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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 469 records · Page 26

Axom

The Axom library consists of n collection of software components that provide core computer science infrastructure capabilities that can be shared by diverse high performance computing (HPC) applications. The current set of capabilities that Axom provides includes: Customizable support for error/warning and diagnostic message reporting and coordination among components of integrated applications (e.g., physics packages, libraries, etc.); Scalable parallel aggregation and filtering of message logging; In memory datastore for hierarchical, mesh-aware simulation data. The datastore supports data description, allocation, deallocation. parallel l/0, etc; Mesh data model abstractions that enable the development of mesh-based computational algorithms that work with many diverse, application· specific mesh types; and Computational geometry primitives for developing high performance parallel algorithms based on spatial geometry and meshes, e.g., spatial acceleration data structures, sets, maps, relations, etc.

Hornung, RichardD.↗

Biological Research and Space Health Enabled by Machine Learning to Support Deep Space Missions

A key science goal of the NASA “Moon to Mars” campaign is to understand how biology responds to the Lunar, Martian, and deep space environments in order to advance fundamental knowledge, reduce risk, and support safe, productive human space missions. Through the powerful emerging computer science approaches of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), a paradigm shift has begun in biomedical science and engineered astronaut health systems, to enable Earth-independence and autonomy of mission operations. We present a decadal view of AI/ML architecture to support deep space mission goals, developed in concert with leaders in the field. We describe current AI/ML methods to support 1) fundamental biology, 2) in situ analytics, 3) high performance computing hardware, 4) automated science, 5) self-driving labs, 6) remote data management, 7) integrated real-time mission biomonitoring, and 8) a Precision Space Health system. Cutting-edge AI/ML approaches that can be integrated to support these domains include active learning, explainable AI, adaptive learning, causal inference, knowledge graphs, federated learning, transfer learning, and large language models. Finally, we present results from several current ML projects that are underway in the field to address key challenges of small sample n, high feature count, heterogeneity, and sparse data. These include 1) connecting omics data to phenotypic data using an ensemble model to infer causality of spaceflight rodent liver health disruption, 2) usage of explainable ML to interrogate the muscular underpinnings of spaceflight muscle atrophy, 3) ML models analyzing and determining directed acyclic graphs of human space health risk leveraging rodent bone datasets, 4) usage of large pre-trained models connecting biomedical knowledgebases with small spaceflight datasets to understand gene-to-gene interaction networks, and 5) a suite of benchmarked open science datasets (spaceflight mouse liver; radiation DNA damage) enabling programmers to identify the best ML algorithms to answer space biological science questions.

space biology↗

Biological Research and Space Health Enabled by Machine Learning to Support Deep Space Missions

A key science goal of the NASA “Moon to Mars” campaign is to understand how biology responds to the Lunar, Martian, and deep space environments in order to advance fundamental knowledge, reduce risk, and support safe, productive human space missions. Through the powerful emerging computer science approaches of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), a paradigm shift has begun in biomedical science and engineered astronaut health systems, to enable Earth-independence and autonomy of mission operations. We present a decadal view of AI/ML architecture to support deep space mission goals, developed in concert with leaders in the field. We describe current AI/ML methods to support 1) fundamental biology, 2) in situ analytics, 3) high performance computing hardware, 4) automated science, 5) self-driving labs, 6) remote data management, 7) integrated real-time mission biomonitoring, and 8) a Precision Space Health system. Cutting-edge AI/ML approaches that can be integrated to support these domains include active learning, explainable AI, adaptive learning, causal inference, knowledge graphs, federated learning, transfer learning, and large language models. Finally, we present results from several current ML projects that are underway in the field to address key challenges of small sample n, high feature count, heterogeneity, and sparse data. These include 1) connecting omics data to phenotypic data using an ensemble model to infer causality of spaceflight rodent liver health disruption, 2) usage of explainable ML to interrogate the muscular underpinnings of spaceflight muscle atrophy, 3) ML models analyzing and determining directed acyclic graphs of human space health risk leveraging rodent bone datasets, 4) usage of large pre-trained models connecting biomedical knowledgebases with small spaceflight datasets to understand gene-to-gene interaction networks, and 5) a suite of benchmarked open science datasets (spaceflight mouse liver; radiation DNA damage) enabling programmers to identify the best ML algorithms to answer space biological science questions.

space biology↗

Teaching Quantum Computing to High School Students

Quantum computing is a growing field at the intersection of physics and computer science. The goal of this article is to highlight a successfully trialled quantum computing course for high school students between the ages of 15 and 18 years old. This course was designed to bridge the gap between popular science articles and advanced undergraduate textbooks. Conceptual ideas in the text are reinforced with active learning techniques, such as interactive problem sets and simulation-based labs at various levels. The course is freely available for use and download under the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International” license.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

NASA Information Sciences and Human Factors Program

This report contains FY 1984/85 descriptions and accomplishments in six sections: Computer Science and Automation, Controls and Guidance, Data Systems, Human Factors, Sensor Technology, and Communications.

Holcomb, Lee B.↗

Basic Energy Sciences Roundtable: Opportunities for Quantum Computing in Chemical and Materials Sciences

Fundamental transformations in the basic logic of computing are few and far between. Since the invention of digital computers in the early 1940s, the logic underlying computation has remained the same, even as computing hardware evolved from vacuum tubes to silicon transistors. With the advent of quantum computation, a fundamental transformation is near. Quantum computation is based on a different type of logic: rather than being in one of the two states of a classical bit, a quantum bit or qubit can be in a superposition of two states simultaneously. Operations and measurements on these qubits obey the constraints of quantum mechanics. It is now understood that quantum computers have great power in principle to go beyond classical computers, but that not every application is well suited to implementation on quantum computers. For reasons explained in more detail in the Introduction, scientific problems in chemical and materials sciences are uniquely suited to take advantage of quantum computing in the relatively near future. Indeed, quantum computing offers the best hope to solve many of the most important and difficult problems in this field. For example, quantum materials, such as superconductors and complex magnetic materials, show novel kinds of ordered phases that are natural from the point of view of quantum mechanics but difficult to access via computation on classical computers. Quantum sensors based on solid materials are already widely used but could be greatly improved with insight from quantum computations, as could materials for information technologies. Quantum chemical dynamics is another example of a problem that is intrinsically well suited to studies on quantum computers. Applications of quantum chemical dynamics include catalysis, artificial photosynthesis, and other industrially important processes. Quantum computers exist in the laboratory and are beginning to exceed 50 qubits, which is roughly the size beyond which their behavior cannot be predicted or emulated on present-day classical supercomputers. While a quantum computer of 50 qubits is almost certainly not powerful enough to tackle the major scientific challenges in chemical and materials sciences, some of these major challenges start to become accessible with a few hundred qubits if error rates can be kept small. This roundtable was convened to ask how emerging quantum computers can be applied to major scientific problems in chemical and materials sciences, in light of Basic Energy Sciences’s leading role in these fields and the Department of Energy’s leading role in high-performance scientific computation more generally. The main outcome of the roundtable was a consensus that there are scientific problems of great importance on which emerging quantum computers have the potential for disruptive impact, and where comparable progress is unlikely to occur by other means.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Differentiating densities on smooth manifolds

Lebesgue integration of derivatives of strongly-oscillatory functions is a recurring challenge in computational science and engineering. Integration by parts is an effective remedy for huge computational costs associated with Monte Carlo integration schemes. In case of Lebesgue integrals over a smooth manifold, however, integration by parts gives rise to a derivative of the density implied by charts describing the domain manifold. This paper focuses on the computation of that derivative, which we call the density gradient function, on general smooth manifolds. We analytically derive formulas for the density gradient and present examples of manifolds determined by popular differential equation-driven systems. Furthermore, we highlight the significance of the density gradient by demonstrating a numerical example of Monte Carlo integration involving oscillatory integrands.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

A physics-motivated Centroidal Voronoi Particle domain decomposition method

In this paper, we propose a novel domain decomposition method for large-scale simulations in continuum mechanics by merging the concepts of Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation (CVT) and Voronoi Particle dynamics (VP). The CVT is introduced to achieve a high-level compactness of the partitioning subdomains by the Lloyd algorithm which monotonically decreases the CVT energy. The number of computational elements between neighboring partitioning subdomains, which scales the communication effort for parallel simulations, is optimized implicitly as the generated partitioning subdomains are convex and simply connected with small aspect-ratios. Moreover, Voronoi Particle dynamics employing physical analogy with a tailored equation of state is developed, which relaxes the particle system towards the target partition with good load balance. Since the equilibrium is computed by an iterative approach, the partitioning subdomains exhibit locality and the incremental property. Numerical experiments reveal that the proposed Centroidal Voronoi Particle (CVP) based algorithm produces high-quality partitioning with high efficiency, independently of computational-element types. Thus it can be used for a wide range of applications in computational science and engineering.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Quantum Solver of Contracted Eigenvalue Equations for Scalable Molecular Simulations on Quantum Computing Devices

The accurate computation of ground and excited states of many-fermion quantum systems is one of the most consequential, contemporary challenges in the physical and computational sciences whose solution stands to benefit significantly from the advent of quantum computing devices. Existing methodologies using phase estimation or variational algorithms have potential drawbacks such as deep circuits requiring substantial error correction or non-trivial high-dimensional classical optimization. In this work, we introduce a quantum solver of contracted eigenvalue equations, the quantum analogue of classical methods for the energies and reduced density matrices of ground and excited states. The solver does not require deep circuits or difficult classical optimization and achieves an exponential speed-up over its classical counterpart. We demonstrate the algorithm though computations on both a quantum simulator and two IBM quantum processing units.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

ASC FY17 Implementation Plan, Rev. 1

The Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP) is an integrated technical program for maintaining the safety, surety, and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. The SSP uses nuclear test data, computational modeling and simulation, and experimental facilities to advance understanding of nuclear weapons. It includes stockpile surveillance, experimental research, development and engineering programs, and an appropriately scaled production capability to support stockpile requirements. This integrated national program requires the continued use of experimental facilities and programs, and the computational capabilities to support these programs. The Advanced Simulation and Computing Program (ASC) is a cornerstone of the SSP, providing simulation capabilities and computational resources that support annual stockpile assessment and certification, study advanced nuclear weapons design and manufacturing processes, analyze accident scenarios and weapons aging, and provide the tools to enable stockpile Life Extension Programs (LEPs) and the resolution of Significant Finding Investigations (SFIs). This requires a balance of resources, including technical staff, hardware, simulation software, and computer science solutions.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Workshop on the Initialization of High-Resolution Earth System Models

From weather to climate timescales, weeks to decades, societal needs require detailed predictions of the atmosphere, ocean, and land-surface to facilitate informed planning. Central to this scientific endeavor is the ability to accurately initialize the earth system models (ESMs), since frequently the skill in forecasts, predictions, and projections depends on the quality of the initialization. However, initialization of high-resolution ESMs remains an outstanding challenge, particularly for the climate modeling community where initialization has received relatively less attention and where longer-term information is needed. This need, after a review of previous workshop outcomes, led the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to host a workshop that focused exclusively on the opportunities that data assimilation (DA) and, specifically, coupled data assimilation (CDA) might provide to the ESM enterprise with particular attention toward initialization. The workshop was held April 9-10, 2018, at the Rockville Hilton in Rockville, Maryland, with 41 participants. It was composed of seven sessions, each with a distinct topical theme that related to the broad challenge of initializing high-resolution ESMs. The first session was used to frame the workshop challenge. Two of the sessions (2 and 7) focused the current state of the art of CDA within laboratory and operational centers at both the short-term, subseasonal and long-term, climate time scales. Three of the sessions (3, 4, and 5) addressed new algorithmic approaches to CDA at high resolution. Session 6 focused on the computational science solutions for the management of large input/output streams required to carry out the assimilation procedure.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Elucidating and predicting the dynamic evolution of water and land systems due to natural and energy-related forcings

Focal Area(s): 3. Insight gleaned from complex data (both observed and simulated) using AI, big data analytics, and other advanced methods, including explainable AI and physics- or knowledge-guided AI; & 1. Data acquisition and assimilation enabled by machine learning, AI, and advanced methods including experimental/network design/optimization, unsupervised learning (including deep learning), and hardware-related efforts involving AI (e.g., edge computing). Science Challenge: Interactions between water, land, and energy systems are complex and occur on a variety of scales, ranging from local to basinal to regional. Accurately predicting the behavior of ground water and surface water systems for 5-10 years and beyond requires an understanding of the current system and the ability to model both the natural system at scale and human-induced forcings related to energy and other activities. Artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) combined with modern compilation and integration efforts for U.S. groundwater and surface water systems present potential solutions to bolstering detailed physics-based models of these systems. Big data tied with ML and physics-based modeling can drive breakthroughs in understanding the earth system, but research is often impeded by data access (e.g., privacy issues), quality, formats, gaps, multi-source, multi-scale, integration, and spatiotemporal challenges. Effective integration of real data and simulated (synthetic) data that fill gaps is critical. Overcoming these complex data and model integration challenges will enable a transformational approach to acquiring enhanced understanding of environmental systems.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

EOSDIS - Its role in the EOS program and its importance to the scientific community

In order to manage the global data sets required to understand the earth as a system, the EOS Data and Information System (EOSDIS) will collect and store satellite, aircraft, and in situ measurements and their resultant data products, and will distribute the data conveniently. EOSDIS will also provide product generation and science computing facilities to support the development, processing, and validation of standard EOS science data products. The overall architecture of EOSDIS, and how the Distributed Active Archive Centers fit into that structure, are shown. EOSDIS will enable users to query data bases nationally, make use of keywords and other mnemonic identifiers, and see graphic images of subsets of available data prior to ordering full (or selected pieces of) data sets for use in their 'home' environment.

Price, Robert D.↗

Supporting Weather Data

Since its founding in 1992, Global Science & Technology, Inc. (GST), of Greenbelt, Maryland, has been developing technologies and providing services in support of NASA scientific research. GST specialties include scientific analysis, science data and information systems, data visualization, communications, networking and Web technologies, computer science, and software system engineering. As a longtime contractor to Goddard Space Flight Center s Earth Science Directorate, GST scientific, engineering, and information technology staff have extensive qualifications with the synthesis of satellite, in situ, and Earth science data for weather- and climate-related projects. GST s experience in this arena is end-to-end, from building satellite ground receiving systems and science data systems, to product generation and research and analysis.

Source record↗

A Brief Overview of Radiochemistry: Californium-252: Unique and Versatile Man-made Radioisotope

This chapter summarizes radiochemistry and its applications with a focus on areas where computational science can be beneficial. This is presented for a target audience of computational scientists and chemists, and the general public who are interested in radiochemistry topics that may benefit from the use of computational methods. Past, present, and future applications of radiochemistry are presented along with a brief examination of the field’s workforce. Discussions of the current state of several radiochemistry specialty areas are also included. These discussions generally exemplify topics that are readily amenable to computational tools. Topics discussed include medical uses for radioactive materials and related computational needs; the current and future trends in the separations of the f-block elements; production and uses of Californium-252; and the need for exascale computing to solve current problems in the chemistry of Americium and Plutonium.

Ezold, Julie↗

A Brief Overview of Radiochemistry: f-Element Separations: The State of the Art and Future Directions

This chapter summarizes radiochemistry and its applications with a focus on areas where computational science can be beneficial. This is presented for a target audience of computational scientists and chemists, and the general public who are interested in radiochemistry topics that may benefit from the use of computational methods. Past, present, and future applications of radiochemistry are presented along with a brief examination of the field’s workforce. Discussions of the current state of several radiochemistry specialty areas are also included. These discussions generally exemplify topics that are readily amenable to computational tools. Topics discussed include medical uses for radioactive materials and related computational needs; the current and future trends in the separations of the f-block elements; production and uses of Californium-252; and the need for exascale computing to solve current problems in the chemistry of Americium and Plutonium.

Kimberlin, Ashleigh↗

DevOps Pragmatic Practices and Potential Perils in Scientific Software Development

The DevOps movement, which aims to accelerate the continuous delivery of high-quality software, has taken a leading role in reshaping the software industry. Likewise, there is growing interest in applying DevOps tools and practices in the domains of computational science and engineering (CSE) to meet the ever-growing demand for scalable simulation and analysis. Translating insights from industry to research computing, however, remains an ongoing challenge; DevOps for science and engineering demands adaptation and innovation in those tools and practices. There is a need to better understand the challenges faced by DevOps practitioners in CSE contexts in bridging this divide. To that end, we conducted a participatory action research study to collect and analyze the experiences of DevOps practitioners at a major US national laboratory through the use of storytelling techniques. We share lessons learned and present opportunities for future investigation into DevOps practice in the CSE domain.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Advancing Scientific Productivity through Better Scientific Software: Developer Productivity and Software Sustainability Report

The Exascale Computing Project (ECP) provides a unique opportunity to advance computational science and engineering (CSE) through an accelerated growth phase in extreme-scale computing. Central to the project is the development of next-generation applications and software technologies that can exploit emerging architectures for optimal performance and provide high-fidelity, multiphysics, multiscale capabilities. However, disruptive changes in computer architectures and the complexities of tackling new frontiers in extreme-scale modeling, simulation, and analysis present daunting challenges to the productivity of software developers and the sustainability of software artifacts. Members of the CSE community - especially at extreme scales but more broadly at all scales of computing - face an urgent need to improve developer productivity, positively impacting product quality, development time, and staffing resources, and software sustainability, reducing the cost of maintaining, sustaining, and evolving software capabilities.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗