NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institute (EAPSI) for FY 2013 in Korea

Kleinheksel Cory J, Ames IA

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds Cory James Kleinheksel of Iowa State University to conduct a research project in the Computer and Information Science and Engineering area during the summer of 2013 at Seoul National University in Seoul, Korea. The project title is Bioinformatics Big Data Workflow Processing on Heterogeneous Computing Resources. The host scientist is Dr. Sun Kim. Bioinformatics data is exponentially growing and is one of the dominant big data fields. Many researchers in the field create tools and techniques to process such data. It is common for one tool or technique to feed results into another tool forming a workflow. This research focuses on the challenging optimization problem to target workflow tasks to the optimal available heterogeneous computing resources. This requires consideration for management of data movement and computation planning to effectively utilize resources even during communication. Bioinformatics is just one of many big data problems, but arguably health is certainly a very important and challenging problem facing scientists today. Research like this helps bioinformatics computations keep swimming where they are currently facing the possibility of drowning in data as DNA big data becomes cheaper to acquire. 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.