REU Site: Parallel and Distributed Computing

Auburn University, Auburn AL

Investigators

Abstract

This project establishes a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site to promote early engagement of undergraduate students in research. A multi-disciplinary team of faculty from the departments of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Physics at Auburn University collaborate to provide participating students with research experiences in computational aspects of multiple disciplines. It will expose students to high-performance computing and other cyberinfrastructure resources, provide hands-on experience in a collaborative research environment, and inspire them towards advanced STEM education and research careers. Thus, the project will promote participation of students in graduate studies in computer science, electrical engineering and physics and will help maintain US leadership in computing education and research. The society will benefit from the trained workforce in critical areas of national need of cyberinfrastructure, parallel and distributed computing and neuroimaging informatics. Students from underrepresented groups will be encouraged to participate in the REU site. Faculty will mentor students in carefully planned research projects which pose a range of scientific and technological challenges. The program fosters long-term mentoring relationships between students and faculty through collaboration. The research outcomes can lower energy costs and carbon footprint in operating data centers and secure smart utility networks in US power grids. The research aims for better understanding of enhancing urban traffic control, homeland security and location information to vehicles in a GPS degraded environment, plasma physics and better diagnosis of mental health diseases. The objective of this project is to offer research opportunities to undergraduate students around a coherent theme of parallel and distributed computing. The students will use cyberinfrastructure to solve problems in computer science, electrical and computer engineering and physics. As energy consumption in computing is of current importance, students will solve problems with a common focus on energy reduction, reinforcing the cohort experience. The multidisciplinary interaction will provide experience in crosscutting research. The students will participate in training activities at the beginning of summer. Next, they will conduct research under the supervision of mentors and write reports and deliver oral presentations. The research project aims to contribute to the design of new thermal conscious computer systems to improve energy-efficiency and thereby longer component lifespan. It will investigate novel data dissemination algorithms in ad-hoc cyberinfrastructure to correct GPS information using minimal bandwidth and time. It explores innovative real-time distributed analytics on mobile cyberinfrastructure to support multi-user coordinated actions, which balance risk and reward. It can contribute to the understanding of ion velocity ring instabilities in plasmas, novel deep learning algorithm using channel state finger-printing to reduce power for indoor location detection and machine learning algorithms in neuro-informatics to advance brain science.