Come and take a look at what PICS has scheduled for Spring 2022
Colloquium
All Colloquium will be held at 2:00 in the PICS large conference room:
PICS Room 534
3401 Walnut Street, 5th floor
(entrance next to the Starbucks)
Andres Goza, Assistant Professor Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Date: Friday, February 25 at 2:00 – PICS 534
Alison Pouch, Assistant Professor of Radiology and Bioengineering
Date: Friday, March 18 at 2:00 – PICS 534
Xiang Yang, Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Penn State University.
Date:Friday, March 25 at 2:00 – PICS 534
Alexander Ehret of ETH Zurich
Date: Friday, April 1 at 2:00 – PICS 534
Rahul Zaveri, Scientist, Atmospheric Sciences & Global Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Date: Friday, April 8 at 2:00 – PICS 534
Kevin Johnson, Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor
Date: Friday, April 15 at 2:00 – PICS 534
Workshops
Rust
When: Saturday, February 19, 10:00 – 3:00
Where:Moore 100B
Instructors: Ian Graham and Christian Tabedzki, members of the Riggleman Group In this workshop we will give an introduction to Rust code syntax and semantics. Rust has powerful features in its language that essentially guarantee “if it complies, it probably works!” For those of you who have wasted hours compiling, crashing, compiling, crashing and trying to find the source of some elusive bug in their code, Rust offers the solution. In this workshop, we will show how language features from more familiar languages like Python and C++ transfer over, while also conveying ideas in Rust that would be totally brand new programming concepts to those unfamiliar with the language; these include Rust‘s ownership model, traits, and lifetimes.The first half of the workshop will cover the necessary basics with simple examples. The second half will jump into a project where users will write a molecular dynamics simulation code from scratch in Rust. This will give students two outcomes from this workshop (1) learning how to build a Rust project from the ground up, and (2) understanding how MD codes like LAMMPS and HOOMD operate, which is relevant for anyone using those in day-to-day work.Anyone who needs to produce code that runs fast and is easy to write would benefit from this workshop. Rust is essentially as fast as C++ while having top-notch tooling and a package manager that makes writing it feel more akin to Python.
Safe C++
When: Saturday, March 26, 10:00 – 3:00
Where: Virtual
Instructors: Adam Mally, Senior Lecturer in Computer and Information Science
In this workshop you will learn how to make your C++ code safe and bug-free by identifying errors during compilation, runtime, and testing phases. We will also cover how to handle common error types, like memory leaks and uninitialized variables and how to insert checks to catch errors at runtime. Finally you will learn how to apply bug prevention techniques to hunt and fix one bug at a time before your code goes into production.
Houdini by SideFX
When: Saturday, April 23 10:00 – 3:00
Where: Moore 100B
Instructor: Kalina Borkeiwicz, senior research programmer for the Advanced Visualization Lab at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
Cinematic scientific visualization makes three dimensional scientific phenomena approachable for mass audiences by using the artistic language of film including elements like camera choreography, lighting design, comprehensive scenic environments, and more. Cinematic scientific visualizations are an engaging way for domain experts to communicate niche information with the public, to refute widely held misconceptions, and to inspire the scientists of the future. Science films that feature these visualizations are screened at science centers to millions of viewers over the span of 10+ years and bridge different languages and cultures. They are shared widely on social media, featured regularly in television programs, and contribute to the success of public lectures.If you are a domain expert looking to share your data more widely, or a visualization designer who has focused on more analytical tools, what better way is there to get started with a Hollywood style than by using Hollywood tools? This workshop will introduce participants to Houdini, a visual effects software package that can generate cinematic-quality data visualizations with ease and efficiency. It is used and appreciated by most major animation and visual effects film studios for its procedural architecture, its modular design, and out-of-the-box rendering algorithms, all important features for ease-of-use in the field of data visualization. Houdini is a general-purpose image-making software that differs from most traditional scientific visualization tools in that it is optimized for look development and design functionality.