Newswise — As scientific facilities get more powerful, the amount and complexity of the data they generate will only grow. Advanced computing resources and techniques will be required to keep up with the sheer volume of data flowing from next-generation facilities. One of those will be the upgraded Advanced Photon Source (APS), a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory.
The Office of Science has recently approved $30 million in funding for three new projects aimed at integrating high performance computing at DOE’s X-ray and neutron light source facilities. Five million of that funding will go to an Argonne-led research project called X-ray & Neutron Scientific Center for Optimization, Prediction and Experimentation (XSCOPE). This project will tackle the technical obstacles and tools needed to enhance data analysis capabilities at X-ray and neutron source user facilities. It aims to address challenges in computational science, applied mathematics and artificial intelligence/machine learning relevant to X-ray light sources. Its focus will be on the APS as the upgraded facility comes online next year.
“These capabilities will accelerate the discovery process and help to answer some of the most pressing scientific challenges of our time.” — Sven Leyffer, Argonne National Laboratory
XSCOPE will focus on unlocking new and pressing scientific challenges while dealing with the deluge of data from large-scale X-ray facilities. Enhancing the data analytics capabilities of light sources such as the APS will help fuel discoveries in biotechnology, advanced materials for energy and microelectronics, and more.
The project is led jointly by Sven Leyffer, principal investigator and deputy director of Argonne’s Mathematics and Computer Science division; Ian Foster, director of Argonne's Data Science and Learning division; and Nicholas Schwarz, the lead for scientific software and data management at the APS. The team includes X-ray and computational scientists from several areas of the lab.
“This cross-cutting team will deliver truly transformational scientific computing capabilities for DOE’s X-ray light sources,” Leyffer said. “These capabilities will accelerate the discovery process and help to answer some of the most pressing scientific challenges of our time.”
Argonne is also part of a new $10 million collaborative effort led by DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, along with other DOE national labs: Brookhaven, Lawrence Berkeley and Oak Ridge. The project is called Intelligent Learning for Light Source and Neutron Source User Measurements Including Navigation and Experiment Steering (ILLUMINE). It will focus on the testing, delivery and productive use of advanced computing methods and tools across DOE’s X-ray and neutron sources.
“This project will leverage the massive amounts of data generated by the user facilities and apply common tools and infrastructure to enable faster discoveries and breakthroughs,” said Schwarz, a co-principal investigator for ILLUMINE.
A third project, the Center for Advanced Mathematics for Energy Research Applications, will be led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The three projects will collectively address emerging challenges at DOE’s light and neutron sources.
All three of these projects are supported by the DOE Office of Science programs in Advanced Scientific Computing Research and Basic Energy Sciences.
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