Michelle Miller

An integrated problem solving environment: the SCIRun computational steering system

SCIRun is a scientific programming environment that allows the interactive construction, debugging, and steering of large-scale scientific computations. We review related systems and introduce a taxonomy that explores different computational steering solutions. Considering these approaches, we discuss why a tightly integrated problem solving environment, such as SCIRun, simplifies the design and debugging phases of computational science applications and how such an environment aids in the scientific discovery process.

Forensic Application of FM-CW and Pulse Radar

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) technology has supplied vital assistance in criminal investigations. However, law enforcement personnel desire further developments such that the technology is rapidly deployable, and that it provides both a simple user interface and sophisticated target identification. To assist in the development of target identification algorithms, our efforts involve gathering background GPR data for the various site conditions and circumstances that often typify clandestine burials. For this study, forensic anthropologists established shallow-grave plots at The University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility (ARF) that are specific to GPR research. These plots contain donated human cadavers lying in various configurations and depths, surrounded by assorted construction material and backfill debris. We scanned the plots using two GPR technologies: (1) a multi-frequency synthetic-aperture FM-CW radar (200–700 MHz) (GPR-X) developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Special Tech...

The Virtual Instrument: Support for Grid-Enabled Mcell Simulations

Ensembles of widely distributed, heterogeneous resources, or Grids, have emerged as popular platforms for largescale scientific applications. In this paper we present the Virtual Instrument project, which provides an integrated application execution environment that enables end-users to run and interact with running scientific simulations on Grids. This work is performed in the specific context of MCell, a computational biology application. While MCell provides the basis for running simulations, its capabilities are currently limited in terms of scale, ease-of-use, and interactivity. These limitations preclude usage scenarios that are critical for scientific advances. Our goal is to create a scientific “Virtual Instrument” from MCell by allowing its users to transparently access Grid resources while being able to steer running simulations. In this paper, we motivate the Virtual Instrument project and discuss a number of relevant issues and accomplishments in the area of Grid software development and application scheduling. We then describe our software design and report on the current implementation. We verify and evaluate our design via experiments with MCell on a real-world Grid testbed.

Simulation steering with SCIRun in a distributed environment

Building systems that alter program behavior during execution based on user-specified criteria (computational steering systems) has been a recent research topic, particularly among the high performance computing community. To enable a computational steering system with powerful visualization capabilities to run on distributed memory architectures, a distributed infrastructure (or runtime system) must first be built. This infrastructure would permit harnessing a variety of machines to collaborate on an interactive simulation. Building such an infrastructure requires strategies for coordinating execution across machines (concurrency control mechanisms), mechanisms for fast data transfer between machines, and mechanisms for user manipulation of remote execution. We are creating a distributed infrastructure for the SCIRun computational steering system. SCIRun, a scientific problem solving environment (PSE), provides the ability to interactively guide or steer a running computation. Initially designed for a shared memory multiprocessor, SCIRun is a tightly integrated, multi-threaded framework for composing scientific applications from existing or new components. High performance computing is needed to maintain interactivity for scientists and engineers running simulations. Extending such a performance-sensitive application toolkit to enable pieces of the computation to run on different machine architectures all within the same computation would prove very useful. Not only could many different machines execute this framework, but also several machines could be configured to work synergistically on computations.

Simulation Steering with SCIRun in a Distributed Environment

Building systems that alter program behavior during execution based on user-specified criteria (computational steering systems) has been a recent research topic, particularly among the high-performance computing community [1–5]. To enable a computational steering system with powerful visualization capabilities to run in a distributed computational environment, a distributed infrastructure (or runtime system) is required. This infrastructure permits one to harness a variety of machines to collaborate on an interactive simulation. Building such an infrastructure requires devising strategies for coordinating execution across machines (concurrency control mechanisms), mechanisms for fast data transfer between machines, and mechanisms for user manipulation of remote execution.

Searching for concealed human remains using GPR imaging of decomposition

Locating clandestine burials of human remains has long-challenged law-enforcement officials investigating criminal activity, and continues to confront scientific disciplines in finding well-defined procedures. Forensic specialists and law enforcement agencies have noted that multidisciplinary search efforts are becoming more of a necessity in searching for buried remains. Collaborative research at The University of Tennessees Anthropological Research Facility (ARF) in Knoxville supports this concept. We are correlating ground-penetrating radar (GPR) imaging with postmortem processes. Decompositional stages and rate imagery are presented that utilize sweep-frequency radar and time-elapsed imaging. Greater accuracy in predicting clandestine burials using dynamic GPR anomaly detection will reduce widespread excavations and may better assist law-enforcement personnel in obtaining site-specific search warrants.

Computational Steering and the SCIRun Integrated Problem Solving Environment

SCIRun is a problem solving environment that allows the interactive construction, debugging, and steering of large-scale scientific computations. We review related systems and introduce a taxonomy that explores different computational steering solutions. Considering these approaches, we discuss why a tightly integrated problem solving environment, such as SCIRun, simplifies the design and debugging phases of computational science applications and how such an environment aids in the scientific discovery process.

Forensic application of sweep-frequency and impulse GPR

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) technology has supplied invaluable assistance in numerous criminal investigations. However, field personnel desire further development such that the technology is rapidly deployable, and it provides both a simple user interface and sophisticated target identification. To assist in the development of target identification algorithms, our efforts involve gathering background GPR data for the various site conditions and circumstances that often typify clandestine burials. For this study, forensic anthropologists established burial plots at The University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility (ARF). These plots contain donated human cadavers lying in various configurations and depths. Each plot includes a fleshed cadaver with varying combinations of human skeletal remains, construction material, and backfill. We scanned the plots using two GPR systems. The first system is a multi-frequency synthetic-aperture unit (GPR-X) developed by the Department of Energys Special Technologies Laboratory (STL), Bechtel Nevada (Koppenjan et al., 2000). The impulse radar system is a newly released commercial unit (SIR-20) manufactured by Geophysical Survey Systems, Inc. (GSSI). This paper provides example scans from each system, and a discussion of the survey protocol and general performance.