October’s topic is Computing for Scientists.
When: 7:00 pm, Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Where: Room 110, Harned Hall, Saint Martin’s University, 5300 Pacific Avenue SE, Lacey, Washington
- Please note that a class is in session in Room 110 until 6:50 p.m., so we ask that you remain in the lobby until the class is dismissed.
- There is no charge to park on campus after 5:00 p.m. We suggest parking lots M and N for proximity to Harned Hall. (See attached map.)
- Driving directions and campus map:http://www.stmartin.edu/about/DrivingHere.aspx#Saint_Martins_Universitys_address http://www.stmartin.edu/about/SMUCampusMap.pdf
October’s topic is Computing for Scientists.
In the early days of scientific computing. the focus was on performance for programs coded in FORTRAN, or sometimes C. While increasing performance remains critical, computing’s role in science and service to scientists have broadened considerably in recent decades. Today, scientists who are not programmers develop and effectively use computational tools in many ways, such as:
- DATA-Centric – archiving their results on networks; interacting with databases; and working with data in a wide range of formats.
- TOOL-Centric – writing tools for other scientists by exposing or visualizing code and data via Web applications, writing graphical user interfaces, integrating complex program components, and integrating tools or libraries from different disciplines,
- DEVICE-Centric – controlling and interfacing with a range of hardware devices, e.g., for remote sensing.
- SOCIAL-Centric – collaborating with, or building collaboration tools for, large geographically distributed teams of scientists.
- COMPUTE-Centric – parallelizing programs to run on graphical processing units, clusters, multicore CPUs, and supercomputers, writing their own models using traditional languages or high level tools such as STELLA, or performing complex analyses with powerful tools such as MATLAB or ArcInfo.
In this presentation, Professor Judy Cushing at The Evergreen State College will describe and give examples of new developments in scientific computing.
November Topic:
The Effect of Dam Busting In Washington
by Sarah Morley, M.S.
Northwest Fisheries Science Center