With funding from the National Science Foundation, the Unidata program is collaborating with researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the university community to organize a workshop on “Modeling Research in the Cloud.” The workshop will include speakers and participants from academia, government, and the private sector (including commercial Cloud vendors), and will be held 31 May - 2 June 2017 at the UCAR campus in Boulder, Colorado.
Workshop Focus
The atmospheric science community has relied mostly on high performance computing facilities and campus computing clusters to perform weather and climate modeling studies. With the maturity of and significant advances in cloud computing, it has emerged as an alternative new paradigm for hosting and delivering a broad array of services and represents a fundamental change in the way IT services are developed, deployed, operated, and paid for. The cloud has the potential for researchers to gain access to computing resources beyond the traditional supercomputing centers for modeling studies, providing access to high performance computing resources, large amounts of storage, and unprecedented access to large volumes of data, tools, and services.
Information about the workshop is available at the Modeling Research in the Cloud web site. Some workshop details are still in flux; watch the web site for updated information.
Graduate Student Opportunity
The workshop organizers have set aside funds for the participation of five graduate students. Preference will be given to the U. S. students that are pursuing graduate research in atmospheric modeling, particularly those engaged in weather or climate prediction studies. Students who receive funding for the workshop will be expected to present a poster on their research at the workshop.
Interested students should send the following via e-mail to support-workshop@unidata.ucar.edu including:
- A short (one page) statement of interest describing (i) why you wish to attend and what you hope to get out of the workshop, and (ii) how the workshop fits into your research and career plans.
- Your contact information, including university affiliation, your mailing address, email address, and telephone number.
- A letter of recommendation to attend the workshop from your graduate advisor or department head/chair.
Applications from students will be accepted through April 21, 2017. Applicants will be notified by May 1 as to the status of their application.
