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Rajiv Kalia Professor, Physics “This is the best of times for computational sciences and engineering. I believe the world’s most important problems will be solved by computational science. And for large scale modeling, this is it — we have the best team in the world.” Priya Vashishta Director, USC Center for Data Visualization and Collaboration, Professor, Materials Science Currently working on a variety of projects funded by the DOE, DOD, NSF and NIH, Vashishta says his team’s philosophy in choosing visualization projects is to only work on the largest problems. The Center’s resulting visualization should then “be such that I can show it in 30 seconds and then explain it in a couple of minutes.”
Ken-ichi Nomura, Assistant Research Professor, Physics, Ying Li, Ph.D., Materials Science ‘12, Zaoshi “Amy” Yuan, Ph.D., Materials Science ‘12 For graduate students working with the center, Vashista, Kalia, and Nakano have developed a combined Ph.D. Materials Science/Masters of Computer Science program with a concentration in high performance computing. Job prospects for graduates of the program have been endless, sending them into the finance, software, drug, and nanotechnology industries, among others. Of her experience working on a variety of the center’s important projects, Ph.D. student Yuan said, “Simulations are an alternate way of solving problems that can’t necessarily be solved by traditional experiments.”
Center for Data Visualization and Collaboration (DVC) Founded in 2002, the center provides the ability to view simulations generated by high-performance computers such as USC’s High Performance Computing and Communications facility (the 7th fast10 Fall 2012
est academic supercomputer in the nation). Housed in a space formerly occupied by the engineering library, the center consists of 12 digital projectors behind the 8’x14’ monolithic glass
AT&T Tile Wall, upon which 17.5 million pixels are projected. Three 65-inch movable LCD screens and three suspended projectors offer additional projections options for visualizations designed by
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graduate students. The center is the brainchild of three professors, allies in high performance computing for over two decades: Rajiv Kalia, Aiichiro Nakano and Priya Vashishta.
Aiichiro Nakano Professor, Computer Science “We are simulating, by far, the biggest things. And I don’t mean just quantitatively, but in terms of importance. Plus, between the three of us, you have over 60 years of experience in this area and a great group of students.”
About the simulation shown in the photo Depicted here: the impact of a hypervelocity bullet on a high-performance ceramic plate. Atoms are color-coded according to energy and pressure, with red indicating the highest energy. This simulation research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.
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