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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 415 records · Page 23

BioCARS: Synchrotron facility for probing structural dynamics of biological macromolecules

A major goal in biomedical science is to move beyond static images of proteins and other biological macromolecules to the internal dynamics underlying their function. This level of study is necessary to understand how these molecules work and to engineer new functions and modulators of function. Stemming from a visionary commitment to this problem by Keith Moffat decades ago, a community of structural biologists has now enabled a set of x-ray scattering technologies for observing intramolecular dynamics in biological macromolecules at atomic resolution and over the broad range of timescales over which motions are functionally relevant. Many of these techniques are provided by BioCARS, a cutting-edge synchrotron radiation facility built under Moffat leadership and located at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. BioCARS enables experimental studies of molecular dynamics with time resolutions spanning from 100 ps to seconds and provides both time-resolved x-ray crystallography and small- and wide-angle x-ray scattering. Structural changes can be initiated by several methods—UV/Vis pumping with tunable picosecond and nanosecond laser pulses, substrate diffusion, and global perturbations, such as electric field and temperature jumps. Studies of dynamics typically involve subtle perturbations to molecular structures, requiring specialized computational techniques for data processing and interpretation. In this review, we present the challenges in experimental macromolecular dynamics and describe the current state of experimental capabilities at this facility. As Moffat imagined years ago, BioCARS is now positioned to catalyze the scientific community to make fundamental advances in understanding proteins and other complex biological macromolecules.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Report of the HPC Correctness Summit, January 25-26, 2017, Washington, DC

Technologies for verification and debugging have made significant strides in the context of general systems software. An investment in such technologies to make them applicable for High Performance Computing (HPC) could lead to substantial improvements in the productivity and sustainability of HPC software development. Such improvements will be essential to fully exploit new exascale computer architectures. Without such investment, there is the possibility of a substantial crisis in our ability to advance the field of HPC, as the complexity of our architectures, algorithms, and applications is moving beyond the ability of our developers. As HPC is of strategic importance to our nation, forming the bedrock of its scientific and technological capabilities, such investment is highly warranted.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for Bioenergy Research: Opportunities and Challenges

The integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) with automated experimentation, genomics, biosystems design, and bioprocessing technologies is poised to revolutionize scientific investigation and, particularly, bioenergy research. To identify the opportunities and challenges in this emerging research area, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Biological and Environmental Research program (BER) and Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) held a joint virtual workshop on AI/ML for Bioenergy Research (AMBER) on August 23–25, 2022. These interests have since been amplified in a September 2022 Executive Order, “Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure U.S. Bioeconomy,” to promote a whole-of government approach to biotechnology development (White House 2022). Approximately 50 scientists with various backgrounds and expertise from academia, industry, and DOE national laboratories met to discuss the opportunities and challenges of AI/ML for bioenergy research. Workshop participants were tasked with assessing the potential for AI/ML and laboratory automation to advance biological understanding and engineering in general. They particularly examined how integrating AI/ML tools with laboratory automation could accelerate biosystems design and optimize biomanufacturing. Discussions included the data and computational infrastructure needed to augment biosystems design applications and the expertise and workforce development efforts urgently required to shift integrated systems toward bioenergy research more broadly. Participants discussed many existing and future applications of AI/ML for biosystems design ranging from enzymes to plants and microbes, microbiomes, and bioprocess development. They also identified three key categories of scientific and technical opportunities and challenges: high-quality data, AI/ML algorithms, and laboratory automation. Several main takeaways emerged from the workshop: 1. Numerous AI/ML and automated experimentation applications exist for a variety of DOE mission needs in energy and the environment; 2. Exemplary research grand challenges for which AI/ML could provide solutions include: building microbes and microbial communities to specifications, developing closed-loop autonomous design and control for biosystems design, and advancing scale-up and automation; 3. Lack of sufficient high-quality, annotated data hinders the development of AI/ML applications; 4. New and improved AI/ML tools are needed, particularly those meeting the specific needs of the BER and BETO research communities; 5. Trade-offs in performance, cost, and reliability exist between deploying commercially available versus building custom-developed instrumentation and software for automated or autonomous experimentation; translation of manual to automated or autonomous methods is often a nontrivial endeavor; 6. Training a new generation of young scientists who can develop and apply AI/ML tools is needed to solve long-standing scientific challenges in bioenergy research. The integration of AI/ML tools and automated experimentation represents a new data-driven research paradigm complementary to the traditional hypothesis-driven research paradigm. This paradigm accelerates design and optimization of biological systems and processes for a variety of DOE mission needs in energy and the environment. The AMBER workshop broadly explored the potential of this new paradigm for bioenergy research, of particular interest to BER and BETO, and identified key challenges and opportunities that DOE can address in the coming years by leveraging its unique capabilities and resources.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

HEP Software Foundation Community White Paper Working Group - Data Analysis and Interpretation

At the heart of experimental high energy physics (HEP) is the development of facilities and instrumentation that provide sensitivity to new phenomena. Our understanding of nature at its most fundamental level is advanced through the analysis and interpretation of data from sophisticated detectors in HEP experiments. The goal of data analysis systems is to realize the maximum possible scientific potential of the data within the constraints of computing and human resources in the least time. To achieve this goal, future analysis systems should empower physicists to access the data with a high level of interactivity, reproducibility and throughput capability. As part of the HEP Software Foundation Community White Paper process, a working group on Data Analysis and Interpretation was formed to assess the challenges and opportunities in HEP data analysis and develop a roadmap for activities in this area over the next decade. In this report, the key findings and recommendations of the Data Analysis and Interpretation Working Group are presented.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Second Target Station Computer Science and Math Workshop Report

Discovery science drives innovation and underpins the technological advances that will solve some of society’s most challenging issues, including clean energy technologies, better medicines, safe potable water, and addressing aging infrastructures, including transportation. Many of these advances will result from basic research into new materials and new ways to optimize our use of existing materials. Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s neutron sources provide cutting-edge scientific tools to probe the structure and dynamics of matter in unique ways. This insight is fundamental to advancing our ability to discover, design, control, and use new materials to address society’s most pressing needs.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Scalable Graph Analytics and HPC Operational Enhancement: Parallel Computing and ML/DL Innovations

Parallel computing plays a pivotal role in the efficient processing of large-scale graphs. Complex network analysis stands as a capti- vating research frontier, holding promise across diverse scientific domains such as sociology, biology, online media, and recommenda- tion systems. In this era, Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL) have emerged as indispensable tools, underpinning remarkable technological achievements. Within this dynamic landscape, my research revolves around advancing parallel algorithms tailored for large-scale graph operations. To achieve this, I harness the power of cutting-edge technologies including OpenMP, MPI, HIP, and CUDA, on the High-Performance Computing (HPC) platforms to unlock optimal performance. I also apply ML/DL techniques to HPC operational data, to streamline the monitoring and maintenance of supercomputers, alleviating the complexities associated with their upkeep and enhancing user support. My research echoes the syn- ergy between parallel computing, large-scale graph analysis, and ML/DL, improving computational efficiency and user experience.

Sattar, Naw Safrin↗

Identification of Solid-Electrolyte Interphase Species by Joint Characterization of Li-Ion Battery Chemistry by Mass Spectrometry and Electrochemical Reaction Networks

The formation and stability of the solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) play central roles in determining the long-term performance and safety of modern electrochemical energy storage systems. Despite decades of research, the SEI’s heterogeneous, dynamic, and multiphase nature has defied comprehensive molecular-level characterization, creating a critical knowledge gap that limits rational battery design. In this work, we introduce a computational−experimental framework that integrates high-throughput quantum chemistry calculations, data-driven electrochemical reaction networks (eCRNs), stochastic algorithms, and laser desorption/ionization Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (LDI-FTICR-MS) to unravel SEI formation in carbonatebased electrolytes without imposing predefined mechanisms. We constructed the most comprehensive eCRN to date, spanning over 10,000 species and 209 million reactions. Through stochastic network analysis, we successfully recovered 27 species that were previously reported in the literature and predicted 28 novel SEI species nearly doubling our scientific knowledge in this area. Each new species was rigorously confirmed through advanced mass spectral analysis of its distinct molecular and isotopic signatures. We kinetically refined the formation pathways for a select set of both previously reported and novel SEI products, revealing kinetically feasible elementary reaction mechanisms with activation barriers below 1 eV. This computational−experimental approach deepens our molecular-level understanding of SEI chemistry by resolving which species form and through which decomposition mechanisms they emerge. Such knowledge provides the foundation necessary to connect electrolyte composition to the resulting SEI components, a critical step toward a more informed electrolyte development in next-generation lithium-based batteries.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Molecular structural dataset of lignin macromolecule elucidating experimental structural compositions

Abstract Lignin is one of the most abundant biopolymers in nature and has great potential to be transformed into high-value chemicals. However, the limited availability of molecular structure data hinders its potential industrial applications. Herein, we present the Lignin Structural (LGS) Dataset that includes the molecular structure of milled wood lignin focusing on two major monomeric units (coniferyl and syringyl), and the six most common interunit linkages (phenylpropane β-aryl ether, resinol, phenylcoumaran, biphenyl, dibenzodioxocin, and diaryl ether). The dataset constitutes a unique resource that covers a part of lignin’s chemical space characterized by polymer chains with lengths in the range of 3 to 25 monomer units. Structural data were generated using a sequence-controlled polymer generation approach that was calibrated to match experimental lignin properties. The LGS dataset includes 60 K newly generated lignin structures that match with high accuracy (~90%) the experimentally determined structural compositions available in the literature. The LGS dataset is a valuable resource to advance lignin chemistry research, including computational simulation approaches and predictive modelling.

Scientific data↗

Envisioning U.S. Climate Predictions and Projections to Meet New Challenges

In the face of a changing climate, the understanding, predictions, and projections of natural and human systems are increasingly crucial to prepare and cope with extremes and cascading hazards, determine unexpected feedbacks and potential tipping points, inform long-term adaptation strategies, and guide mitigation approaches. Increasingly complex socio-economic systems require enhanced predictive information to support advanced practices. Such new predictive challenges drive the need to fully capitalize on ambitious scientific and technological opportunities. These include the unrealized potential for very high-resolution modeling of global-to-local Earth system processes across timescales, reduction of model biases, enhanced integration of human systems and the Earth Systems, better quantification of predictability and uncertainties; expedited science-to-service pathways, and co-production of actionable information with stakeholders. Enabling technological opportunities include exascale computing, advanced data storage, novel observations and powerful data analytics, including artificial intelligence and machine learning. Looking to generate community discussions on how to accelerate progress on U.S. climate predictions and projections, representatives of Federally-funded U.S. modeling groups outline here perspectives on a six-pillar national approach grounded in climate science that builds on the strengths of the U.S. modeling community and agency goals. This calls for an unprecedented level of coordination to capitalize on transformative opportunities, augmenting and complementing current modeling center capabilities and plans to support agency missions. Tangible outcomes include projections with horizontal spatial resolutions finer than 10 km, representing extremes and associated risks in greater detail, reduced model errors, better predictability estimates, and more customized projections to support next generation climate services.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Evaluation of Low Dose Silicon Carbide Temperature Monitors

Thermocouples are generally used to provide real-time temperature indications in instrumented tests performed at materials and test reactors. Melt wires or paint spots are often included in such tests as an independent technique of detecting peak temperatures incurred during irradiation. In addition, less expensive static capsule tests, which have no leads attached for real-time data transmission, often rely on melt wires and paint spots as a post-irradiation technique for peak temperature indication. Unfortunately, these techniques are limited in that they can only detect whether a single temperature is or is not exceeded. Silicon carbide (SiC) monitors are advantageous because a single monitor can be used to determine the peak temperature reached within a relatively broad range (200 – 800°C). Although the use of SiC monitors was proposed more than five decades ago, the ultimate performance limits of this technique are not fully understood. The Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) is the United States Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy's only designated nuclear energy user facility. Its mission is to provide nuclear energy researchers access to world-class capabilities and to facilitate the advancement of nuclear science and technology. This mission is supported by providing access to state-of-the-art experimental irradiation testing, post irradiation examination facilities, and high performance computing capabilities as well as technical and scientific assistance for the design and execution of projects. As part of an NSUF project, low dose silicon carbide monitors were irradiated in the Belgian Reactor 2 and were then evaluated both at the SCK•CEN and at Idaho National Laboratory's High Temperature Test Laboratory to determine their peak temperature achieved during irradiation. The technical significance of this work was that the monitors were irradiated to a dose that was significantly less than recommended in published literature. This paper will discuss the evaluation process, the irradiation test, and the performance of the low dose silicon carbide temperature monitors.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Cancer's Big Data Problem

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has partnered with the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to use DOE supercomputers to aid in the fight against cancer by building sophisticated models based on data available at the population, patient, and molecular levels. Here, through a three-year pilot project called the Joint Design of Advanced Computing Solutions for Cancer (JDACSC), four participating national laboratories--Argonne, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Oak Ridge--will focus on three problems singled out by the NCI as the biggest bottlenecks to advancing cancer research.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Predictive Theory of Topological States of Matter (Final Report for DOE Award DE-SC0018945)

This DOE award supported the PI’s research on topological quantum materials between 2018 and 2021. The PI developed predictive theories for new classes of topological insulators and topological/unconventional superconductors and identified their material realizations in collaboration with experimentalists. The PI theorized new topological transport phenomena, including spin superfluidity in moire materials and the superconducting diode effect. Topological transport phenomena have potential applications in cryogenic computing, low-power electronics, high-frequency rectification, infrared detection, energy harvesting and thermoelectric application. By discovering new quantum materials and new functional properties, the PI’s research contributed significantly to the advancement of DOE scientific and technological base, especially in energy frontier research.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

MaDaTS: Managing Data on Tiered Storage for Scientific Workflows

Scientific workflows are increasingly used in High Performance Computing (HPC) environments to manage complex simulation and analyses, often consuming and generating large amounts of data. However, workflow tools have limited support for managing the input, output and intermediate data. The data elements of a workflow are often managed by the user through scripts or other ad-hoc mechanisms. Technology advances for future HPC systems is redefining the memory and storage subsystem by introducing additional tiers to improve the I/O performance of data-intensive applications. These architectural changes introduce additional complexities to managing data for scientific workflows. Thus, we need to manage the scientific workflow data across the tiered storage system on HPC machines. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of MaDaTS (Managing Data on Tiered Storage for Scientific Workflows), a software architecture that manages data for scientific workflows. We introduce Virtual Data Space (VDS), an abstraction of the data in a workflow that hides the complexities of the underlying storage system while allowing users to control data management strategies. We evaluate the data management strategies with real scientific and synthetic workflows, and demonstrate the capabilities of MaDaTS. Our experiments demonstrate the flexibility, performance and scalability gains of MaDaTS as compared to the traditional approach of managing data in scientific workflows.

Ghoshal, Devarshi↗

Distributed Cross-Channel Hierarchical Aggregation for Foundation Models

Vision-based scientific foundation models hold significant promise for advancing scientific discovery and innovation. This potential stems from their ability to aggregate images from diverse sources—such as varying physical groundings or data acquisition systems—and to learn spatio-temporal correlations using transformer architectures. However, tokenizing and aggregating images can be compute-intensive, a challenge not fully addressed by current distributed methods. In this work, we introduce the Distributed Cross-Channel Hierarchical Aggregation (D-CHAG) approach designed for datasets with a large number of channels across image modalities. Our method is compatible with any model-parallel strategy and any type of vision transformer architecture, significantly improving computational efficiency. We evaluated D-CHAG on hyperspectral imaging and weather forecasting tasks. When integrated with tensor parallelism and model sharding, our approach achieved up to a 75% reduction in memory usage and more than doubled sustained throughput on up to 1,024 AMD GPUs on the Frontier Supercomputer.

Tsaris, Aristeidis (aris) [ORNL] (ORCID:0000000277↗

Modern data analytics approach to predict creep of high-temperature alloys

A breakthrough in alloy design often requires comprehensive understanding in complex multi-component/multi-phase systems to generate novel material hypotheses. We introduce a modern data analytics workflow that leverages high-quality experimental data augmented with advanced features obtained from high-fidelity models. Herein, we use an example of a consistently-measured creep dataset of developmental high-temperature alloy combined with scientific alloy features populated from a high-throughput computational thermodynamic approach. Extensive correlation analyses provide ranking insights for most impactful alloy features for creep resistance, evaluated from a large set of candidate features suggested by domain experts. We also show that we can accurately train machine learning models by integrating high-ranking features obtained from correlation analyses. Consequently, the demonstrated approach can be extended beyond incorporating thermodynamic features, with input from domain experts used to compile lists of features from other alloy physics, such as diffusion kinetics and microstructure evolution.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Biological Carbon Sequestration for Climate and Soil Health

The United States recently launched the Net Zero World Initiative on decarbonization. As temperatures and sea levels rise, strong action is needed to mitigate high atmospheric CO 2 levels. In response to this need, a joint workshop between the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) was convened to assess the challenges and opportunities within biological carbon (C) capture. The virtual workshop on Biological Carbon Sequestration for Climate and Soil Health focused on three aspects of biological C capture research: natural systems, engineered systems, and modeling. For this workshop, the scope of natural systems included unmanaged (e.g., grasslands, wetlands, natural forests) and managed (e.g., agricultural lands, commercial forests, forest biofuels) ecosystems. The engineered systems group covered topics in genetically modified plants and microbes, synthetic microbiomes, and altered plant–microbe interactions for enhancing C capture, storage, and utilization. The modeling group focused on computational tools and data collection to predict and assess the effectiveness of new biocarbon sequestration advances. Participant expertise included plant and microbial systems biology, synthetic biology, soil biogeochemistry, and techno-economic analysis. Together, participants outlined key scientific advances in support of biological C capture and storage. Among the major findings of the meeting were the need to better measure C flux within natural, agricultural, and fabricated ecosystems for experimentation; better understand the role of soil composition, plant roots, and the rhizosphere (i.e., the soil surrounding the plant root) in the underground storage of organic C; and design plant–microbe systems for maximal C storage.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Data-Driven Modeling and Control of Systems with Plasma-Surface Interactions (Final Technical Report)

This final technical report summarizes the activities and accomplishments in the period from February 2023 thru January 2026. The objective of the proposed research is to investigate the physical mechanisms and processes underlying the formation of structures and patterns in systems with plasma-surface interactions. In the past decades, there have been extensive studies on the interaction of glow discharges, dielectric barrier discharges, and arc discharges with confining or intervening surfaces. The advancement of the understanding of these phenomena is not only of fundamental scientific interest and relevance to the knowledge of the plasma state, but also with profound implications in various technological applications. The research will integrate theoretical, computational, and experimental work within an innovative framework of data assimilation, i.e., optimally combining model predictions with measurements. The scientific merit of this research has three aspects. Firstly, it extends the studies of plasma-surface interactions to systems with insulator surfaces and multi-layer systems, while existing studies are predominantly on electrode surfaces. Secondly, it expects to develop a novel data-driven modeling approach based on data assimilation to enhance the predictive and control capabilities, which could make transformative contributions to basic plasma research. Thirdly, it will shed new light on outstanding problems related to formation of patterns interfacing plasmas. This project also aims to launch an education and outreach initiative at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, a non-R1, minority-serving institution in South Texas. The initiative is structured as a four-tier pyramid. Tier one will be a webinar series for culture and capacity building to inform broader audience in the region about the research fields of plasma science and engineering. Tier two will be the creation and offering of an upper-level undergraduate course on introductory plasma physics, which will help with the recruitment for the upper tiers. On tier three, we will engage and mentor senior design students to conduct work toward the research goal of this project. There will also be a certificate program on general plasma science for undergrad and graduate students, part of which will be lab training at Princeton University. Tier four will be the supervision and mentoring of Ph.D. students. Therefore, this project will systematically expand the talent pipeline, broaden participation from communities historically and geographically underrepresented in DOE SC research portfolio, significantly improve the research and education capacity at the PI’s institution, and contribute to developing a diverse workforce in plasma science and engineering.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Machine-learning based model reduction for partial differential equations

We develop a novel synergistic approach between model reduction and machine learning. The specific goal of this project is to aid in the construction of reduced order models for basis functions that are custom-made to represent the solution of partial differential equations. Partial differential equations (PDEs) are one of the main mathematical tools for describing physical phenomena. However, due to either efficiency or necessity, for many real-world problems, we are interested in constructing reduced order models (ROMs) which focus only on the explicit computation of subsets of the active spatio-temporal scales in the problem, while treating the interaction with the rest of the scales approximately. The task of accurate representation of such interactions (usually called memory terms) constitutes a vast area of research known as model reduction. PI Stinis has significant expertise in the construction of ROMs for complex systems. In addition, in recent work with the project key participant Qadeer, they have utilized machine learning to acquire custom-made basis functions (CBFs) to expand the solutions of PDEs. In the proposed work, we will merge the two concepts by constructing ROMs for subsets of the CBFs needed to represent the solution of a PDE. Specifically, we will use the Mori-Zwanzig model reduction formalism to construct ROMs for subsets of CBFs for nonlinear PDEs of various complexity, as well as investigate the usage of CBFs in the spectral vanishing viscosity method for problems that can form shocks in finite time. The outcome of the research is aimed to be proof-of-concept about a novel synergistic approach between model reduction and machine learning, thus advancing the field of scientific machine learning. Such a capability will benefit the efficient modeling of physical systems appearing in various areas of interest to the DOE.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗