CS Junior Named Finalist in DOE Research Challenge

12/8/2010

Iandola helps create a system to make particle-transport software more user-friendly

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The U.S. Department of Energy has named University of Illinois computer science student Forrest Iandola a Finalist in the U.S. Department of Energy Science and Energy Research Challenge (SERCh). A junior in Computer Science at Illinois, Iandola was selected for his contributions to research in high-performance computing and scientific modeling.

In collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and the U.S. Department of Energy, Iandola developed particle-transport software that uses supercomputers to model nuclear reactors, cancer therapy, and high-energy lasers. “Nuclear scientists have used particle-transport software since the Cold War era,” Iandola says, “but particle-transport applications have always lagged in terms of usability. Using the software for scientific modeling practically required a Ph.D. in computer science and a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering.”

Illinois computer science junior Forrest Iandola
Illinois computer science junior Forrest Iandola
Illinois computer science junior Forrest Iandola

 

Not intimidated by years of difficult-to-use software, Iandola created a system to make particle-transport software more user-friendly. According to Iandola, “this allows the scientist to focus on the problem instead of on the implementation. My research reduces the friction between the scientist and the software.”

In addition to his work on high-performance particle transport software, Forrest Iandola is involved in several parallel and high-performance computing research projects at University of Illinois. With Computer Science professor Laxmikant V. Kale and the Parallel Programming Laboratory, Iandola is working on programming paradigms to improve the performance of parallel programs and to improve the productivity of parallel programmers. Along with William D. Gropp, Paul and Cynthia Saylor Professor of Computer Science, and Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Wen-Mei Hwu, Iandola helped to design an energy-efficient 128-node GPU cluster, which recently won two Green500 awards.

Iandola says that interdisciplinary collaboration is one of the keys to his success in these projects. “So far, I've collaborated with computer scientists, electrical engineers, nuclear engineers, physicists, and chemists, and that's only the beginning.” In addition to several departments at University of Illinois, Iandola's collaborations have included the Department of Energy, several national laboratories, NVIDIA, and NCSA.
 


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This story was published December 8, 2010.