Grand challenges of computational science (panel session)

There has been a massive expansion in the computational infrastructure supporting scientific research in the last five years. Today tens of thousands of researchers have access from their desktop computers to supercomputer centers over the national network. Scientific visualization has arisen as a critical tool of discovery, analysis and communication; fundamental research problems with economic or scientific impact are being attacked. Leading researchers discuss how advanced computing and visualization resources are used to advance knowledge on these problems in university, industrial, and governmental research centers. They explain the White House's High Performance Computing Program, a $500 million annual program for computer and technology research and development. Lar ry Smarr We lc ome to the SIGGRAPH Panel on G r a n d Chal lenges of C o m p u t a t i o n a l Science. I t h i n k I wan t to go ahead and get s tar ted because we have a lot of very exci t ing mater ia l to get t h r o u g h today and I wan t to give p l e n t y of t ime for ques t ions at the end of the panel i s t presentat ion. If you can ho ld your ques t ions un t i l then , we' l l take t h e m o n the ent i re set of talks. I 've been asked by the SIGGRAPH peop le in charge of panels to r emind you of a few housekeeping details. There will be a b reakout session afterwards if there are still peop le tha t wan t to talk for a l i t t le bi t in $412 upstairs . This session will go unt i l 12:30. We will t ry to leave somet h ing like 20 minu tes to a half an hour of t ime at the end for quest ions. There is n o audio, v ideo or t ap ing or still p h o t o g r a p h y a l lowed by SIGGRAPH of th is event . There will be a t ranscript prepared wh ich will be avai lable in the SIGGRAPH pr in ted col lec t ion and it is be ing v ideo taped . There is a Nat iona l Center for Supercomput ing Appl ica t ions press packet in the press room wi th ind iv idua l one ind iv idua l slide and a l i t t le bi t of wri te-up on each of t he panel i s t area or at least on some of the panel i s t areas. There is a c o m p a n i o n panel wh ich will go into more detai l on the legislative agenda and the poli t ics of the h igh pe r fo rmance c o m p u t i n g ini t ia t ive wh ich D o n n a Cox will be chair ing. That will be on Friday f rom 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 in this theater . I will also be a par t of tha t panel and it will get in to m u c h more of the very, very rapid pace of act ivi ty in this par t icular area tha t is going on now in Wash ing ton . This is a very ho t topic and tha t ' s the reason we wan ted to have this panel . I 'm thr i l led actual ly tha t we were able to get the three speakers here to jo in us. Art Freeman, who is on the p rogram became ill a t the very last minu te . He called in last n igh t and was n o t able to join us. Dave Dixon will be cover ing his mater ia l o n mater ia ls dur ing his presenta t ion . I ' l l in t roduce briefly t he three panelists . First, l guess I should in t roduce myself; I 'm Larry Smarr. I 'm a physicis t an as t rophysic is t and I 'm the director of the Nat iona l Center for Supe rcomput ing Appl ica t ions at the Univers i ty of I l l inois at U r b a n a C h a m p a i g n one of the Nat iona l Science Founda t i on supe rcompu te r centers. The panel is ts have been pu t toge the r wi th the fol lowing qual i f icat ions . They had to be absolu te ly recognized as one of the forefront researchers in thei r field by their c o m m u n i t y by thei r colleagues. And they had to also be act ively involved in publ ic po l icy issues engaged wi th the various ent i t ies in the science pol icy arena. We have achieved tha t goal. These people are absolu te ly first-rate. It 's a real treat, I t h i n k at SIGGRAPH to have scientis ts share wi th you wha t the scientif ic v isual iza t ion and cornGrand Challenges of Computational Science