NSF in $3.5M Project to Create Simulation and Big Data Resource

The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the University of Michigan (UM) will be investing about $3.5 million dollars on a new computing center called ConFlux. The high performance computing (HPC) system will help the school solve complex physics models, simulations and big data problems. Additionally, the project will look to address common scale limitations associated with these studies.

ConFlux is designed to have simulations and large datasets interface with each other during a run. The nodes will include CPUs, GPUs, large memory and fast interconnections. The storage of the big data will be on a three-petabyte (that’s 10¹⁵, or  a 1,000 terabyte) hard drive. These nodes are also designed to allow for data-intensive operations.

The HPC system will allow U.S. researchers to focus on computing infrastructure and data-driven physics, and to address studies previously done on supercomputers.

"Big data is typically associated with web analytics, social networks and online advertising. ConFlux will be a unique facility specifically designed for physical modeling using massive volumes of data," said Barzan Mozafari, UM assistant professor of computer science and engineering and overseer of the project.

As previously mentioned, a common problem with many simulations is scale. If you are looking into the material property behaviour at the atomic scale, or problems with complex systems like climate, scale is of primary importance.

Karthik Duraisamy, UM assistant professor of aerospace engineering at UM, notes that many of the world’s powerful computers are able to handle these problems by using approximations. Unfortunately, these approximations are not always accurate enough to answer some of the harder engineering and science questions.

"Such a disparity of scales exists in many problems of interest to scientists and engineers," said Duraisamy. "We need to leverage the availability of past and present data to refine and improve existing models."

To address this problem, experiments, measurements and simulations with limited scope can be used. Algorithms can crunch the data to make the needed predictions. The machine can learn more algorithms as the simulations, experiments and measurements improve and increase in number.

"It will enable a fundamentally new description of material behaviour — guided by theory, but respectful of the cold facts of the data. Wholly new materials that transcend metals, polymers or ceramics can then be designed with applications ranging from tissue replacement to space travel," said Krishna Garikipati, a professor in the departments of mechanical engineering and mathematics at UM.

Some research projects that will be using ConFlux include:

• Combining non-invasive imaging with physical models for blood flow to treat cardiovascular disease.
• More accurate turbulent simulations to predict swirls and eddies. This could improve airplane design, weather forecasting and climate science.
• Studying the effects of climate change on clouds and precipitation.
• Simulations of galaxy formations using galaxy-mapping studies to better understand the role of dark matter.

A Center for Data-Driven Computational Physics will be built to manage the ConFlux HPC system. The project will be funded by a $2.42 million NSF grant and $1.04 million from UM. The project fits in line with President Barack Obama’s National Strategic Computing Initiative to use vast data sets and to increase computing power.

Plasma Process Turns Garbage into Energy

In the movie “Back to the Future,” Doc Brown, having just returned from the year 2015, poured garbage into a “Mr Fusion” to generate fuel for his sports car/time machine. Here we are in 2015, still waiting for fusion technology to power the world. Here’s the next best thing: “Mr Plasma.”

Okay, so it’s not really called “Mr Plasma”^* and it’s not exactly portable, but it does use plasma to turn garbage into fuel. Advanced Plasma Power (APP) has received funding to build the first plant designed to turn nearly any form of waste into renewable fuels for use in vehicles. The compressed biomethane produced by the plant is equivalent to compressed natural gas, but with a lower carbon footprint. In addition, it doesn’t require hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to obtain it - they just mine the landfills.

The Gasplasma^® Process

The diagram below shows the main steps in the Gasplasma process. After recyclables have been removed, the remaining waste, known as refuse-derived fuel (RDF), is dried and fed into a gasifier. So far, the process is identical to a typical waste-to-energy gasifying operation, with a crude form of syngas being the product. But it’s about to get more interesting...

The low-level syngas and the remaining solids go into the plasma converter, which exposes the material to intense UV light and temperatures around 8000^oC, producing a very clean syngas and a solid product known as Plasmarok^®. The former can be used to create electricity, either as a fuel for a gas turbine or as input to a fuel cell. Syngas can also be converted to a substitute natural gas or a biofuel for vehicles. Plasmarok, the solid byproduct, is an inert, mechanically strong substance that can be used as an aggregate in roads or as a load bearing material in buildings. It’s been independently tested and shown not to leach pollutants into the surrounding environment.

The plasma converter’s intense heat allows it to process virtually any material, including most hazardous waste.

Nature Recycles Everything

In nature, there is no trash; everything is recycled. One organism’s waste is another’s sustenance. That’s why life on our home planet has thrived for several billion years. The Gasplasma process could mine landfills until they’re empty, at which point humanity can start sending its refuse directly to a Gasplasma processing facility, bypassing the landfill altogether. A sustainable future has no room for landfills.

Back to the Future

In the lab where I teach, the bulletin board shows this prediction from a 1949 edition of Popular Mechanics: “Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.” It only took about 20 years for that prophesy to become a reality, so I’ll make a bold prognosis here, and maybe it’ll appear in someone’s lab in 2035:

In the future, plasma-based waste-to-energy plants could weigh less than 1.5 tons.

Remember where you read it first!

APP has a demonstration/R&D plant that’s been operational for several years. The new facility will be the first ever commercial waste-to-energy facility that uses the patented Gasplasma process. Here’s a virtual tour of the plant, which will be constructed in 2016:

If you'd like to read all the gory details, check out  APP’s white paper describing the process.

Images and video courtesy of Advanced Plasma Power

^*Note to the Advanced Plasma Power executives: if you decide to name your product “Mr Plasma,” you may send royalty checks to Tom Lombardo, c/o ENGINEERING.com.  

GoBox Teaches Coding and Robotics on a Monthly Basis

The team at Dexter Industries wants to produce robot kits that are easy to use, and inspire people from any background to learn about coding and technology. They started in 2013 with a Kickstarter campaign for BrickPi, a robotics platform that combined Lego Mindstorms and Raspberry Pi platforms to create robots.

Last year the team ran a campaign for GoPiGo, a robotics system built around Raspberry Pi and still intended to be used by any skill level. Dexter is currently crowdfunding GoBox, a robotics kit built around GoPiGo that delivers new missions every month. The missions each come with a different sensor to develop different robotics and programming skills while tying the lessons to real world applications.
Programming can be done in Python, Scratch, Node.js and Go but the platform is open source and advanced programmers can use their language of choice. The basic kit comes with an improved version of the base robot, now called the GoPiGo2, and assembly instructions.

A line follower sensor and circuitboard, a five megapixel camera, servo kit, light sensor, sound sensor, ultrasonic sensor, buzzer, motion sensor, infrared sensor, push button and LEDs are the different add on equipment that comes in the monthly boxes.
The sample lesson in the campaign video and available as a draft on the campaign page uses a light sensor to illustrate biomimicry. Students start with a basic idea of their project - figuring out an animal they can model that performs an action when transitioning from dark to light. A full design process of Problem - Design - Build - Code - Test - Iterate is shown to teach product design and basic problem solving.
GoBox is an awesome example of a team that was already creating a great product but questioned their mission and whether the product was fully meeting their goals. The engineers, programmers, designers and businesspeople are Dexter all worked to develop the GoBox to meet the goal of easier entry into coding and robotics. This is a great addition to the already busy field of inspirational and educational programming / building platforms.