SCIENCE

Three high performance computing innovators, known for their work in developing processors, software used in large-scale scientific computing, and tools used to manage and detect software security flaws, will be honored by the IEEE Computer Society and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) when SC12 convenes next month.

Now in its 25th year, SC12, the premier international conference of high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis, will take place Nov. 10 – 16 at the Salt Palace Convention Center. The conference is expected to bring as many as 10,000 professionals from academia, industry and government to Salt Lake City.

Each year, conference sponsors IEEE Computer Society and ACM recognize outstanding achievements in high performance computing and related fields by awarding the IEEE Computer Society Seymour Cray Award, the IEEE Computer Society Sidney Fernbach Award, and the ACM-IEEE Computer Society Ken Kennedy Award.

All three awards will be presented at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 13, prior to the SC12 keynote address in the Salt Palace Convention Center ballroom. The three awardees will give presentations to SC12 attendees on Wednesday, Nov. 14, beginning at 10:30 a.m. in room 155E.

Peter Kogge - 2012 IEEE Computer Society Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Awardee

University of Notre Dame computer science and engineering professor Peter Kogge, is this year’s recipient of the IEEE Computer Society's Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Award. Kogge, the developer of the space shuttle I/O processor, the world's first multicore processor, and a number of other important innovations, was recognized "for innovations in advanced computer architecture and systems."

Kogge’s innovations include inventing the Kogge-Stone-Adder process, which is still considered the fastest way of adding numbers in a computer, while at Stanford University and designing the space shuttle I/O processor, one of the first multithreaded computers and the first to fly in space, while at IBM. Kogge also invented of the world's first multicore processor, EXECUBE, which he and his IBM team placed on a memory chip in an early effort to solve the data bottleneck problem.

He is co-inventor on more than three dozen patents, author of two textbooks and recently led a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) effort to explore development of a supercomputer capable of a quintillion operations per second.

The Seymour Cray Award, named for the computer science innovator who founded Cray Research, is one of the IEEE Computer Society's highest awards, and is presented in recognition of innovative contributions to high performance computing systems that best exemplify Cray's creative spirit. The award consists of a crystal memento, certificate, and a $10,000 honorarium.

Klaus Schulten and Laxmikant  “Sanjay” Kale - 2012 IEEE Computer Society Sidney Fernbach Awardee

Klaus Schulten and Laxmikant "Sanjay" Kale, professors at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, have been named the recipients of the 2012 IEEE Computer Society Sidney Fernbach Award. The two professors were honored "for outstanding contributions to the development of widely used parallel software for large biomolecular systems simulation."

Schulten, Swanlund Professor of Physics at Illinois, directs the Center for Biomolecular Modeling and co-directs the Center for the Physics of Living Cells. His research, focused on molecular assembly and cooperation in biological cells, requires large scale computing, and he was the first to demonstrate that parallel computers can be used to solve the classical many-body problem in biomolecular modeling. His group’s software for molecular graphics (VMD) and molecular modeling (NAMD) are used by researchers worldwide on platforms ranging from desktop machines to supercomputers. Presently his group is developing a new computational method that assists biologists in solving the structures of the very large macromolecular complexes forming the machinery of living cells.

Kale is a professor of computer science, director of the Parallel Programming Laboratory, and a senior investigator for the Blue Waters project at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. His parallel computing work focuses on enhancing performance and productivity via adaptive runtime systems, with research on programming abstractions, dynamic load balancing, fault tolerance, and power management. These research results are embodied in Charm++, a widely distributed parallel programming system. He worked with Schulten’s team to develop NAMD and has collaboratively developed applications for computational cosmology, quantum chemistry, rocket simulation, and unstructured meshes.

Established in 1992 in memory of high performance computing pioneer Sidney Fernbach, the Fernbach Award recognizes outstanding contributions in the application of high performance computers using innovative approaches. The award consists of a certificate and a $2,000 honorarium.

Mary Lou Soffa - 2012 ACM IEEE Computer Society Ken Kennedy Awardee

Mary Lou Soffa, the Owen R. Cheatham Professor at the University of Virginia, will receive the ACM-IEEE Computer Society Ken Kennedy Award for contributions to detecting and managing software security flaws.  She developed software tools for debugging and testing programs to eliminate or reduce false alarms and improve operating efficiency.  Her research produced automatic, practical solutions in software engineering, and systems and programming languages for improving software reliability, security and productivity.

In her recent work, Soffa developed a unifying framework for optimizations, which included code, optimization, and resources models.  Her model-based strategies enabled optimizing compilers to produce higher-quality code, and to employ different paradigms than those previously in use.

Soffa was elected an ACM Fellow in 1999, and received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring from the White House the same year.  In 2006, she received the Computing Research Association (CRA) Nico Habermann Award for contributions toward increasing the numbers and successes of underrepresented members in the computing research community.

The Kennedy Award cited Soffa for "contributions to compiler technology and software engineering, exemplary service to the profession, and life-long dedication to mentoring and improving diversity in computing."

ACM and the IEEE Computer Society co-sponsor the Kennedy Award, which was established in 2009 to recognize substantial contributions to programmability and productivity in computing and significant community service or mentoring contributions. It was named for the late Ken Kennedy, founder of Rice University’s computer science program and a world expert on high performance computing.  The award carries a $5,000 honorarium endowed by the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Architecture (SIGARCH) and the IEEE Computer Society.