Approximate Computation and Implicit Regularization for Very Large-scale Data Analysis

Database theory and database practice are typically the domain of computer scientists who adopt what may be termed an algorithmic perspective on their data. This perspective is very different than the more statistical perspective adopted by statisticians, scientific computers, machine learners, and other who work on what may be broadly termed statistical data analysis. In this article, I will address fundamental aspects of this algorithmic-statistical disconnect, with an eye to bridging the gap between these two very different approaches. A concept that lies at the heart of this disconnect is that of statistical regularization, a notion that has to do with how robust is the output of an algorithm to the noise properties of the input data. Although it is nearly completely absent from computer science, which historically has taken the input data as given and modeled algorithms discretely, regularization in one form or another is central to nearly every application domain that applies algorithms to noisy data. By using several case studies, I will illustrate, both theoretically and empirically, the nonobvious fact that approximate computation, in and of itself, can implicitly lead to statistical regularization. This and other recent work suggests that, by exploiting in a more principled way the statistical properties implicit in worst-case algorithms, one can in many cases satisfy the bicriteria of having algorithms that are scalable to very large-scale databases and that also have good inferential or predictive properties.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the 2012 ACM Symposium on Principles of Database Systems (PODS 2012

Tuned preconditioners for the eigensolution of large SPD matrices arising in engineering problems

In this paper, we study a class of tuned preconditioners that will be designed to accelerate both the DACG-Newton method and the implicitly restarted Lanczos method for the computation of the leftmost eigenpairs of large and sparse symmetric positive definite matrices arising in large-scale scientific computations. These tuning strategies are based on low-rank modifications of a given initial preconditioner. We present some theoretical properties of the preconditioned matrix. We experimentally show how the aforementioned methods benefit from the acceleration provided by these tuned/deflated preconditioners. Comparisons are carried out with the Jacobi-Davidson method onto matrices arising from various large realistic problems arising from finite element discretization of PDEs modeling either groundwater flow in porous media or geomechanical processes in reservoirs. The numerical results show that the Newton-based methods (which includes also the Jacobi-Davidson method) are to be preferred to the - yet efficiently implemented - implicitly restarted Lanczos method whenever a small to moderate number of eigenpairs is required. \ua9 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

BrainFrame: A node-level heterogeneous accelerator platform for neuron simulations

Objective: The advent of High-Performance Computing (HPC) in recent years has led to its increasing use in brain study through computational models. The scale and complexity of such models are constantly increasing, leading to challenging computational requirements. Even though modern HPC platforms can often deal with such challenges, the vast diversity of the modeling field does not permit for a single acceleration (or homogeneous) platform to effectively address the complete array of modeling requirements. Approach: In this paper we propose and build BrainFrame, a heterogeneous acceleration platform, incorporating three distinct acceleration technologies, a Dataflow Engine, a Xeon Phi and a GP-GPU. The PyNN framework is also integrated into the platform. As a challenging proof of concept, we analyze the performance of BrainFrame on different instances of a state-of-the-art neuron model, modeling the Inferior- Olivary Nucleus using a biophysically-meaningful, extended Hodgkin-Huxley representation. The model instances take into account not only the neuronal- network dimensions but also different network-connectivity circumstances that can drastically change application workload characteristics. Main results: The synthetic approach of three HPC technologies demonstrated that BrainFrame is better able to cope with the modeling diversity encountered. Our performance analysis shows clearly that the model directly affect performance and all three technologies are required to cope with all the model use cases.Comment: 16 pages, 18 figures, 5 table

Unsteady CFD Analysis of a Delta Wing Fighter Configuration by Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation

While the flow physics of generic delta wings with sharp leading edges are largely understood, realistic configurations with rounded leading edges and canards are still of scientific and industrial interest. The goal of the presented study is the investigation of such a realistic delta wing configuration at 15° angle of attack and at high Reynolds number in comparison with detailed wind tunnel measurements. Former studies have shown the superior results of large and Detached-eddy simulations (DES) for delta wings in comparison with RANS computations. The original standard formulation of DES has shown the drawback of only grid based prediction of the boundary layer edge. To overcome this deficiency the technique of Delayed DES (DDES) was developed some years ago. This new model is based on a simple modification of the original formulation to provide a dependency of the RANS-LES switch on turbulent flow properties. The numerical DES and DDES results are compared with data from the TU Munich wind tunnel facility. Comparison of statistical data as well as velocity spectra in the flow field with experiments will be presented

Recent Advances in Graph Partitioning

We survey recent trends in practical algorithms for balanced graph partitioning together with applications and future research directions