It's the faintest light, yet it carries information from the beginning of time. A telescope trained on the Antarctic sky has picked up swirling patterns of light believed to be the imprint of the violent expansion of the universe a trillionth of a second after it burst into being. Excitement swept the scientific community following the March 17 announcement, tempered by caution. If the signal is real, the discovery is the first evidence of an idea proposed three decades ago and possibly worthy of a Nobel Prize. But before any prizes are awarded, the finding must be confirmed by another instrument. To read further, please visit http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/feature/unveiling_the_universes_earliest_secrets?utm_campaign=thisweek&utm_medium=email&utm_source=tw-2014-04-17.

May 12-15, 2014 – Champaign, Illinois

Science teams from across the nation use Blue Waters to simulate the evolution of the cosmos, delve into fine-scale processes in molecular dynamics and quantum physics, and solve many research challenges in between. Many of these projects require a large portion of the hundreds of thousands of processors that constitute Blue Waters and would be difficult or impossible to run elsewhere. Hosted by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), this symposium will bring together these leaders in petascale computational science and engineering and serve as an opportunity for sharing successes, methods, and future challenges in petascale+ computing and analysis. Further information is available at: https://bluewaters.ncsa.illinois.edu/symposium-may-2014.

 

Application Deadline – April 28, 2014

The XSEDE14 Student Program encompasses all of the student-focused sessions and events at the annual XSEDE conference, July 13-18, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia.  We invite students in any discipline who are interested in learning how digital resources can be used to further their research or career goals to participate. To apply for student travel, lodging and registration grants, please visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5J7JMY3. For more information regarding the XSEDE14 Student Program and planned activities, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/conference/xsede14/schedule.

April 21-22, 2014 – Los Alamos, New Mexico

More than 250 New Mexico students and their teachers will be at Los Alamos National Laboratory for the 24th annual New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge expo and awards ceremony. “The goal of the year-long competition is to increase knowledge of science and computing, expose students and teachers to computers and applied mathematics, and instill enthusiasm for science in middle- and high-school students, their families and communities,” said David Kratzer of the Laboratory’s High Performance Computer Systems group and LANL’s coordinator of the Supercomputing Challenge. About 70 teams of students from elementary, middle, and high school are expected at the event. While at the Laboratory, students will present their projects and take part in tours, talks, and demonstrations with Laboratory scientists. The Challenge is project-based learning geared to teaching a wide range of skills: research, writing, teamwork, time management, oral presentations and computer programming. Any New Mexico middle school or high-school student is eligible to enter the Supercomputing Challenge. To read further, please visit https://www.lanl.gov/newsroom/news-releases/2014/April/04.16-supercomputing-challenge.php.

On April 17, 102 men and women received the United States government's highest honor for scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers--the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The National Science Foundation (NSF) nominated 20 of the awardees. They received their awards from NSF Director France Córdova at a morning ceremony presided over by John P. Holdren, assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. To read further, please visit http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=131104&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click.

 

May 13, 2014 - Urbana, Illinois -

There is no fee required to attend, but we do wish for you to register. The meeting will take place at the University of Illinois, NCSA Building, The full agenda is available at http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/Conferences/2014Meeting/. High-level agenda topics include Performance Matters, Digital Manufacturing, Big Data, and the Need for Speed. Specific panels and presentations include: For more information and to register, please visit http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/Conferences/2014Meeting/register.html.

 

Submission Deadline – May 21, 2014

If you need travel funds you may apply for support from the Underrepresented Community Engagement program. If you are local to Atlanta but would like to stay at the hotel to take full advantage of the conference, you are eligible as well as those who are traveling from out of the area. Please apply at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XSEDE_Travel_Request.  There is a limited amount of funding and it is for faculty and staff at Minority Serving Institutions. Criteria for receiving funding includes active participation in XSEDE and the conference such as having an accepted papers, posters, or visualizations or participation on the conference committee. Students will not be considered for Underrepresented Community Engagement travel support and should visit the XSEDE14 site for student opportunities at https://www.xsede.org/web/conference/students.

HPC Happenings

 

NCSA Blue Waters Symposium for Petascale Science and Beyond
May 12-15, 2014 – Champaign, Illinois

Science teams from across the nation use Blue Waters to simulate the evolution of the cosmos, delve into fine-scale processes in molecular dynamics and quantum physics, and solve many research challenges in between. Many of these projects require a large portion of the hundreds of thousands of processors that constitute Blue Waters and would be difficult or impossible to run elsewhere. Hosted by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), this symposium will bring together these leaders in petascale computational science and engineering and serve as an opportunity for sharing successes, methods, and future challenges in petascale+ computing and analysis. Further information is available at: https://bluewaters.ncsa.illinois.edu/symposium-may-2014

XSEDE14 Participation and Submission Deadlines
Submission Deadline – May 21, 2014

If you need travel funds you may apply for support from the Underrepresented Community Engagement program. If you are local to Atlanta but would like to stay at the hotel to take full advantage of the conference, you are eligible as well as those who are traveling from out of the area. Please apply at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XSEDE_Travel_Request.  There is a limited amount of funding and it is for faculty and staff at Minority Serving Institutions. Criteria for receiving funding includes active participation in XSEDE and the conference such as having an accepted papers, posters, or visualizations or participation on the conference committee. Students will not be considered for Underrepresented Community Engagement travel support and should visit the XSEDE14 site for student opportunities at https://www.xsede.org/web/conference/students.

Registration Open for NCSA PSP Meeting
May 13, 2014 - Urbana, Illinois -

There is no fee required to attend, but we do wish for you to register. The meeting will take place at the University of Illinois, NCSA Building, The full agenda is available at http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/Conferences/2014Meeting/. High-level agenda topics include Performance Matters, Digital Manufacturing, Big Data, and the Need for Speed. Specific panels and presentations include: For more information and to register, please visit http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/Conferences/2014Meeting/register.html.

Apply for XSEDE14 Student Program Travel Support
Application Deadline – April 28, 2014

The XSEDE14 Student Program encompasses all of the student-focused sessions and events at the annual XSEDE conference, July 13-18, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia.  We invite students in any discipline who are interested in learning how digital resources can be used to further their research or career goals to participate. To apply for student travel, lodging and registration grants, please visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5J7JMY3. For more information regarding the XSEDE14 Student Program and planned activities, please visit https://www.xsede.org/web/conference/xsede14/schedule.

LANL to Host Supercomputing Challenge Expo
April 21-22, 2014 – Los Alamos, New Mexico

More than 250 New Mexico students and their teachers will be at Los Alamos National Laboratory for the 24th annual New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge expo and awards ceremony. “The goal of the year-long competition is to increase knowledge of science and computing, expose students and teachers to computers and applied mathematics, and instill enthusiasm for science in middle- and high-school students, their families and communities,” said David Kratzer of the Laboratory’s High Performance Computer Systems group and LANL’s coordinator of the Supercomputing Challenge. About 70 teams of students from elementary, middle, and high school are expected at the event. While at the Laboratory, students will present their projects and take part in tours, talks, and demonstrations with Laboratory scientists. The Challenge is project-based learning geared to teaching a wide range of skills: research, writing, teamwork, time management, oral presentations and computer programming. Any New Mexico middle school or high-school student is eligible to enter the Supercomputing Challenge. To read further, please visit https://www.lanl.gov/newsroom/news-releases/2014/April/04.16-supercomputing-challenge.php.

Early Career Scientists and Engineers Receive Highest honor from the White House

On April 17, 102 men and women received the United States government's highest honor for scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers--the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The National Science Foundation (NSF) nominated 20 of the awardees. They received their awards from NSF Director France Córdova at a morning ceremony presided over by John P. Holdren, assistant to the president for science and technology and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. To read further, please visit http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=131104&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click.

Intel Selects Georgia Tech as Site for Next Parallel Computing Center

As modern computer systems become more powerful, utilizing as many as millions of processor cores in parallel, Intel is looking for new ways to efficiently use these high performance computing (HPC) systems to accelerate scientific discovery. As part of this effort, Intel has selected Georgia Tech as the site of one of its Parallel Computing Centers. Modern computing systems, to meet scientific demands of the future, cannot rely solely on the expanded computing power of hardware but also need algorithms and software that can efficiently use massive amounts of parallelism. Intel is creating Intel Parallel Computing Centers (IPCCs) at leading institutions in HPC research to promote the modernization of essential application codes to increase their parallelism and scalability. To read further, please visit http://www.cc.gatech.edu/news/intel-selects-georgia-tech-site-next-parallel-computing-center.

People in the News

 

ORNL’s John Wagner Receives E.O. Lawrence Award

Oak Ridge National Laboratory researcher John Wagner has been named a 2013 recipient of the Department of Energy’s Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award for his work in advancing computer, information and knowledge sciences. Wagner, a nuclear engineer who serves as national technical director for DOE’s Nuclear Fuels Storage and Transportation Planning Project, was recognized for his leadership in the field of computational radiation transport. “The Lawrence Award recipients announced today have made significant contributions to the national, economic and energy security of the United States – strengthening U.S. leadership in discovery and innovation,” said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.  ”I congratulate the winners and thank them for their work on behalf of the Department of Energy and the Nation.” To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/ornls-john-wagner-receives-e-o-lawrence-award/.

 

HPC Call for Participation

 

Call for Chapter Proposals: Encyclopedia of E-Health and Telemedicine
Proposals Submission Deadline: May 18, 2014

Full Chapters Due: September 30, 2014


Health and social care, e-Health, Telemedicine, are at the center of the research policies, on the research agenda of the world governments and are facing major developments.

This publication intends to put together, in a comprehensive way, the problems of ageing, health, health care, social care, mobility, ageing well, quality of life of people with special needs, user needs analysis, and the recent approaches provided by ICT, such as e-Health and Telemedicine, new technologies, new applications, emerging trends, the ethical and legal implications (eg. clinical records) and case studies. It is an ambitious project of addressing the social, technological, organizational, ethical and legal aspects of the topic. For questions and to request the original CFP email, please contact Isabel Maria Miranda, isabel.m.f.miranda@gmail.com
or Maria Manuela Cruz-Cunha, mcruzcunha@gmail.com. To submit a book cheaper, please visit http://www.igi-global.com/publish/call-for-papers/submit/1355.

Call for Abstracts: 30th American Society for Gravitational and Space Research Conference
October 23-26, 2014 – Pasadena, California
Submission Deadline – June 15, 2014

A call for abstracts has been released for the 30th annual American Society for Gravitational and Space Research, or ASGSR, conference and the 28th Symposium on Gravity-Related Phenomena in Space Exploration.  Abstracts must be submitted electronically no later than June 15, 2014, using the abstract submittal form and instructions posted on the ASGSR website. All submitted abstracts will be peer reviewed by the conference organizing committee. Student travel assistance of up to $500 is available on a limited basis. Students requesting consideration for travel assistance should check the box on the abstract submittal form. For more information, please visit https://www.asgsr.org/index.php/news/asews-a-announcements/1814-2014-call-for-abstracts-announcement.

 

Research Features From Across the Country and Around the World\

 

UC San Diego Unveiling the Universe’s Earliest Secrets

It's the faintest light, yet it carries information from the beginning of time. A telescope trained on the Antarctic sky has picked up swirling patterns of light believed to be the imprint of the violent expansion of the universe a trillionth of a second after it burst into being. Excitement swept the scientific community following the March 17 announcement, tempered by caution. If the signal is real, the discovery is the first evidence of an idea proposed three decades ago and possibly worthy of a Nobel Prize. But before any prizes are awarded, the finding must be confirmed by another instrument. To read further, please visit http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/feature/unveiling_the_universes_earliest_secrets?utm_campaign=thisweek&utm_medium=email&utm_source=tw-2014-04-17.

Off the Shelf, on the Skin: Stick-On Electronic Patches for Health Monitoring Developed by UIUC

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and Northwestern University have developed thin, soft, stick-on patches that stretch and move with the skin and incorporate commercial, off-the-shelf chip-based electronics for sophisticated wireless health monitoring. The researchers say the patches could be used for daily health tracking, wirelessly sending updates to a cellphone or computer, and could revolutionize clinical monitoring such as EKG and EEG testing. "What is very important about this device is it is wirelessly powered and can send high-quality data about the human body to a computer, in real time," says Northwestern professor Yonggang Huang. During testing, the researchers found the wireless patch performed as well as conventional sensors, while being significantly more comfortable for patients. To read further, please visit http://news.illinois.edu/news/14/0403microfluidics_JohnRogers.html.

STEM Entrepreneur: Government and Corporations Should Work Together to Help Schools
U.S. News & World Report

There is still much work needed to fill the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) jobs gap in the United States, more than 20 years after the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) was launched, according to testimony founder Dean Kamen gave Thursday before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology's Subcommittee on Research and Technology. "I always believed that I would run out of the mentors and corporate sponsors long before we satisfied the needs in all the schools," Kamen said. "But what we ran out of was the ability for the schools, especially the ones that need us most, to be able to participate in this, even though corporate America is doing all the heavy lifting." To read further, please visit http://www.usnews.com/news/stem-solutions/articles/2014/01/09/stem-entrepreneur-government-and-corporations-should-work-together-to-help-schools.

 

Educator News and Opportunities

 

Tech Women Are Busy Building Their Own Networks
The Washington Post

Despite their under-representation in technology careers, women are present in the field and are increasingly networking with one another to expand their opportunities. The gender gap in technology receives significant attention, but some say focusing on this discrepancy diminishes the accomplishments of the women who are working in the field. "As much as we need to increase diversity, we need to increase visibility of current diversity," says Natalia Oberti Noguera, founder and chief executive of the Pipeline Fellowship, which trains women to become startup investors. Several networks have formed to focus on advancing the careers of women in technology, including Women in Tech, Tech LadyMafia, ACM's Women in Computing (ACM-W), and the National Center for Women in Information Technology (NCWIT). To read further, please visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/tech-women-are-busy-building-their-own-networks/2014/01/08/60e356f2-7874-11e3-af7f-13bf0e9965f6_story.html.

2014 NSTA STEM Forum & Expo
May 14–17, 2014 - New Orleans, Louisiana

What makes the STEM Forum & Expo different from other conferences is the opportunity it affords to dive deeply into STEM topics with other educators. This event brings together interested educators, both informal and formal, and exhibiting companies who have tools and resources to share to help you successfully implement STEM education into your school and community. For more information and to register, please visit http://www.nsta.org/conferences/stem.aspx.

ASBMB HOPES Grant Now Accepting Applications
Application Deadline - June 27, 2014.

The ASBMB is now accepting applications for the 2014 Hands-on Opportunities to Promote Engagement in Sciences (HOPES) seed grants. The goal of the HOPES seed grants is to incentivize and support the development of outreach programs and partnerships by teachers and researchers.  Each grant is worth up to $2,000 and will be awarded to teams consisting of one or more Junior High/High School teacher(s) (or other K-12 educator) and one or more university, college, or institutional (e.g. NIH, NSF, USDA) research scientist(s). Participants of the April 26, 2014 workshop in San Diego will be afforded preference, all applications from interested teachers and research scientists will be considered. For application instructions, go to: www.asbmb.org/hopesgrant..

 

Gaming Teacher Workshop and Conferences in Pennsylvania
June 23 - 26 and Nov. 1, 2014 - Schnecksville, PA

Through a generous grant from the National Science Foundation, Lehigh Carbon Community College in Schnecksville, PA is offering a five day “Edugaming I 2014” workshop on June 23 - 26 and Nov. 1, 2014. Successful applicants will learn to design effective, immersive learning games in this workshop. Through hands-on activities and presentations from educators and industry experts, participants will learn a variety of game design approaches that remove the “quiz” aspect of educational games and replace it with exploratory, engaging techniques. Participants who complete all 5 days of the workshop and develop a game for use in their classes will be paid $500. All middle school, high school and college teachers, as well as pre-service education majors are eligible to participate. Games created through this workshop will not be computer based to allow them to be created and used by all educators, regardless of technical limitations. Continental breakfast and lunch will be provided to all participants. Act 48 credit is available for this workshop. Space is limited and an application is required on or before May 16, 2014. No previous experience with game design is necessary. Contact: computergaming@lccc.edu for more details and an application.

Edugaming Conference at Lehigh Carbon Community College
August 4-5, 2014 Schnecksville, PA

This conference is partially funded by a National Science Foundation grant. The goal of this conference is to bring together educators and representatives from the game industry to discuss the powerful impact effective educational games have on learning, as well as how best to utilize games for effective student education. In addition to presentations, the conference will feature educational games available for attendees to play. We recognize that conferences can be inspirational but can quickly be lost in the day-to-day once the conference ends. To carry the experience along, we wanted to forge those relationships to create ongoing connections through webinars, wikis, and mentoring. Teachers and students from all grade levels are welcome to attend and submit proposals for papers, presentations, and games. For more information, registration and submissions, please visit www.edugamingconference.com  or email computergaming@lccc.edu.

 

National Computational Science Institute Summer Workshops 2014
Computational Biology for Biology Educators
July 21-23, 2014 - Olivet Nazarene University, Bourbonnais Illinois
Introduction to Computational Thinking June 23-25, St Joseph's College, Patchogue NY (Long Island)
August 4-6, Southwest Baptist College, Bolivar MO

This workshop will cover various ways that computers can be used to enhance and expand the educational experience of students enrolled in the undergraduate chemistry curriculum. Discussions and hands-on laboratory exercises on visualization, simulation, molecular modeling, and mathematical software will be presented. Each workshop aims to expose participants to and inspire them with new techniques, teaching materials, and applications to use computational models in the classroom, assignments, or projects. We desire to have participants from a broad range of disciplines, including computer science, mathematics, and the physical and life sciences. For more information, please visit http://www.computationalscience.org/ and click on the "OPEN NOW" or "Summer 2014 Workshops" links to apply.

Group Seeks to Align Curricula With Skills Needed in High-Demand Fields
The Chronicle of Higher Education (

The National STEM Consortium outlined a plan to offer five new training programs to colleges to close the gap between the skills employers need and those students are learning, at the annual meeting of the American Association of Community Colleges. The consortium has been allocated a $20-million grant from the U.S. Labor Department to develop the program, which initially will concentrate on composites, mechatronics, environmental technology, cybertechnology, and electric vehicle technology. The customizable curricula are freely available to colleges online, and the one-year certificate programs require full-time attendance from students and give preference to veterans. To read further, please visit http://chronicle.com/article/Group-Seeks-to-Align-Curricula/145831/.

Technology's Man Problem
The New York Times

Feelings of being underrepresented and ostracized are common among women in technology fields such as computer engineering, and the issue of persuading more women to choose tech careers is problematic. In 2012, only 18 percent of computer-science college graduates were female, versus 37 percent in 1985, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology. Harvard Business School research says more than half the women who join the computer engineering field exit by midcareer, and many computer engineering professionals blame this trend on a sexist, misogynist, alpha-male culture. The tech industry is concerned about the lack of female pros for several reasons, including a profound dearth of candidates to fill available computing jobs, as well as the limited appeal of industry products designed by men. "Women are increasingly consumers; they're not going to like products that don't work for them," warns Stanford University professor Londa Schiebinger. To read further, please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/06/technology/technologys-man-problem.html?_r=1.

 

Student Engagement and Opportunities

 

To Create a Pipeline of STEM Workers in Virginia, Program Starts With Littlest Learners
Capital Business

SySTEMic Solutions aims to get young Northern Virginia students to become passionate about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and in doing so boost the region's future economy. A 2013 Brookings Institution study found that 27.1 percent of jobs in the Washington, D.C., area require STEM knowledge, which means STEM jobs comprise a larger share of positions in the region than in every other metropolitan area in the United States except Silicon Valley. Moreover, the Washington area is poised to add 50,000 net new STEM jobs between 2013 and 2018, according to George Mason University's Stephen S. Fuller. These trends have motivated SySTEMic Solutions to create a pipeline of STEM workers for Virginia, starting with elementary school children and working to keep them consistently interested in the subject matter until they finish school and enter the workforce. The program expects to have 40,000 students in the STEM pipeline by 2016.To read further, please visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/to-create-a-pipeline-of-stem-workers-in-virginia-program-starts-with-littlest-learners/2014/04/06/960bbe1a-b5d6-11e3-8cb6-284052554d74_story.html. ,

Exceed Your Expectations at the 2014 FIRST Championship
April 23-26, 2014 - St. Louis, Missouri

For anyone involved with FIRST^® – Mentors, Volunteers, students, and Sponsors alike – we hope that what you thought FIRST would be like is nothing compared to what you actually got out of the experience. We mean this in the best way possible! Let us explain… For 25 years, FIRST has empowered young people to become future leaders in science and technology through exciting, hands-on, Mentor-based programs. The FIRST Progression of Programs is designed to inspire innovation, and to create opportunities for students to develop important life skills such as communication, leadership, and self-confidence.  complete information, please visit http://championship.usfirst.org/.

MIT Launches Student-Produced Educational Video Initiative

MIT has launched an initiative encouraging its students to produce short videos teaching basic concepts in science and engineering. The videos — aimed at younger students, in grades from kindergarten through high school — will be accessible through a dedicated MIT website and YouTube channel. A subset of the videos will also be available on Khan Academy, a popular not-for-profit educational site founded by an MIT alumnus. “We wanted to help inspire young people to change the world through engineering and science, and realized that the 10,000 superstar students we have at MIT are uniquely positioned to do that,” says Ian A. Waitz, dean of the School of Engineering and the Jerome C. Hunsaker Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “Our students have responded with all the energy and enthusiasm we knew they would. We worked with them to design the program, and the results are fantastic.” To read further, please visit http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2012/k-12-education-video-initiative-0425. 

2014 NASA Unmanned Aerial Systems Challenge
Final Entry Deadline - May 9, 2014

NASA invites college teams to take part in the 2014 NASA Aeronautics Mission Directorate's Unmanned Aerial Systems Challenge. Students are invited to propose a high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial system to track hurricanes. Design assessment will be based on projected effectiveness, cost, innovation and ease of use and operation inside the National Air Space. The contest is open to teams of full-time students enrolled in higher education institutions of the United States or its territories. This category includes universities, colleges, trade schools, community colleges, professional schools, etc. Multidisciplinary teams are encouraged. For more information and a complete list of rules, visit http://aero.larc.nasa.gov/university-contest/.

2014 IGES Earth Day Photo and Essay Contest
Submission Deadline - May 16, 2014

The Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, or IGES, invites students in grades 5-8 to submit photos to the 2014 IGES Earth Day Photo and Essay Contest. We know that our Earth is dynamic, constantly changing and shifting due to weather, seismic activities, erosion and even asteroids! Change is part of living on Earth. To participate in the contest, take a photograph of something that is changing in your local natural environment. The photo can be taken anytime from Monday, April 14 through Friday, April 25, 2014. (Earth Day is April 22.) The photo can showcase something changing in your backyard or neighborhood, near your school or in a local park, on the ground or high in the sky, in the distance toward the horizon or anywhere you happen to be. After selecting a photo, write an essay of up to 400 words to describe the change happening in your photo. First-, second- and third-place prize winners will receive gift cards. The top 10 entries will receive a photo book showcasing the winning artwork and essays. Winning photos and essays also will be featured on the IGES website.  For complete contest rules and information about how to enter, visit http://strategies.org/education/student-contests/photo-contest/2014-photo-contest/.

Code Echo Challenge for Students
Entry Deadline – May 2, 2014

Here is a chance for your students to use their coding skills to win big!Summer family movie EARTH TO ECHO is hosting "Code: Echo": a Challenge for students K-12 to create a game inspired by the film. Students can download assets and get creative.

PRIZES:

In each category there will be:
1 grand prize winner ($5,000.00 + hometown screening)
1 runner-up prize winner ($2,500.00)


WHO CAN ENTER

Students of all ages, a team with up to 4 friends, or an entire classroom. Start coding at www.codeechomovie.com.


On the Lighter Side – Computational News and Innovations

 

A Rainy Day Can Ruin an Online Restaurant Review
Georgia Tech News Center

The weather is the biggest outside factor on whether an online restaurant review will be positive or negative, according to researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Yahoo Labs. The team came to the conclusion after analyzing 1.1 million online reviews for 840,000 restaurants in more than 32,000 cities across the United States. They discovered that reviews written on rainy or snowy days, or very cold or hot days, are more negative than those written on nice days. Demographic factors such as neighborhood diversity, education levels, and population density also have a significant impact. For example, areas with higher education levels tend to have significantly more reviews, and restaurants in busy cities are not likely to get as many complaints about wait times. To read further, please visit http://www.news.gatech.edu/2014/04/02/rainy-day-can-ruin-online-restaurant-review.

Stanford Computer Scientists Learn to Predict Which Photos Will Go Viral on Facebook
Stanford Report

Stanford University researchers have developed a method for predicting which photos on Facebook will go viral. Their method involves studying cascades, the term used to describe photos or videos being shared multiple times. According to recent data provided by Facebook, only one in 20 photos posted on the social network gets shared even once, and just one in 4,000 gets more than 500 shares. The researchers were able to predict when a photo cascade would double in shares with 80-percent accuracy. The researchers began by analyzing 150,000 Facebook photos, each of which had been shared at least five times. The researchers initially found that, at any given point in a cascade, there was a 50-percent chance the number of shares would double. To read further, please visit http://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/april/viral-photo-cascade-040314.html.

A new computational tool could give scientists a better understanding of the functional units critical to the performance of the biochemical pathways that govern biological processes. Developed by researchers from North Carolina State University (NCSU), the algorithm can identify which metabolites, biochemical reactions, and enzymes are related to each other, group them into functional modules, and identify whether an individual component plays a role in multiple modules. The algorithm also characterizes how the relationships between different modules and individual components may change over time and under different internal and external conditions. The input for the algorithm comes from using dynamic models to observe changes in concentrations of metabolites, biochemical reactions, and enzymes under various conditions. To read further, please visit http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/wms-williams-pathways2014/ .

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) researchers analyzed more than a billion anonymized status updates among more than 100 million Facebook users in the United States and found that positive posts encouraged positive posts and negative posts produced negative ones, with the positive posts being more influential, or more contagious. "Our study suggests that people are not just choosing other people like themselves to associate with but actually causing their friends' emotional expressions to change," says UCSD professor James Fowler. "We have enough power in this data set to show that emotional expressions spread online and also that positive expressions spread more than negative." Each additional negative post yields 1.29 more negative posts among a person's friends, while each additional positive post yields an additional 1.75 positive posts among friends, according to the study. To read further, please visit http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/facebook_feelings_are_contagious_study_shows.

Nov 16-21, 2014 - New Orleans, Louisiana
Submission Deadline – April 25, 2014

Panels at SC14 will be, as in past years, among the most important and heavily attended events of the Conference. Panels will bring together the key thinkers and producers in the field to consider in a lively and rapid-fire context some of the key questions challenging high-performance computing, networking, storage and associated analysis technologies for the foreseeable future. For more information and guidelines, please visit https://submissions.supercomputing.org/.