Aiichiro Nakano

anakano@usc.edu

Professor of Computer Science, Physics & Astronomy, and Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
Ph.D. University of Tokyo, Japan, 1989

Contact Information

Collaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations (CACS)
Department of Computer Science
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Mork Family Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
University of Southern California
3651 Watt Way, VHE 610
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0242

Tel: 213-821-2657
Fax: 213-821-2664

Research Interests

High-end scientific computing on geographically distributed parallel supercomputers and virtual environment: 1) divide-and-conquer simulation algorithms based on spatial locality with low time/space/bandwidth complexity and tight error control; 2) a space-time-ensemble parallel approach based on temporal locality to predict long-time dynamics; 3) metascalable ("design once, scale on new architectures") parallel-and-distributed supercomputing frameworks; 4) immersive and interactive visualization and mining of large scientific datasets (billion-atom chemical bond networks); 5) hierarchical simulations and validation that automatically embed quantum-mechanical and atomistic calculations within continuum calculation on demand with guaranteed quality-of-solutions; and 6) high-end computational materials science.

We have demonstrated: 1) unprecedented scales of quantum-mechanically accurate and well validated, chemically reactive molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations--2.5 billion-atom reactive force-field MD and 2.6 trillion electronic degrees-of-freedom (30 million-atom) quantum-mechanical (QM) MD in the framework of density functional theory on adaptive multigrids--in addition to 1.0 trillion-atom space-time multiresolution MD, with parallel efficiency well over 0.95 on 163,840 BlueGene/P processors; 2) an automated execution of hierarchical QM/MD simulation on a Grid of 6 supercomputer centers in the US and Japan, in which the number of processors changed dynamically on demand and resources were allocated and migrated dynamically in response to unexpected faults; and 3) real-time visualization of a billion-atom chemical bond network, with an embedded graph-based topological analysis. 

Publications

Collaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations (CACS)

With Professors Priya Vashishta and Rajiv Kalia, I have co-founded CACS in 2002. The vision of CACS is: 1) to follow advances in computing technologies (hardware, software, algorithms) from teraflops to petaflops and beyond, to establish a comprehensive collaborative environment for geographically distributed computational scientists and information technology (IT) experts to perform the largest bio-nano simulations; and 2) to establish educational programs to propel students into careers in emerging areas of nano, bio, and information technologies both in academic and industrial settings. CACS has excellent computing and visualization facilities: a 4,096-processor Linux cluster, and a visualization laboratory with an 8' by 14' tiled display and an immersive and interactive 3D visualization environment. 

Dual-degree Graduate Education in High Performance Computing and Simulations

At USC, we have introduced a dual-degree program that allows students to obtain a Ph.D. in the physical sciences/engineering and an MS in Computer Science (CS). I have developed an MSCS program with specialization in High Performance Computing and Simulations (MSCS-HPCS), for which I serve as the coordinator. For the MSCS-HPCS program, I have developed HPCS courses: CSCI596 (Scientific Computing and Visualization), CSCI653 (High Performance Computing and Simulations), and PHYS516 (Methods of Computational Physics). 

Minority Research and Education 

CACS organizes annual Computational Science Workshops for Underrepresented Groups (CSWUG) to provide undergraduate students and mentors from underrepresented groups with hands-on experience in HPCS.