Large Scale Computing and Storage Requirements for Biological and Environmental Research

A BER / ASCR / NERSC Workshop

May 7-8, 2009

Final Report

• Large Scale Computing and Storage Requirements for Biological and Environmental Research , Report of the Joint BER / NERSC Workshop Conducted May 7-8, 2009 Rockville, MD

Goals

This workshop was jointly organized by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological & Environmental Research and Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) to elucidate computing requirements for biological and environmental research at NERSC. These requirements will serve as input to the NERSC planning processes for systems and support, and will help ensure that NERSC continues to provide world-class support for scientific discovery to DOE scientists and their collaborators.

The tangible outcome of the workshop is a report that includes the computing, storage, data, and support requirements and a supporting, science-based narrative.

Location and Schedule

The 1.5-day workshop was held in Washington, DC, all day Thursday, May 7 and on the morning of Friday, May 8, 2009.

Registration

The workshop was by invitation only. There was no registration fee.

Hotel

Hilton Washington DC/Rockville Hotel & Executive Meeting Ctr. See the logistics page for more information.

Meeting Format

This workshop generated a requirements document for the BER Program Office. This document is composed of the requirements input from the workshop attendees.

Workshop attendees should review the case study update document and other background materials on the documents page. Please then use the background materials in combination with your own knowledge and experience to generate a narrative describing your scientific research program. Examples of science narratives with their accompanying requirements matrices can be found in the Case Study Requirements Update document. Please bring your case study (narrative and corresponding data table) with you to the workshop.

At the workshop we will review the documents and speak among the attendees to ensure that we understand the science being done insofar as it has an impact on future facilities and services.

The workshop format is much closer to a round-table discussion rather than a series of PowerPoint presentations. If you feel that you really need to give a formal presentation we can accommodate that, based the ESnet workshop experiences, we believe that these workshops are more productive if there is a simple discussion and exchange of ideas rather than a formal presentation format.

The tangible outcome of the workshop is a document that includes both the HPC requirements and a supporting narrative.