MSRC News
Dr. Radha's Retirement
The ARL MSRC honored Dr. N. Radhakrishnan, former Director of Computational and Information Sciences Directorate at ARL, at a retirement ceremony June 25 at the Adelphi Laboratory Center.
Dr. Radha, who formally retired July 3, received numerous plaques, awards and accolades by those in attendance, including John Miller, Acting Director of ARL, and Dr. James Gantt, Acting Director of Computational & Information Sciences Directorate.
During Dr. Radha's four years with ARL, his directorate accomplishments included:
- Establishing an ARL presence and obtaining funding in conjunction with the DoD Horizontal Fusion Research Program to the tune of $12M.
- Increasing ARL's High Performance Computing resources from .5 Tflops in 1999 to nine Tflops in 2003.
- Establishing an Army Knowledge Management Center at ARL, funded at $4M a year, and establishing and managing an infrastructure for the Army Future Combat Systems Advanced Collaborative Environment.
- Establishing an ARL Information Assurance Program that monitors a subset of both Army and DoD network assets.
- Establishing the ARL CIO office and initiating the development of IT plans and policies, upgrading ARL network assets to gigabit backbone and 100 MB to the desktop and establishing the ARL Standard PC program, which replaced more than 2,400 desktop computers.
After retiring, Dr. Radha became the interim Vice-Chancellor for Research at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCAT) in Greensboro, N.C.
He is responsible for the administration of all the research and sponsored program activity at NCAT.
Doesburg Tours ARL
Maj. Gen. John C. Doesburg, commander of Aberdeen Proving Ground and the Research, Development and Engineering Command, toured the ARL MSRC Aug. 1. During his visit, MG Doesburg was welcomed by John Miller, Acting Director of ARL, and Dr. James Gantt, Acting Director of CISD at ARL. MG Doesburg was then briefed by Charlie Nietubicz, Director of the High Performance Computing Division, who gave MG Doesburg a 15-minute overview on the capabilities, assets and accomplishments of the ARL MSRC.
From there, MG Doesburg participated in a videolink between the MSRC here and the Army High Performance Computing Research Center in Minneapolis, toured classified and unclassified areas of the MSRC, toured the Information Assurance Center and was shown the Scientific Visualization capabilities and applications, including LADAR, SMART munitions and BIO/Nerve Agent. MG Doesburg ended the visit with wrap-up discussions with Miller, Gantt and Nietubicz.
New Raytheon Contract
Raytheon was awarded a contract in May by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory to provide technology support to the U.S. warfighter in both classified and unclassified computing environments.
The ARL is located at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where it administers and operates one of four Department of Defense (DoD) High Performance Computing (HPC) Major Shared Resource Centers, established under the direction of the DoD's HPC Modernization Program.The contract, valued at nearly $90 million, consists of a four-month base period with six additional one-year options. Raytheon will perform the work at the customer's site in Maryland.
Raytheon's work on the contract will focus on technical operations support, including system administration, operations and maintenance, and security.
Raytheon will perform user support and outreach including help desk support, user software and applications support, and scientific visualization.
Von Neumann Dedication
To honor John von Neumann's 100th birthday, Dr. George Csepeli, Deputy Hungarian Minister of Informatics and Communication, presented plaques to the Army Research Laboratory during the John von Neumann Dedication Ceremony Oct. 1 at ARL. Von Neumann, born in Budapest, Hungary, died in 1957.
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| Hungarian official Dr. George Cspeli gave ARL two plaques that honor John von Neumann. |
The plaques, which reside at the entrance of Bldg. 328, honor the life and contributions of von Neumann, a brilliant mathematician and computer pioneer who refined the ENIAC computer and helped design the EDVAC computer. From 1944 to 1957, von Neumann was a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee at the Ballistic Research Laboratories.
Dr. Csepeli presented the plaques on behalf of the Hungarian government, the John von Neumann Computer Society and the Theodore Puskas Technical School on Telecommunication.
ARL MSRC Sponsors Webcast
On July 28, from 1 to 3:30 p.m., HPC users could tune into an ARL MSRC-sponsored webcast that detailed enhancements to the ARL MSRC computing environment. Thirty-two users registered for the webcast.
The purpose of the forum was to announce recent enhancements, and give users the opportunity to ask questions and make suggestions on how the ARL MSRC could improve service.
While there were some minor problems with streaming audio and video, the webcast was, nevertheless, deemed successful by the users.
Steve Thompson, who spearheaded the original webcast back on July 28, will hold another webcast on Nov. 13 for new HPC users.
ITL Helps Users
The Interactive Tool Launcher (ITL) allows a user to launch the GUI of a COTS package without knowing anything but the name of the software. All users have to know is how to launch ITL and they can run their favorite GUI-based program.
ITL is mirrored on all machines so that the user will see the same interface no matter what machine they are using. This also means that not all packages that are visible are necessarily available on the machine that the user launches ITL from.
The use of the Modules software within ITL as a way to set the environment for each supported package makes configuring the launcher quick and easy so that it can support a new package in less than 10 minutes.
ARL MSRC Offers School Tours
The ARL MSRC has announced a program for local high schools to tour the center. The three-hour tours will consist of presentations, walkthroughs of the HPC computer rooms, and an interactive demonstration program in the Reality Center.
A web-based photo page has been created for the teachers and students to show family and friends after their visit. The tours are established to increase public awareness of the center and to foster career ideas for students interested in high-tech careers.