NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute for FY 2012 in Japan

Duchene Michael J, Commerce Twp MI

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds Michael James Duchene of The University of Notre Dame to conduct a research project, entitled "Speeding up hurricane storm surge simulations on supercomputers" during the summer of 2012 at Tokyo Institute of Technology in Tokyo, Japan. The host scientist is Takayuki Aoki. The Intellectual Merit of the research project is to improve large-scale hurricane storm surge simulations by utilizing the latest supercomputers equipped with GPUs (graphics processing units). The discontinuous Galerkin (DG) ADvanced CIRCulation (ADCIRC-DG) model (www.adcirc.org) is more accurate than, but also has more overhead than, the continuous Galerkin (ADCIRC-CG) version of ADCIRC. However, the localized nature of the DG method makes it suitable to parallelize for the supercomputers and GPUs, which would help reduce simulation times and allow for larger problems to be simulated, and all with better accuracy. ADCIRC-DG represents the next-generation of hurricane storm surge models, and the ability to perform large-scale simulations promises to provide enhanced flood protection systems that could minimize negative environmental impact, and perhaps even be applied to real time forecasting as part of a safety warning systems. Broader Impacts of an EAPSI fellowship include providing the Fellow a first-hand research experience outside the U.S.; an introduction to the science, science policy, and scientific infrastructure of the respective location; and an orientation to the society, culture and language. These activities meet the NSF goal to educate for international collaborations early in the career of its scientists, engineers, and educators, thus ensuring a globally aware U.S. scientific workforce.