TACC (The Texas Advanced Computer Center) at the University of Texas at Austin, has just deployed Maverick, a unique, powerful, high performance visualization and data analytics resource for the open science and engineering community. To view the video, please visit http://www.vizworld.com/2014/04/maverick-at-tacc-tackles-big-scale-data-visualization-interview-part-1/#sthash.dsKqpGPm.d59c2A0H.dpuf.

Glassdoor has released a list of the 25 highest rated companies, which are hiring interns this year. It also put together the map above showing where internships are geographically located right now. Thirteen tech companies make the list, including Facebook and Google, which led the group. (Of course, Google should be in the mix given that its internship program was the source of a comedy starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson). Three Seattle companies made the list: Microsoft (#7), Nordstrom (#24) and Amazon (#25). The list was created based on intern feedback over the past year. To view the charts, please visit http://www.geekwire.com/2014/chart-top-tech-companies-internships/.

The XSEDE project and the University of California, Berkeley are offering an online course on parallel computing for advanced undergraduates to design, implement, optimize, and verify programs to run on present generations of parallel processors. We are seeking other university partners that are interested in offering the course for credit to their students. The course includes online video lectures, quizzes, and homework assignments with access to free accounts on the NSF supported XSEDE supercomputers. Instructors interested in the collaborative class should contact Steve Gordon, lead for the XSEDE education program at sgordon@osc.edu or by phone at 614-292-4132.

Registration is now open for XSEDE14, the annual conference that brings together the extended community of individuals interested in advancing research cyberinfrastructure and integrated digital services for the benefit of science and society. XSEDE14 will take place at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis and will showcase the discoveries, innovations, challenges and achievements of those who utilize and support XSEDE resources and services, as well as other digital resources and services throughout the world. The theme of XSEDE14 is “Engaging Communities,” to engage both traditional users of digital resources and people who have not traditionally used digital resources but would benefit from their usage. For more information and to register, please visit the XSEDE website.

There is a significant gap between U.S. high school students' exposure to computer science and their use of computers and technology, and this gap is leading to a dearth of qualified professionals in technology and other fields. "People are realizing these are the skill sets that are going to lead to 21st-century jobs," says Microsoft executive Dan Kasun. Some Washington, D.C.-area school districts are taking the initiative to address this disparity by urging more students, especially girls and minorities, to enroll in computer science courses. "We really believe the skills they will get from coding will help them in whatever career they choose," says Charles County superintendent Kimberly Hill. To read further, please visit the washington post website.

Google wants public high school students, especially girls, to discover the magic of coding. When a public high school teacher helps 4 or more female students complete an introduction to computer science course, the teacher will earn a $500 classroom funding credit to spend on whichever resources your students most need. For more information on how to apply, please visit the website.

Interior designers strive to make everyday spaces effective for the kinds of activities they support. Those who can incorporate the way people experience a given space gain an edge in mapping design to experience. IU Professor Jon Racek worked with AVL staff to incorporate the Oculus Rift virtual reality system into the design toolset for his class 3D Modeling and Design for Digital Fabrication (N201). Students designed 3D sculptures to be physically realized through a CNC router fabrication process. In so doing, they experienced the power of virtual reality as a design tool for its ability to convey real-world scale and natural human perception. For more information, please visit the website.

Registration is now open for XSEDE14, the annual conference that brings together the extended community of individuals interested in advancing research cyberinfrastructure and integrated digital services for the benefit of science and society. XSEDE14 will take place at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis and will showcase the discoveries, innovations, challenges and achievements of those who utilize and support XSEDE resources and services, as well as other digital resources and services throughout the world. The theme of XSEDE14 is “Engaging Communities,” to engage both traditional users of digital resources and people who have not traditionally used digital resources but would benefit from their usage. For more information and to register, please visit the XSEDE website.

Computation has become essential to the practice of contemporary biology. Story telling and concept maps, with the right tools, can quickly turn ideas in biology into dynamic, visual models. The storage, access, analysis and visualization of growing amounts of data, and the functional interpretation of complex biological phenomena require the use of a range of computational approaches and tools. This series of workshops aims to provide an introductory overview of computational resources and methods that can be used with students interested in biology or the biological applications of math at the secondary or introductory college level. For more information on workshop dates and titles please visit the website.

The fields of computer architecture, interconnection networks and system design are undergoing rapid change enabling very large supercomputers to be built. System advances have come in the form of increased parallelism from many-core accelerators and improved communication interfaces. The MPI library is also changing with several new capabilities introduced to enable highly scalable parallel programs on such systems. This three- day webinar series introduces several of these capabilities. For more information on the instructors, how to register, and what each day consist of visit the website.

A new ACM report urges states to provide more opportunities for students to gain the skills and knowledge needed to compete for high-wage computing positions. The report, "Rebooting the Pathway to Success: Preparing Students for Computing Workforce Needs in the United States," says state education professionals, business leaders, and public policy officials should collaborate in developing comprehensive computer science education and workforce development plans. The report offers suggestions to help these leaders create pathways that will expose all K-12 students to computer science, provide increased access to more intense computer science courses, offer more opportunities for students to pursue post-secondary degrees, and match up education pathways with computing careers.

Stanford University's Faculty Senate recently approved two new joint-major programs that will enable students to study English and computer science, or music and computer science, starting in the fall. Stanford professor Nicholas Jenkins says the joint-major program, called CS+X, is expected to attract humanists who want a competitive edge on the job market, computer science-minded students who want to be engaged in the humanities, and digital natives for whom computer science and the humanities do not seem "at opposite ends of the spectrum at all, but continuous." Stanford professor Jennifer Widom notes computer science is the university's most popular undergraduate program, as the number of students studying computer science has more than tripled in the last five years

In an interview, Stanford University professor Mehran Sahami discussed changes in computer science education over the past three decades. He says students today understand computing's potential and are technology consumers, whereas in the past the average person did not have a computer in their house. Today, the field of computer science has broadened and numerous subareas such as human-computer interaction and computational biology have emerged. Although the number of students enrolling in computer science dropped significantly from 2000 to 2005 due to the dot-com bubble burst, computer science enrollment is now increasing as the economy turns around and perceptions change about high-tech opportunities.

The goal of the Blue Waters Student Internship Program is designed to provide undergraduate and graduate students a unique learning experience by immersing them in projects associated with Blue Waters and/or XSEDE. We are looking for faculty to mentor an undergraduate student in a year-long internship that involves teaching or researching the use of high-performance computing in studying problems in sciences, engineering, and/or mathematics. The internship will provide students with a $5000.00 stipend, a two-week intensive high performance computing workshop, and travel to the Blue Waters Symposium in 2015. Interested faculty should submit an internship project description at bluewaters.ncsa.illinois.edu/internships. For more information please visit the website.

Hello All, As you know XSEDE 2014 in Atlanta, GA is approaching fast. The deadline for tutorial, paper and abstract submissions for the XSEDE14 conference has been extended to March 24. You all are personally invited to share your innovations with the XSEDE and HPC communities. In doing so, you will help provoke community discourse while gaining recognition for the impact of your accomplishments. We are witnessing tremendous impacts on research, education, and society from the applications of high performance computing, big data, scientific visualization, and other advanced digital resources, and we would like you to be a part of the movement. Submit your papers and proposals by March 24.

Dear TEOS Colleagues, We would like to make you aware of two methods for sharing your training materials - 1) Sharing PDF versions of your materials with the public, and 2) sharing source materials with other XSEDE staff. Whether for a large event such as SC with multiple presentations and workshops or a standalone presentation, these are perfect solutions for sharing your materials, and provide a common place for posting and sharing XSEDE presentations. In a hurry and don’t have time for this submission process? Please send your materials and a brief description to amason@ucsd.edu. For more information on submitting info and postings visit the resources tab on the home navigation menu or contact amason@ucsd.edu.

Submerging supercomputers and servers in oil or other liquids to cool them off might offer a way to reduce massive energy consumption. Mineral oil and liquid fluoroplastics do not conduct electricity, and therefore present no risk of short-circuiting or damaging equipment as water would, experts say. Submersion technology can save a facility millions of dollars a year in air conditioning electricity expenses and reduces the need for air conditioning and filtering equipment. The institute made only a few adjustments to prepare the Tsubame KFC for submersion, including removing moving parts such as hard drives and fans. In November, Tsubame KFC was named the greenest supercomputer in the Green500 industry ranking.

Researchers announced today that scientists running genomic analyses at George Washington University’s Colonial One High Performance Computing Center will pilot ultra high-speed 40 Gigabit per second data transfers from the National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine (NLM) using both organizations’ new 100 Gigabit per second links to the Internet2 Network. “Biomedical researchers need high-bandwidth access to the extremely large data sets used in today’s medical research,” commented Don Preuss, who heads the Systems group at the NLM’s National Center for Biotechnology Information. “Our new 100 Gigabit connection to the Internet2 backbone will provide researchers at GW and other research centers with state-of-the-art connectivity.”

The eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) is launching a new program – called the Industry Challenge – that connects industry partners with researchers from the open science community in order to enhance product designs and speed time to market. Over at the XSEDE.org website, science writer Scott Gibson details the new program, which brings together collaborative cross-disciplinary teams and provides them with access to XSEDE’s advanced computational capabilities. Industry Challenge draws on the power of collaboration and technology to address industry challenges, according to David Hudak, director of the program.

Girls Who Code is on the hunt for smart, inspiring and talented computer science instructors and teaching assistants for its 2014 Summer Immersion Programs. If you're passionate about computer science education and want to change lives and help close the gender gap in the tech sector, we want you. The ideal candidate is an empathetic and enthusiastic individual with a BA or BS in Computer Science and teaching experience (e.g. classroom teaching, tutoring, TAing). Interested candidates should send a cover letter and resume to jobs@girlswhocode.com.

IBM today announced it is further expanding its operations across Africa with the opening of two new IBM Innovation Centers in Lagos, Nigeria and Casablanca, Morocco. These new centers aim to spur local growth and fuel an ecosystem of development and entrepreneurship around Big Data and Analytics and cloud computing in the region. Approximately one in every two medium to large businesses in both South Africa and Kenya already use the cloud. At the same time, organizations around Africa are looking for ways to improve their analytics skills and more accurately tap into the data being produced by mobile devices and tablets – and, better anticipate the needs of their customers by delivering improved services.

The U.S. Army Education Outreach Program (AEOP) sponsors research, education, competitions, internships and practical experiences designed to engage and guide students and teachers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. One of the AEOP programs called eCYBERMISSION offers a free web-based STEM competition for students to promote self-discovery and to recognize the real-life applications of science, math and technology. Using either the scientific inquiry method or the engineering process, students form teams of three to four students and propose a solution to a real problem in their communities, competing for state, regional and national awards. For more information visit the website.

As part of the Blue Waters efforts to motivate and train the next generation of supercomputing researchers, the program is sponsoring 20 undergraduate research interns in 2014. The goal is to engage undergraduate students in petascale computing research and development projects. The program provides each student a stipend totaling $5000, a two-week intensive high-performance computing workshop, and travel to The Blue Waters Symposium 2015. Visit the website for further information and eligibility criteria.

The National Science Foundation-funded Blue Waters and eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) projects are hosting the 8th Extreme Scaling Workshop Aug. 14-15, 2014, at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The conference committee seeks submissions of excellent quality addressing the challenges of using, designing, deploying, or integrating infrastructure for both big data analysis and large-scale computation to facilitate scientific discovery. For more information please visit the website. Send questions and submissions to Scott Lathrop at lathrop@illinois.edu by May 1, 2014.

Technovation is the global technology entrepreneurship program for girls, with over 1,300 alumnae from 19 countries. Middle school, high school, and university students research, design, build, and launch a mobile app prototype over 3 months, with guidance from dedicated teachers and female mentors who are professionals in STEM and business careers. No prior app development experience is necessary. The time commitment is approximately 60 hours over 12 weeks. There is no charge for the program. Sign up to get started at http://technovationchallenge.org. The registration deadline is March 1st, 2014 and final app submissions are due April 26th, 2014. Questions? Please call Samantha Quist at samantha@iridescentlearning.org.