•
Job Summary
The Center for Advanced Computing Research (CACR) in the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology has an opening for a System/Operations Administrator. CACR is Caltech’s primary center for computational science and we work across the Institute to infuse computational methods into research in science and engineering. The successful candidate will join CACR’s Operations group and report to the Manager of Operations.
Job Duties
- Support of heterogeneous computing environment, including (but not limited to):
- Installation and maintenance of OS and middleware software.
- Interaction with CACR staff, researchers, facilities personnel, and vendors to provide technical and user support.
- Assisting in the planning and implementation of facilities improvements.
- Support and enhance monitoring equipment for power, cooling, networking, storage, and compute resources.
- Troubleshooting, diagnosis, and fault isolation of system failures.
- Writing, modifying and maintaining programs for automated administration tasks.
- Work independently on important projects and assignments, with limited supervision, receiving general instructions.
- Exercise discretion and independent judgment to evaluate methods and resources, which will best accomplish assigned work, on time and within budget.
- Occasional travel to conferences or meetings.
- Other duties, as assigned.
Requirements & Qualifications
- BS degree or equivalent combination of education and experience with 2+ years experience in data center operations and 5+ years of computer systems administration.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills are essential, as is the ability to effectively communicate with all levels of management and other professionals.
- Strong background in Linux system administration and facilities operations.
- Proficiency administering core servers, computer clusters and storage systems running a variety of Operating Systems (e.g. RedHat, Ubuntu, Solaris) hosting a variety of services (e.g. Apache, LDAP, DNS, IMAP, NFS, SMTP).
- Familiarity with facilities design and operation, including knowledge of power and cooling systems.
- Working knowledge of languages and tools used by scientific applications (e.g. Python, Perl, Bash, SVN, Trac, C++, MPI, PBS, TotalView).
- Attitude and aptitude to learn quickly, high levels of initiative.
- Proactive, self-starter able to address complex issues effectively within a team environment and independently.
- BS degree in engineering or related field.
- Familiarity with high performance networking, cluster management and high performance file systems (e.g. GigE, InfiniBand, CMU/ACE/ROCKS, Panasas).
- Data center infrastructure upgrade participation.
- Experience in a university environment is highly desirable.
Applications should be made via the Caltech Job Posting.
Caltech is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Women, minorities, veterans and disabled persons are encouraged to apply.
•
Position Description:
The Center for Advanced Computing Research at the California Institute of Technology is seeking a highly motivated individual to engineer scientific software to make effective use of accelerators, particularly general-purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs). There are applications in several research groups, including geophysics, solid mechanics, chemistry, and biology. The initial responsibility will be optimizing codes to exploit a large new hybrid (CPU/GPGPU) cluster in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. Specific applications include Bayesian models of fault slip during large earthquakes, inverse models of the Earth’s interior structure, large-scale remotely sensed image processing and models for use in rapid tsunami early warning systems.
Requirements & Qualifications:
- Engineer scientific codes in multiple disciplines to make effective use of accelerators.
- Document work and train students and staff in accelerator programming.
- Serve as a campus-wide subject matter expert on accelerator programming.
- Collaborate with experimental and scientific teams to deploy scientific software and respond to research challenges.
- Contribute to the writing of papers and grant proposals.
- Other duties as requested.
- B.S. in computer science, physics, applied mathematics or a closely related field.
- Must have a minimum of 2 years experience programming accelerators for scientific or closely related applications.
- Thorough knowledge of C/C++, OpenCL, and CUDA.
Caltech is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Women, minorities, veterans and disabled persons are encouraged to apply.
•
Special CACR seminar, Wednesday April 11, 2012
10 am
100 Powell Booth
Hod Lipson (Cornell)
Machine Science: Distilling Natural Laws from Experimental Data, From Particle Physics to Computational Biology
Can machines discover scientific laws automatically? For centuries, scientists have attempted to identify and document analytical laws that underlie physical phenomena in nature. Despite the prevalence of computing power, the process of finding natural laws and their corresponding equations has resisted automation. This talk will outline a series of recent research projects, starting with self-reflecting robotic systems, and ending with machines that can formulate hypotheses, design experiments, and interpret the results, to discover new scientific laws. While the computer can discover new laws, will we still understand them? Our ability to have insight into science may not keep pace with the rate and complexity of automatically-generated discoveries. Are we entering a post-singularity scientific age, where computers not only discover new science, but now also need to find ways to explain it in a way that humans can understand? We will see examples from psychology to cosmology, from classical physics to modern physics, from big science to small science.
About the speaker: Hod Lipson is an Associate Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and Computing & Information Science at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. He directs the Creative Machines Lab, which focuses on novel ways for automatic design, fabrication and adaptation of virtual and physical machines. He has led work in areas such as evolutionary robotics, multi-material functional rapid prototyping, machine self-replication and programmable self-assembly. Lipson received his Ph.D. from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in 1998, and continued to a postdoc at Brandeis University and MIT. His research focuses primarily on biologically-inspired approaches, as they bring new ideas to engineering and new engineering insights into biology. For more information visit http://www.mae.cornell.edu/lipson
•
Monday, March 5, 2 pm, in rm. 100 Powell-Booth (CACR)
Dr. Theodor Holm Nelson
Designer-Generalist, The Internet Archive
“Toward a Minimal Cosmology of Software”
Abstract: The computer world is a tangle of traditions that are deeply entrenched: operating systems that force hierarchy on a nonhierarchical world; tables that force regularity on an irregular world; the PARC user interface (”GUI”), designed for secretaries in order to sell printers, which substitutes fonts for connection. Meanwhile, no databases are suitable for casual users who want to manage their evolving lives. We will discuss minimalist alternatives to the prevailing paradigm – not to overthrow it, obviously, but perhaps to create an island / control center of simplicity, elegance and personal usability.
About the speaker: Theodor (Ted) Nelson is an Internet pioneer and a controversial figure, known for coining such words as hypertext,
micropayment, etc. He was first to envision a personal computer industry and world-wide publishing between computer screens. His designs are for an entirely different computer world to keep track of our ever-changing lives and ideas.
•
One looks like little more than a stethoscope head attached to a wire; the other seems to be an oven mitt with three metal disks sewn on. Simple, yes, but these prototype medical devices — developed by young Caltech researchers working on a SURF project — could one day save lives.
Four undergrads have spent the summer developing and refining the prototypes as part of the cell-phone medicine project, headed by Julian Bunn of the Center for Advanced Computing Research (CACR) and Mani Chandy, Simon Ramo Professor and professor of computer science at Caltech. The lofty long-term goal of the project? To make the “10-cent medical checkup” a reality.
( … read more at http://features.caltech.edu/features/210 )
