Cook Receives Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers |
New Mexico State University photo.
|
Jeanine Cook, a principal investigator for the Army High Performance Computing Research Center (AHPCRC), has received the prestigious Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). President George W. Bush presented the award to Cook on December 19, 2008, at the White House.
Cook, an associate professor at New Mexico State University’s Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, specializes in micro-architecture simulation techniques, performance modeling and analysis, workload characterization, and micro-architectural power optimizations for high performance computing systems. She directs the Advanced Computer Architecture Performance and Simulation Laboratory at NMSU. The PECASE award is one of the highest honors that the United States government bestows on outstanding scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers. About 50 U.S. researchers receive PECASE awards each year, and an individual can receive only one such award during his or her career. Cook’s work with the AHPCRC consortium focuses on time-efficient performance modeling and analysis of Army HPC applications, with the intention of reducing the amount of time and money necessary to configure computer systems and make procurement decisions. Such modeling and analysis can also assist in identifying optimal application-to-architecture mappings and optimizing code performance, operating system services, and hardware design. She has worked with researchers at the University of Texas, El Paso, to design and implement Chimera, an AHPCRC-sponsored heterogeneous computing cluster that links commercial multicore processors, GPUs, FPGAs, and accelerators. Chimera is used to test applications for their ability to perform well on a variety of processors, and to identify ways of reducing execution time using specialized resources. Cook was nominated for the PECASE award by her colleagues at Sandia National Laboratories for her work in performance analysis. Cook built a simulator to pinpoint the sources of Sandia application performance problems. In an NMSU press release, Cook, who was paralyzed from the waist down after a 1982 automobile accident, stated, “I want [the award] to heighten attention for people with disabilities and secondly, I want it to heighten attention for young women. I want young women to have role models to say, ‘If she did that, I can do that too.’ I really want the world to see that people with disabilities are people—we are people—we’re not to be afraid of. We can be treated just like anybody else. We’re not stupid, we’re not helpless, we’re just people.” In the press release, NMSU interim president Waded Cruzado praised Cook, the daughter of an Italian father and a Hispanic mother: “Jeanine is a prime example of the outstanding faculty talent New Mexico State University strives to recruit and retain to help this land-grant university’s mission and commitment to providing the highest quality of education for its students. The NMSU family is very proud of Jeanine’s accomplishments and the honor and recognition that she has brought to herself and this university. The distinction of receiving the PECASE award demonstrates how women, minorities and persons with physical challenges can overcome the many obstacles placed before them to succeed and exceed in their careers.”
|
|
Morgan State University Hosts Computing Academy
|
|
At Morgan State University(Baltimore, MD), the Academy in Computing introduces pre-college students to the many applications of high performance computing tools and techniques. Morgan State University, a member of the AHPCRC consortium, established this academy in autumn 2007 as its AHPCRC academic-year outreach component. During this initial session, 50 students spent eight hours every Saturday for ten weeks learning about computer-related applications that addressed weather prediction, global climate change, homeland security, space technology, genetic manipulation, and other related topics. Under the supervision of Myra Curtis, Retention Support Specialist, and with a cadre of current undergraduate assistants, participants are learning about key occurrences in the evolution of computing, how these occurrences helped define the state of computing today, and where the field might be heading. Instructors introduce core principles of teamwork, personal time management, the development of leadership skills, and critical thinking practices. Participants also gain hands-on experience and are planning curriculum-related field trips. The Computing Academy requires that each student be afforded an opportunity to assemble a computer that will be used as a critical resource in their subsequent participation in future phases of the Academy. The future phases will include programming, networking, concepts of distributed computing, and progressive complexities of computing through actual modeling and simulation of phenomena. The program includes an assessment component geared towards maximizing impact and effectiveness in knowledge transfer and appreciation for high performance computing by students from a variety of backgrounds, including those from predominantly minority and underserved urban communities. Students are introduced to the concept of problems where the number of unknowns is typically on the order of thousands, perhaps millions or billions. They learn about iterative computing processes requiring large amounts of memory and fast computational time. In addition, they learn about developments in the visualization and interpretation of the results of these complex calculations. As students participate actively in design projects, they learn how to work responsibly in teams, develop leadership skills, and learn about time management. They attend classes that enhance their skills in mathematics as well as English, with a focus on critical thinking, writing, and speaking skills. The learning goes both ways—the mentors, students in the School of Engineering, coordinate and operate the Saturday Academy program, in collaboration with the pre-college program director. Through planning, developing, and implementing the Academy programs, they learn skills in leadership, teaching, and teamwork. This experience also involves them actively with the administration of the School of Engineering and helps them plan their future careers. Students have returned for the Spring 2008 semester, ready to continue learning aspects of computing such as building personal computers from kits, installing and understanding operating systems, and an introduction to fundamental programming skills. A similar program will be developed for the Summer 2008 session. Source: AHPCRC Bulletin, Vol. 1 No. 2 |
