New Industry Outreach at TACC Melyssa Fratkin Industrial Programs Director April 6, 2011

Why Industrial Outreach? Simple economics – budgets are tight all over Industry has research needs Share knowledge and information Stretch to new research areas, applications Support economic development in Texas

The STAR Program Membership for information/knowledge sharing –Training in HPC methods, techniques –Recruiting trained workforce – Workshops, reports, publications Sponsored research projects using TACC systems, support, expertise –HPC –Visualization –Data Mining and Analysis

Missing TACC TACC is focusing on the “missing middle” in the energy industry –Over 3000 small- to mid-sized independent oil & gas companies in Texas! Large energy companies are heavy users of HPC –Using their own systems, or doing research at TACC What could these smaller companies do if they had more HPC experience, knowledge, support? –More accuracy in drilling; get more from each well

Potential Research Projects Hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracing’: improved modeling & simulation of different types of proppants; determining impact of proppants on the area around the drill site. –Groundwater infiltration; earthquakes in AL, WV Accuracy of software simulations: Compare current drilling/3D reservoir models to real-world results. Testing ISV software on larger systems –Software licensing issues

Missing TACC Training in modeling & simulation Offer a web portal (a la EWI) for ‘fracing’ simulations and reservoir modeling –Need expertise of modelers and geologists to create portal –Modeled on existing software; easy to use Challenge: Reservoir data is proprietary and very valuable!

Other HPC Centers TACC is not the only academic HPC Center in Texas Other centers across the US, also looking to collaborate Budgets are tight all over Federal budget worries, esp for NSF, DOE, NIH –Freshman class in Congress –Continuing budget resolutions

CASC Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation Association of centers at universities & national labs 66 centers in 35 states (plus DC)

Thanks! Questions – about TACC or CASC Melyssa Fratkin