increased energy production and demand, the penetration of renewable energy and fast deployment of smart grid devices, and the trend of operating grids closer to their capacity for better efficiency, more and more contingencies must be executed and analyzed quickly in order to ensure grid reliability and accuracy for the power market. Currently, many researchers have proposed different techniques to accelerate the computational speed of contingency analysis, but not much work has been published on how to post-process the large amount of contingency outputs quickly. This paper proposes a parallel post-processing function that can analyze contingency analysis outputs faster and display them in a web-based visualization tool to help power engineers improve their work efficiency by fast information digestion. Case studies using an ESCA-60 bus system and a WECC planning system are presented to demonstrate the functionality of the parallel post-processing technique and the web-based visualization tool.

Chen, Yousu↗

Advanced Computing is at the Forefront of a New “Moonshot” Revolutionizing the North American Power Grid

In the 50+ years since the first humans landed on the moon, computing has grown at breakneck speed. We are faced with another challenge that is just as daunting, and just as important to overcome-modernizing the North American electric power grid-and high-performance computing (HPC) systems with specialized software will be an important element in rising to this challenge. We describe at a high level how software developed in the ExaSGD project addresses this "moonshot" goal by utilizing exascale computing and a novel high performance solver software stack to support the mission of decarbonizing power grid operations in an environment of uncertain weather and climate. To reach the exascale benchmark the team has made a number of first-of-their-kind innovations, including novel method for stochastic optimization, fine grained parallel methods for modeling power systems, and GPU resident sparse numerical linear solvers.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Advanced Computational Methods for Security Constrained Financial Transmission Rights

Financial Transmission Rights (FTRs) are financial insurance tools to help power market participants reduce price risks associated with transmission congestion. FTRs are issued based on a process of solving a constrained optimization problem with the objective to maximize the FTR social welfare under power flow security constraints. Security constraints for different FTR categories (monthly, seasonal or annual) are usually coupled and the number of constraints increases exponentially with the number of categories. Commercial software for FTR calculation can only provide limited categories of FTRs due to the inherent computational challenges mentioned above. In this paper, first an innovative mathematical reformulation of the FTR problem is presented which dramatically improves the computational efficiency of optimization problem. After having re-formulated the problem, a novel non-linear dynamic system (NDS) approach is proposed to solve the optimization problem. The new formulation and performance of the NDS solver is benchmarked against widely used linear programming (LP) solvers like CPLEX™ and tested on both standard IEEE test systems and large-scale systems using data from the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC). The performance of the NDS is demonstrated to be comparable and in some cases is shown to outperform the widely used CPLEX algorithms. The proposed formulation and NDS based solver is also easily parallelizable enabling further computational improvement.

Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory↗

MO-E-18C-04: Advanced Computer Simulation and Visualization Tools for Enhanced Understanding of Core Medical Physics Concepts

Purpose: Most medical physics programs emphasize proficiency in routine clinical calculations and QA. The formulaic aspect of these calculations and prescriptive nature of measurement protocols obviate the need to frequently apply basic physical principles, which, therefore, gradually decay away from memory. E.g. few students appreciate the role of electron transport in photon dose, making it difficult to understand key concepts such as dose buildup, electronic disequilibrium effects and Bragg-Gray theory. These conceptual deficiencies manifest when the physicist encounters a new system, requiring knowledge beyond routine activities. Methods: Two interactive computer simulation tools are developed to facilitate deeper learning of physical principles. One is a Monte Carlo code written with a strong educational aspect. The code can “label” regions and interactions to highlight specific aspects of the physics, e.g., certain regions can be designated as “starters” or “crossers,” and any interaction type can be turned on and off. Full 3D tracks with specific portions highlighted further enhance the visualization of radiation transport problems. The second code calculates and displays trajectories of a collection electrons under arbitrary space/time dependent Lorentz force using relativistic kinematics. Results: Using the Monte Carlo code, the student can interactively study photon and electron transport through visualization of dose components, particle tracks, and interaction types. The code can, for instance, be used to study kerma-dose relationship, explore electronic disequilibrium near interfaces, or visualize kernels by using interaction forcing. The electromagnetic simulator enables the student to explore accelerating mechanisms and particle optics in devices such as cyclotrons and linacs. Conclusion: The proposed tools are designed to enhance understanding of abstract concepts by highlighting various aspects of the physics. The simulations serve as virtual experiments that give deeper and long lasting understanding of core principles. The student can then make sound judgements in novel situations encountered beyond routine clinical activities.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

FINAL REPORT DE-FG02-04ER41317 Advanced Computation and Chaotic Dynamics for Beams and Accelerators

During the year ending in August 2013, we continued to investigate the potential of photonic crystal (PhC) materials for acceleration purposes. We worked to characterize acceleration ability of simple PhC accelerator structures, as well as to characterize PhC materials to determine whether current fabrication techniques can meet the needs of future accelerating structures. We have also continued to design and optimize PhC accelerator structures, with the ultimate goal of finding a new kind of accelerator structure that could offer significant advantages over current RF acceleration technology. This design and optimization of these requires high performance computation, and we continue to work on methods to make such computation faster and more efficient.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Development of an Advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics Technology for the Next-Generation Nuclear Reactor System Analysis and Safety Margin Characterization Code

This report describes the research activities we have conducted at NCSU for our NEUP project. The work toward achieving the objectives of the project is reported. The significant achievements and accomplishments are presented. A number of numerical experiments are conducted to demonstrate that the goal of the proposed work has been successfully achieved. Issues, recommendations, and future work are discussed.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗

Advanced Computational Methods for Thermal Radiative Heat Transfer

Participating media radiation (PMR) in weapon safety calculations for abnormal thermal environments are too costly to do routinely. This cost may be s ubstantially reduced by applying reduced order modeling (ROM) techniques. The application of ROM to PMR is a new and unique approach for this class of problems. This approach was investigated by the authors and shown to provide significant reductions in the computational expense associated with typical PMR simulations. Once this technology is migrated into production heat transfer analysis codes this capability will enable the routine use of PMR heat transfer in higher - fidelity simulations of weapon resp onse in fire environments.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Runtime Systems for Energy Efficiency in Advanced Computing Systems

As heterogeneous systems become increasingly popular for both mobile and high-performance computing, conventional efficiency techniques such as dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) fail to account for the tightly coupled and varied nature of systems on a chip (SoCs). In this work, we explore the impact of system unaware DVFS techniques on a mobile SoC under three benchmark suites: Chai, Rodinia, and Antutu. We then analyze performance trends across the suites to identify a set of consistent operating points that optimally balance power and performance across the system. The consistent operating points are then constructed into a dependency graph which can be leveraged to produce a more effective, SoC-wide governor.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Development and Analysis of Optimal Multilevel Solvers on Advanced Computers. Final Report

Constrained optimization in the context of time dependent, partial differential equations (PDE) leads to a symmetric, block-tridiagonal system of nonlinear equations that must be solved repeatedly in an iterative solution strategy. The blocks represent spatial discretization, while the connection between the blocks represents a forward and backward integration in time. The focus of this project is to apply a parallel-in-time (PiT) solution technique to the large block-triangular system.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗