Alumni Go Big Fellows Take on Bots, Hurricanes and More
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2019 ALUMNI GO BIG Former fellows are among those DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCE GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP SCIENCE GRADUATE COMPUTATIONAL OF ENERGY DEPARTMENT leading the quest for exascale, the next high-performance computing horizon PAGE 22 FELLOWS TAKE ON BOTS, HURRICANES AND MORE • Casey Berger captures quantum powers ALSO: Alumnus Jarrod McClean on • Julia Ebert wrangles robot swarms quantum computing, dual Howes • Max Bremer speeds a surge model Scholars and our essay winner herds • Carson Kent seeks an ultimate optimizer computational cows INCOMING DOE CSGF CLASS The 29th Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF) class includes students applying computing power to a range of subjects, such as materials science, neuroscience, climate dynamics and biological oceanography. Like all previous fellows, they’ll receive yearly stipends, payment of full tuition and fees, and other benefits for up to four years. Christopher Balzer Louis Jenkins Guy Moore California Institute of Technology University of Rochester University of California, Berkeley DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Chemical Engineering Computer Science Applied Mathematics Thomas Blommel Christopher Kane Jamin Rader University of Michigan University of Arizona Colorado State University COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCE Physics Physics Climate Dynamics Kyle Bushick Arianna Krinos Michael Toriyama GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP University of Michigan Massachusetts Institute of Technology Northwestern University Materials Science Biological Oceanography Computational Materials Science The DOE CSGF is open to senior The Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship undergraduates and students in (DOE CSGF) provides up to four years of financial support for students Lindsey Byrne Peter Lalor Jason Turner their first year of doctoral study. Northwestern University Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Wisconsin-Madison pursuing doctoral degrees in fields that use high-performance computing Astronomy Nuclear Engineering Mathematics to solve complex problems in science and engineering. The program also funds doctoral candidates in applied mathematics, Madelyn Cain Margaret Lawson Amalee Wilson OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY Harvard University University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Stanford University The first simulation of an atomic nucleus on a statistics or computer science who are pursuing research that will Condensed Matter Physics Computer Science Computer Science quantum computer: a deuteron, the bound state of a proton (red) and a neutron (blue). contribute to more effective use of emerging high-performance systems. ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY Complete details and a listing of applicable research areas can be found Gabriel Casabona Kyle Lennon Boyan Xu Streamlines from an early time step of the Northwestern University Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of California, Berkeley Rayleigh-Taylor instability depend on scalable on the DOE CSGF website. storage, communication, and data analysis Computational Astrophysics Chemical Engineering Computational topology algorithms developed at extreme scale. BENEFITS Scott Emmons John Lindsey Claire Zarakas + $37,000 yearly stipend University of California, Berkeley Columbia University University of Washington + Payment of full tuition and required fees Computer Science Computational Neuroscience Atmospheric Sciences + Yearly program review participation This equal opportunity program is open to + Annual professional development allowance Nicholas Ezzell Rebekah Loving Lauren Zundel all qualified persons without regard to race, gender, religion, age, physical disability or + 12-week research practicum experience University of Southern California California Institute of Technology University of New Mexico national origin. + Renewable up to four years Physics Computational Biology Physics Koby Hayashi Cole Miles Georgia Institute of Technology Cornell University www.krellinst.org/csgf Computer Science Theoretical Condensed Matter DEIXIS 19 DOE CSGF ANNUAL | P3 IN THIS ISSUE 6 8 10 13 Departments Features 6 INVITED TALK 31 ALUMNI NEWS: NOTABLES FELLOW PROFILES 16 Efficiency Surge Quantum Calculations Hot Papers, Awards and More 10 Tour de Force Max Bremer got swept up in hurricane models and At Google, DOE CSGF alumnus Jarrod McClean is Achievements accumulate for former fellows. Forsaking an entertainment career, Casey Berger now makes them move faster. out to make quantum computers useful. instead traverses the quantum world. 34 CLASS OF 2019 19 Early Bloomer 8 ESSAY 12-21 Nanoprofiles Carrying on a career that launched in high school, Spherical Cows 35 BY THE NUMBERS Research summaries from the outgoing DOE Carson Kent focuses on optimization algorithms. Jacob Bringewatt’s mathematical critters roam DOE CSGF: HPC LEADERS CSGF class. through computational pastures. Statistics show former fellows are deeply involved in 22 ALUMNI: SPECIAL REPORT advancing high-performance computing. 13 Robot Whisperer Exascaling the Heights 29 ALUMNI NEWS: HOWES AWARD With computation, Julia Ebert herds robots to study Former fellows are embedded in the effort to move Problem Solvers cybernetic collaboration. computing past the next milestone. Chelsea Harris and Adam Riesselman make their marks in research and science leadership. DEIXIS, The DOE CSGF Annual is published DEIXIS (ΔΕΙΞΙΣ — pronounced da¯ksis) Manager, Science Media — Bill Cannon by the Krell Institute. Krell administers the transliterated from classical Greek into the Science Media Editor — Thomas R. O’Donnell 16 19 Department of Energy Computational Science Roman alphabet, means a display, mode or Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF) program for process of proof; the process of showing, proving Senior Science Writer — Sarah Webb the DOE under grant DE-SC0019323. or demonstrating. DEIXIS can also refer to the Design — Stilt Studio, Inc. workings of an individual’s keen intellect, or to For additional information about the DOE the means by which such individuals, e.g. DOE CSGF program, the Krell Institute or topics ON THE COVER: Blood velocity flow profile shown in CSGF fellows, are identified. covered in this publication, please go to: cerebral vessels as calculated with HARVEY, a whole-body www.krellinst.org/csgf DEIXIS is an annual publication of the model of the human circulatory system devised by DOE Department of Energy Computational Science CSGF alumna Amanda Randles and colleagues. Turn to Or contact: Graduate Fellowship program that highlights the page 22 to read about how she and other former fellows Editor, DEIXIS work of fellows and alumni. are part of a Department of Energy push to break the Krell Institute exascale computing speed barrier. Credit: Science Visuals. 1609 Golden Aspen Drive, Suite 101 DOE CSGF funding is provided by the DOE Office of Ames, IA 50010 Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR), (515) 956-3696 within the Office of Science, and the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program within Copyright 2019 Krell Institute. All rights reserved. the National Nuclear Security Administration. DEIXIS 19 DOE CSGF ANNUAL | P5 INVITED TALK IS IT NECESSARY TO SOLVE THE ERROR- CORRECTION PROBLEM TO MAKE QUANTUM DEVICES USEFUL FOR GENERAL-PURPOSE COMPUTING? That’s debated in the field. I want to be optimistic that we might reach useful applications, perhaps not general-purpose but in specific areas, before we have full quantum error correction. We might be able to increase resilience to a level that we can do something like a chemistry, optimization or machine-learning problem before we reach full fault tolerance. Other people believe the only way to reach practical applications will be full-scale quantum error correction and that the best course is to both improve the device and reduce the overhead requirements by improving our error-correction QUANTUM methods. I think these things aren’t so different from what we’re already trying to do with near-term devices. As we try to make things more robust for NISQ devices and run applications on them, we learn about the actual noise models. In principle, learning about that and testing codes on near-term devices CALCULATIONS will let us optimize quantum error-correction methods for real models of noise and bring the overhead down dramatically. WHAT IS YOUR ROLE AT GOOGLE’S QUANTUM He’s out to make quantum computers useful. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY? My focus more generically is how to make quantum computers Jarrod McClean is a senior research scientist at Google LLC, where he develops algorithms to simulate materials, chemistry and mathematics useful. More specifically it’s developing algorithms for both the to advance the potential of quantum computers. The DOE CSGF alumnus previously was an Alvarez Postdoctoral Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley long-term – an error-corrected device – and (for) the near- National Laboratory. He was an invited speaker at the 2019 DOE CSGF Annual Program Review. term, the next five years. That inevitably requires looking at methods to reduce errors, but I also try to think about unique Quantum computers based on superconducting qubits, such as Google’s Bristlecone, must DEIXIS: HOW DID YOU START WORKING ON could load in thousands of ions, which are, in principle, qubits. ways to use quantum resources for big problems people be chilled to near absolute zero to both maintain minimal electrical resistance and delicate QUANTUM COMPUTING? But today you would lack the control to do anything meaningful haven’t thought about yet. That can include