AEROSPACE

The Cornell Theory Center (CTC) will present back-to-back Windows-based high-performance computing workshops in May 2005. The Windows-based High-Performance Computing Technical Training will be offered on May 9-10, 2005; Introduction to .NET and Web Services will be offered on May 11-12, 2005. Participants may register for one or both workshops, which will be held in 655 Rhodes Hall, at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and will be presented by CTC consultants, analysts, senior research associates, and systems programmers. For more information or to register, visit its Website. “We have found that there is a growing interest in understanding the advantages an organization can gain by incorporating the .NET framework and Web Services into business operations,” said CTC Director Thomas Coleman. “The combination of workshops will help universities and businesses implement their Windows and .NET clusters effectively.” The workshops are designed for representatives of companies, universities, and government agencies who want to learn more about implementing and using high-performance computing on Windows-based clusters. The Windows High-Performance Computing Technical Training workshop will cover the following: • Overview of CTC Solutions Center, High-Performance Computing • Designing and Monitoring an HPC Cluster • Parallel Programming with Message Passing Interface (MPI) • Benchmarking • Porting Applications • Building a Cluster “The model covered in this workshop reflects traditional message passing-based supercomputing where processes run on multiple computers and need to exchange information to complete a computation,” said CTC Chief Technical Officer David Lifka. “This model, which uses dedicated clustered servers, is ideal for computationally intense calculations that require all of the system’s resources (CPU, memory, network, bandwidth) and may take hours to complete.” The Introduction to .NET and Web Services workshop will cover the following: • Developing a Web Service and a Client to Use it, with Web Matrix • Setting Up and Running Network Load Balancing (NLB) • Writing and Installing a Web Service and Client • Adding an Excel Front-End to a Web Service “.NET and Web Services make sense when you have inherently parallel computations that you’d like to perform using everyday applications like Microsoft Excel as well as custom applications,” said Lifka. “Some of the main advantages of using Web Services include integrated security and development tools from Microsoft, code reuse, and self-documenting code. Web services also provide interoperability advantages, because they’re based on open standards such as SOAP, XML, and HTTP.” For questions concerning registration, hotel, or travel, please contact Carol Christoffersen at 607-254-8692 or carolc@tc.cornell.edu. All other questions, including workshop content, may be directed to Susan Mehringer at 607.254.8777 or susan@tc.cornell.edu.