Ph.D. Thesis Defense Announcement

Data Intensive Scientific Compute Model for Multicore Clusters

Phuong Nguyen

10:00am 21 November 2012, ITE 325B

Data intensive computing holds the promise of major scientific breakthroughs and discoveries from the exploration and mining of the massive data sets becoming available to the science community. This expectation has led to tremendous increases in data intensive scientific applications. However, data intensive scientific applications still face severe challenges in accessing, managing and analyzing petabytes of data. In particular, workflow systems to support such scientific applications are not as efficient when dealing with thousands and even more of complex tasks within jobs that operate across high performance large multicore clusters with very large amounts of streaming data. Scheduling, it turns out, is an integral workflow component in the execution often of thousands or more tasks within a data intensive scientific application as well as in managing  the access and flow of many jobs to the available resource environment. Recently, MapReduce systems such as Hadoop, have proven successful for many business data intensive problems. However, there are still many limitations in the use of MapReduce systems for data-intensive scientific problems mainly because they do not support the characteristics of science such as data formats, specialized data analytic tools (e.g. math libraries), accuracies, and interfaces with non MapReduce components.

This thesis addresses some of these limitations by proposing a MapReduce workflow model and its runtime system using Hadoop for orchestrating MapReduce jobs for data intensive scientific workflows. Novel heuristic based scheduling algorithm is proposed in the workflow system to manage the parallel execution of data intensive scientific applications. This thesis has developed a hybrid MapReduce scheduling algorithm based on dynamic priorities, proportional resource sharing techniques that reduce delays for variable length concurrent tasks, and takes advantage of data locality. As a result, a new scheduling policy, Balanced Closer to Finish First (BCFF), is proposed as solutions for some problems of scheduling in MapReduce environment. The scheduling algorithm is implemented in Hadoop 1.0.1 framework and is available as a new Hadoop plug-in Scheduler. The evaluations of the workflow system on the climate data processing and analysis application (several TB dataset) show that it is feasible and significantly improved compared to traditional parallel processing method. The scientific results of the application provide new source of monitoring global climate changes for the near decade 2002-2011.

Thesis Committee:

• Prof. Milton Halem (Chair)
• Prof. Yelena Yesha (Co-Chair)
• Prof. Tim Finin
• Prof. Yaacov Yesha
• Prof. Tarek El-Ghazawi at George Washington University

The Point Foundation has announced that its scholarship application process will open online November 1, 2012.

Point Scholarships are designed to help promising LGBTQ students achieve their full academic and leadership potential despite obstacles. Scholars must demonstrate academic excellence, leadership skills, community involvement, and financial need. Attention also will be paid to students who have lost the financial and social support of their families and/or communities as a result of revealing their sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

Point Scholars must agree to maintain a high level of academic performance and to give back to the LGBTQ community through the completion of an individual community service project each year. Some Point Scholars also benefit from internship opportunities related to their fields of study.

Scholarships provide approximately $25,000 per scholar, per year. Each scholar is paired with a mentor and participates in leadership development training with fellow Point Scholars, including an annual leadership conference. After graduating, Point Scholars become part of Point's growing alumni network. Point Scholarships are awarded on a "last provider" basis, providing funding to supplement other scholarships, grants, loans, work/study programs, etc. Point Scholars must secure as much outside funding as possible.

Students who will be enrolled in undergraduate or graduate programs for the 2013-14 school year are eligible to apply for the multiyear scholarships. Applications will be reviewed by a team of forty-five trained educators, school counselors, and foundation staff and board members. The selection process concludes with face-to-face interviews with Point's staff and Board of Regents during May 2013. The 2013 Point Scholar Class will be announced in June 2013.

Individuals may nominate a student online and download an application information flyer. Applicants will have until 11:59 p.m. PST on January 14, 2013, to submit Part I of the application. Qualifying applicants will be invited to then submit Part II of the application. Part II will made available November 2, 2012, and remain open until 11:59 p.m. PST, January 28, 2013. Applications are only accepted online.

Visit the Point Foundation Web site for complete program information and the online nomination and application forms.

Apply through UMBCworks: Co-Op – Student Intern –  9254950

Start date for position is January 2013

Are you a student looking to launch your Information Technology career?  If so, then UPS is the place for you!

Once known as a trucking company, UPS is now recognized as a technology company with trucks and is poised for success.  Spending more than $1 billion a year on information technology, UPS provides its customers unparalleled capability in tracking and distribution intelligence.  This technological infrastructure also enables UPS to provide fully integrated Web-enabled, business-to-business solutions.

UPS Information Services, a leader in information technology, is currently seeking college students to join our team.  If you are a highly motivated college student working on a degree in Computer Science, MIS, Mathematics, or Electrical Engineering, then UPS is a great place for you to start your career.

Job Description:

This student Co-op will perform software testing on a shipping application that is mission critical to UPS.

Duties to include:

§  Coding/unit testing

§  Defect reporting

§  Defect correction

§  Release verification

§  Other tasks consistent with the student's abilities and interests.

Knowledge and Skills:

The candidate should have experience with or exposure to the following technologies and skills through hands on experience and/or relevant course work:

§  SQL - Beginner

§  C# - Beginner

§  C++ - Beginner

§  Java Programming - Beginner

§  Visual Basic - Beginner

§  MS Windows - Beginner

§  Linux/Unix - Beginner

§  Microsoft Visual Studio - Beginner

§  Database application development

§  General programming of low to moderate complexity.

§  Good verbal communication skills are required to interact with other team members, testers, and users.

§  Good written communication skills are required to produce concise and understandable technical documentation including but not limited to software defect reports.

§  Strong analytical skills and the ability to work both independently and in a team environment are also required.

Education:

Viable candidates must be currently enrolled in a degreed college/university program working toward a degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering or related discipline.  Must be able to work 15-20 hours per week.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

§  U.S. Citizen or National of the U.S., an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, or an alien authorized to work in the U.S. for this employer

§  Able to work 15 - 20 hours while school is in session: 40 hours during summer months

§  Sophomore or Junior enrolled in a college/university degree program

§  Applied or academic SQL experience

Other Criteria:

§Employer will not sponsor visas for position.

§There is no relocation available for this position.

§UPS is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Apply through UMBC works and 

To apply, please use the following link:

https://ups.managehr.com/screening/professional/jobdetail.aspx?jobreqid=36161&howheard=

Or Go to UPSjobs.com, US, Job Search, Search by Zip Code (21093)

The following part-time positions have been posted within the past week to UMBCworks. Login to your account (via the link in the Jobs & Internships topic in myUMBC) and find details and application instructions as well as hundreds of other job postings!

9254339 - Rehabilitation Counselor - TAY - Humanim
9254820 - Typist - Geoffrey Mitchell, LLC
9254300 - Mobile Apps JavaScript Developer - CargoTel, Inc.

Ph.D. Thesis Defense Announcement

A Decadal Gridded Hyperspectral Infrared Record for Climate
Sep 1st 2002 – Aug 31st 2012

David Chapman

2:00pm 20 November 2012, ITE 325B

We present a gridded Fundamental Decadal Data Record (FDDR) of Brightness Temperatures (BT) from the NASA EOS Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) from ten years of hyperspectral Infrared Radiances onboard the NASA EOS Aqua satellite. We show that these results are consistent with the expected greenhouse forcings, and also discovered a drift of ~0.13K/decade in spectrum relative to 4 MODIS-Aqua for Global All-sky Brightness Temperatures. AIRS, operational on September 1, 2002 is the first successful hyperspectral satellite weather instrument of more than 1 year, as well as the longest running global IR hyperspectral measurement. Although global surface temperature data records are available for over 130 years, it was not until 1978 when the Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) was the first instrument series to reliably monitor long-term trends of the upper atmosphere. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) provides the first continuous global hyperspectral IR radiance data record from a single satellite for a decade. Our contribution, was to prepare a gridded data record from the AIRS Outgoing Longwave Spectrum (OLS). We have shown high correlations with the GISS global surface air temperatures as well as with the NOAA ONI index of El Niño phase. In addition, we have performed inter-annual inter-comparisons with the Moderate Resolution Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the same satellite to examine the relative consistency of their calibrations. The comparisons of the two instruments for the 4µ spectral channels indicate an inter-annual warming of 0.13K per decade of AIRS more than MODIS. This relative decadal drift is small relative to inter-annual variability but on the order of historic surface temperature trends. In the 12µ window channels we see a relative constant difference of 0.01K over a decade. It is convenient to observe the climate variability by using monthly average lat-lon grid projections. The polar orbiting data projection to a lat-lon grid is a lossy process that invariably introduces aliasing artifacts and noise. We observed an exponential decay between the number of days averaged and the expected noise due to gridding. We have extended the Observation Coverage (Obscov) gridding algorithm, developed for the MODIS instrument that incorporates the Point Spread Function (PSF) and we show the Obscov gridding algorithm reduces the aliasing noise from AIRS grids by nearly 40% by comparing the spatial correlation of gridded MODIS IR data. We also show that the use of a circular approximate PSF is a sufficient representation to obtain the noise reduction of Obscov at the climate resolution 0.5×1 degree monthly average grids. We extended these spatial sampling methods to the AIRS Level 3 retrieval records for which quality filtering due to opaque clouds is an additional spatial sampling challenge. We correct for an observed dry bias in the AIRS Level 3 monthly average gridded moisture retrieval records by means of spatial interpolation with the Nearest Neighbor (NN) strategy.

Thesis Committee:

• Dr. Milton Halem  (Chair)
• Dr. Yelena Yesha
• Dr. Chin-I Chang
• Dr. Shujia Zhou
• Dr. Joel Susskind (NASA Goddard)

On-Campus Interviews offer students a chance to conveniently interview for professional positions on campus.  Employers travel to our campus for the specific purpose of interviewing preselected students for currently open positions.  This is a great opportunity to interview with employers specifically interested in UMBC students and offers the advantage of a smaller applicant pool.  Interviews take place during the fall and spring. The logistics (viewing positions, applying, signing up for interview time slots, etc.) are all handled via UMBCworks.

Don't miss out on employers coming to UMBC to recruit YOU this fall! The following is a list of employers coming to conduct on-campus interviews with application deadlines in the next month.

** AOL/Advertising.com
Interviewing on 12/5/12 (Deadline to apply via UMBCworks:  11/25/12)
Position:  Automation QA Engineer, Associate Application Technical Support Engineer
Majors:    IS, CMSC,

 **Sherwin-Williams

Interviewing on 12/7/12 (Deadline to apply via UMBCworks:  11/23/12)
Position:  Management/Leadership Training Program
Majors:  All Majors

A full list of On-Campus Interviews scheduled is available on our website calendar and on UMBCworks, please check regularly for any updates or changes that may occur.