Pervasive Technology Labs Program Report, July 2007 (original) (raw)

• create what is now called Pervasive Technology Labs (PTL), a group of six advanced information technology and computer science research and development laboratories; During the reporting period of January through June of 2006, the individual Pervasive Technology Labs have made significant progress, as follows: • The Open Systems Lab (OSL) continues its primary efforts to develop open-source tools to support next-generation cyberscience. Most notably, OSL's large-scale parallel computing tool, Open MPI, remains an important and high-profile project. Open MPI is instrumental in IU's ability to obtain maximum performance from their new supercomputer, Big Red, which was recently named among the world's fastest. Many news items about the software's role in facilitating Big Red were recently highlighted in a variety of media outlets. • The Advanced Network Management Lab (ANML) continues research in the area of advanced cybersecurity and forensics. One notable project for the period is their development of distributed Botnet tracker software. "Botnets" are computers infected by a robotic virus under the control of a central authority and are a major problem today in Internet security. The lab, along with project lead University of Michigan, anticipates receipt of a new award from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to continue work on the project in the coming period. • The Community Grids Lab (CGL) had a highly successful period, both in intellectual output (producing 23 publications and 46 presentations) and in securing several large, high-profile funded projects. The lab received an impressive three awards from Microsoft Corporation to support their work in various research areas, and a CGL spin-off company, Anabas, in partnership with the lab, has also been very successful in obtaining grants from the federal government and the State of Indiana in recent months. CGL has many important ongoing projects. One noteworthy activity is their continued and increasing involvement in improving the cyberinfrastructure for Minority Serving Institutions. • The Visualization and Interactive Spaces (VIS) Lab has expanded its ongoing efforts in developing a variety of visualization tools, with a special interest in visualization of environmental research and education. The VIS Lab, in collaboration with IUPUI's Center for Earth and Environmental Science (CEES), received an award during theperiod from Veolia Water, Indianapolis, to start a program called Discovering the Science of the Environment (DSE.) The program aims to provide learning opportunities for children and families and to provide resources for educators in the discipline of environmental science. The lab also continues its work on VisPort, a system to support access to highperformance visualization capability via the Web.