Day 4: SC15

Today was one of those days where the sessions on offer at the SC conference all fall into place and the experience is magic. The boys have already mentioned two of the sessions so I'll focus on the other SC parts of our day.

We started with an Invited Talk session on the Quadrennial Technology Review presented by the Under Secretary for Science and Energy, Dr. Lynn Orr. He outlined the US Energy infrastructure and how it has changed over the past decades. He focussed on the effects of renewables on the grid and how HPC has changed the ability of the utility companies to pin-point service disruptions for faster response times. He also showed that the reducing cost of renewables and technologies like LEDs will mean a shift in the complexion of where energy is sourced in the future.

We also sat in on a session on big data visualisation. Professor Daniel Keim, Head of the Information Visualisation and Data Analysis Group at the university of Constant, Germany took us through many different, creative and informative visualisations of very big data, often visualised in real time. This means as the data if moving through networks, it is sampled and visualised in some way. His group have placed a number of their tools and visualisations on their website, http://www.visual-analytics.eu.

We had to leave the talk on HPC in fluid dynamics for movie making a little early for a talk from SGI on their new supercomputer technologies. Water-cooled, short connect systems so well designed they've almost eliminated the need for external cabling. Smart design for better performance and better cost effectiveness.

After our SGI tour, we were all treated to an excellent Chinese lunch by Nick Comono, Queensland Regional Manager, SGI.

This evening was the SC15 Technical Program Conference Reception. Nine stories of food, music and fun at the Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Home of the University of Texas Longhorns. Nachos, Enchilada, Tex Mex, Rice, Bar-B-Que Beef Brisket, Kransky with Slaw, Onion and Pickles - mmmmm. After dessert, I've decided to do a glucose tolerance test as soon as I arrive home!

There aren't any sessions tomorrow that suit our kids so we will be heading to Houston on a Greyhound Bus to visit the Space Centre. Watch our Travel blog - http://sc15travel.blogspot.com.au - for news on that adventure.