Nicole Sultanum

Deciding When and How to Move HPC Jobs to the Cloud

Now used for high-performance computing applications, the cloud presents a challenge for users who must decide, based on efficiency and cost-effectiveness, when and how to run jobs on cloud-based resources versus when to use on-premise clusters. The authors propose a decision-support system to help make these determinations.

Cloud-based Remote Visualization of Big Data to Subsurface Exploration

Since the first visualization solutions were explored for O&G, major technical improvements enabled gigabyte-sized models to be rendered and manipulated at interactive speeds. Yet, other fundamental aspects such as data access and distribution are often overlooked in the process, even to date. Data movement may often be prohibitive, either due to legal constraints (data is restricted from departing the country) or practical considerations (data is too large to be moved, is a checkpoint tightly connect to imaging processes, and requires costly resources to be manipulated). Collaborative visualization tends to be performed co-locally, following an explicit, manually conducted, data transfer to a dedicated visualization machine. We propose an alternative based upon data-centric computing. The model offers visualization as-a-service over a multitenant cloud-based environment. Remote visualization enables lightweight access and interaction with generated data readily after the processing, dismissing the need to transfer the whole dataset into analysts machine. It offloads heavy graphics processing to a cloud server featuring the necessary infrastructure to handle such voluminous data, like GPUs, GPFS, and ultimately sends only a reduced output to lightweight clients (rendered images/geometry). Visualization resources can also be shared among concurrent users in a web-based interface and combined with other data sources, like correspondent well information or velocity models, facilitating effective remote collaboration towards knowledge discovery in subsurface exploration. Ubiquitous on-the-go data access (e.g., in the exploration field itself) is thereby made possible through mobile interfaces. Concurrently, several challenges emerge with the aforementioned visualization model. The effective resource distribution of different data sources among several clients needs to benefit from the cloud execution platform. The OpenPower Foundation is an example of the future HPC platform that can be customized to O&G characteristics and be offered as a cloud model.

Watchboard: curated microblogging for the enterprise

Traditional microblogging in the enterprise is known to increase work environment awareness, but is also coupled with information overload and privacy issues. We address these challenges by introducing the concept of curated microblogging, which proposes the addition of social curation and access control to such platforms. We also present Watchboard, a prototype tool incorporating these ideas, and discuss highlights of a preliminary user study delineating crucial factors of the proposed concept.

Shared message boards for smart enterprises

Shared Message Boards foster communication practices within restricted groups that typically do not emerge in traditional social networks. In this article, we describe an experiment in which a Shared Message Board technology was employed to support carpooling activities in a large company in Brazil. Based on the results extracted from the platform and from two user studies, we identified important elements influencing the adoption of this technology as well as other activities where it can be effectively used in order to promote the development of smart enterprises.

Navigating and annotating 3D geological outcrops through multi-touch interaction

The study of geological outcrops has seen recent improvements due to LiDAR technology, which allows for the creation of complex, high-resolution computational representations of geological terrains. It calls for suitable visualization strategies, that provide flexibility as well as timely intuitiveness. In this work we present our initial efforts to visually explore and annotate geological outcrops through multitouch, including a 3D navigation technique and horizon surface creation and edition.