TRANSFORMING COMBUSTION RESEARCH THROUGH CYBERINFRASTRUCTURE
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington D.C.
www.nap.edu
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
500 Fifth Street, N.W.
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NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
This project was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research under Contract Number FA9550-08-1-0447, the National Institute of Standards and Technology under Contract Number 60NANB9D9023, the National Science Foundation under Contract Number CBET-08333591, and the Department of Energy under Contract Number DE-08NT0007000. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.
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Suggested citation: National Research Council. 2010. Transforming Combustion Research Through Cyberinfrastructure. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.
Copyright 2011 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
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COMMITTEE ON BUILDING CYBERINFRASTRUCTURE FOR COMBUSTION RESEARCH
MITCHELL D. SMOOKE,
Yale University,
Chair
JOHN B. BELL,
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
JACQUELINE H. CHEN,
Sandia National Laboratories
MEREDITH B. COLKET III,
United Technologies Research Center
THOMAS H. DUNNING,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
DENNIS GANNON,
Microsoft Corporation
WILLIAM H. GREEN,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CHUNG K. LAW,
NAE,1 Princeton University
MIRON LIVNY,
University of Wisconsin-Madison
MARK LUNDSTROM,
NAE, Purdue University
C. BRADLEY MOORE,
NAS,2 University of California, Berkeley
CAROLE L. PALMER,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ARNAUD TROUVÉ,
University of Maryland
CHARLES WESTBROOK,
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Staff
SCOTT WEIDMAN, Director,
Board on Mathematical Sciences and Their Applications
NEAL GLASSMAN, Study Director
BARBARA WRIGHT, Administrative Assistant
BOARD ON MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES AND THEIR APPLICATIONS
C. DAVID LEVERMORE,
University of Maryland,
Chair
TANYA STYBLO BEDER,
SBCC Group, Inc.
PHILIP A. BERNSTEIN,
Microsoft Corporation
PATRICIA FLATLEY BRENNAN,
University of Wisconsin-Madison
EMERY N. BROWN,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
GERALD G. BROWN,
U.S. Naval Postgraduate School
RICARDO CABALLERO,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
L. ANTHONY COX, JR.,
Cox Associates
BRENDA L. DIETRICH,
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
SUSAN J. FRIEDLANDER,
University of Southern California
PETER WILCOX JONES,
NAS, Yale University
KENNETH L. JUDD,
The Hoover Institution
CHARLES M. LUCAS,
Osprey Point Consulting
JAMES C. McWILLIAMS,
NAS, University of California, Los Angeles
VIJAYAN N. NAIR,
University of Michigan
CLAUDIA NEUHAUSER,
University of Minnesota
J. TINSLEY ODEN,
NAE, University of Texas at Austin
DONALD G. SAARI,
NAS, University of California, Irvine
J.B. SILVERS,
Case Western Reserve University
GEORGE SUGIHARA,
University of California, San Diego
KAREN VOGTMANN,
Cornell University
BIN YU,
University of California, Berkeley
Staff
SCOTT WEIDMAN, Director
NEAL GLASSMAN, Senior Program Officer
BETH DOLAN, Financial Associate
BARBARA WRIGHT, Administrative Assistant
COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS BOARD
ROBERT F. SPROULL,
NAE, Sun Microsystems, Inc.,
Chair
PRITHVIRAJ BANERJEE,
Hewlett-Packard Company
STEVEN M. BELLOVIN,
NAE, Columbia University
SEYMOUR GOODMAN,
Georgia Institute of Technology
JOHN E. KELLY III,
IBM Research
JON KLEINBERG,
NAE, Cornell University
ROBERT KRAUT,
Carnegie Mellon University
SUSAN LANDAU,
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
DAVID LIDDLE,
US Venture Partners
WILLIAM H. PRESS,
NAS, University of Texas at Austin
PRABHAKAR RAGHAVAN,
NAE, Yahoo! Labs
DAVID E. SHAW,
D.E. Shaw Research
ALFRED Z. SPECTOR,
NAE, Google, Inc.
JOHN SWAINSON,
Silver Lake Partnership
PETER SZOLOVITS,
IOM,3 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PETER J. WEINBERGER,
Google, Inc.
ERNEST J. WILSON,
University of Southern California
Staff
JON EISENBERG, Director
RENEE HAWKINS, Financial and Administrative Manager
HERBERT S. LIN, Chief Scientist
LYNETTE I. MILLETT, Senior Program Officer
EMILY ANN MEYER, Program Officer
ENITA A. WILLIAMS, Associate Program Officer
VIRGINIA BACON TALATI, Associate Program Officer
SHENAE BRADLEY, Senior Program Assistant
ERIC WHITAKER, Senior Program Assistant
BOARD ON CHEMICAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
RYAN R. DIRKX,
Arkema, Inc.,
Co-Chair
C. DALE POULTER,
NAS, University of Utah,
Co-Chair
ZHENAN BAO,
Stanford University
ROBERT G. BERGMAN,
University of California, Berkeley
HENRY E. BRYNDZA,
E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
EMILY A. CARTER,
NAS, Princeton University
PABLO G. DEBENEDETTI,
Princeton University
CAROL J. HENRY,
George Washington University
CHARLES E. KOLB,
Aerodyne Research, Inc.
JOSEF MICHL,
University of Colorado
MARK A. RATNER,
Northwestern University
ROBERT E. ROBERTS,
Science and Technology Policy Institute, Institute for Defense Analyses
DARLENE SOLOMON,
Agilent Technologies
ERIK J. SORENSEN,
Princeton University
WILLIAM C. TROGLER,
University of California, San Diego
Staff
DOROTHY ZOLANDZ, Director
KATHRYN HUGHES, Program Officer
TINA MASCIANGIOLI, Senior Program Officer
ERICKA McGOWAN, Program Officer
AMANDA CLINE, Administrative Assistant
SHEENA SIDDIQUI, Research Associate
Preface
In January 2009, the Multi-Agency Coordinating Committee on Combustion Research (MACCCR) requested that the National Research Council (NRC) conduct a study of the structure and use of a cyberinfrastructure (CI) for combustion research. MACCCR is an informal group of program managers within the federal government that coordinates joint initiatives in basic research involving combustion and keeps group members informed of one another’s activities. It consists of representatives from the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research, the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program of the Department of Defense (DOD), the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program of the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Energy Technology Laboratory of DOE, the DOE Office of Science, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
The combustion research community had already developed a strong foundation for the proposed study through a series of three workshops that shared perspectives and some best practices already developed within portions of the community. Those workshops were held in February and April 2006 and March 2007. They played an important role in exploring selected issues related to CI and in building community interest in the topic.
In response to MACCCR’s 2009 request, the NRC assembled the Committee on Building Cyberinfrastructure for Combustion Research under
the Board on Mathematical Sciences and Their Applications, the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, and the Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology to carry out this study. This committee was given the following charge:
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Identify opportunities to improve combustion research through computational infrastructure (CI)1 and the potential benefits to applications;
-
Identify the necessary CI elements (hardware, data management, algorithms, software, experimental facilities, people, support, etc.) through examination of existing CI in combustion research and education and CI experience in other, analogous fields. Evaluate the accessibility, sustainability, and economic models for various approaches, and identify positive and cautionary experiences;
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Identify CI that is needed for education in combustion science and engineering and how education in those fields should change to prepare students for CI-enabled endeavors;
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Identify human, cultural, institutional, and policy challenges and discuss how other fields are addressing them;
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Estimate the resources (funding, manpower, facilities) needed to provide stable, long-term CI for research in combustion;
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Recommend a plan for enhanced exploitation of CI for combustion research, taking into account possible leveraging of CI being developed for computational science and engineering more generally.
In order to conduct this study, the Committee on Building Cyberinfrastructure for Combustion Research met four times between March 9, 2009, and January 20, 2010, in Washington, D.C., and in Irvine, California. It was briefed by representatives of cyberinfrastructures for several scientific communities other than the combustion community and reviewed information provided by these speakers and others.
Acknowledgments
This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
M. Gurhan Andac, University of Southern California,
Christine Borgman, University of California, Los Angeles,
Sayeed Chaudhury, Johns Hopkins University,
Robert Dibble, University of California, Berkeley,
Rudolph Eigenmann, Purdue University, and
Ruth Pordes, Fermilab.
Although the reviewers listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Phillip Colella, E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Appointed by the National Research Council, he was responsible for making certain that
an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution.
The committee also acknowledges the valuable contribution of the following individuals, who provided input at the meetings on which this report is based:
Michael Frenklach, University of California, Berkeley,
Jeffrey Grethe, University of California, San Diego,
Thuc Hoang, Department of Energy,
Walter Polansky, Department of Energy,
Edward Seidel, National Science Foundation,
Douglas Talley, Air Force Research Laboratory,
Phillip Westmoreland, National Science Foundation, and
Frank Wüerthwein, University of California, San Diego.