Purdue University

HUBbub2010, a workshop for current and potential users of the HUBzero Platform for Scientific Computing, will unveil an open source release of HUBzero’s core software. HUBzero is a unique platform for creating powerful Web sites supporting research, education and collaboration in science, engineering and other fields.

The two-day workshop for the HUBzero user community will take place April 13-14 at the IUPUI University Place Conference Center, 850 West Michigan St., Indianapolis, Ind. For more information and to register, go to: https://hubzero.org/hubbub2010. Space is limited.

Developed at Purdue University, HUBzero is the YouTube of simulation tools—sort of a Swiss Army Knife for deploying and accessing computational research codes, and visualizing and analyzing results, all through a familiar Web browser interface. Built-in social networking features akin to Facebook create communities of researchers and educators in science, engineering, medicine, almost any field or subject matter and facilitate online collaborations.

The HUBzero platform powers nanoHUB.org and 20 other sites already, delivering hundreds of research tools and seminars to nearly a half million users each year. HUBzero is supported by a consortium of universities including Purdue, Indiana, Clemson and Wisconsin.

The workshop is for people already using a hub who want to learn more, and for those curious about hubs or interested in employing the open source release to establish their own. Presenters will include speakers from the National Science Foundation, existing hub owners and experts in social networking.

Breakout sessions at the event will explain how HUBzero enables a wide spectrum of projects in science and engineering, health care research, social science and education while satisfying NSF and other grant funder cyberinfrastructure requirements in the bargain. The sessions will include hands-on tutorials covering:

• Setting up your own hub using HUBzero’s new open source software.
• Creating and publishing computational research tools on your hub, along with connecting your tools to supercomputing clusters and other Grid resources while largely avoiding the complexities of Grid computing.
• Adding new capabilities to the platform with PHP/Web programming.

The registration fee includes all sessions, an opening reception the evening of April 12, continental breakfast and lunch April 13 and 14, and dinner on April 13.

HUBzero was originally developed to power nanoHUB.org, now an international resource for nanotechnology theory, simulation and education with more than 100,000 users. The underlying technology proved to be so attractive that Purdue tailored it for easy application in other fields.

“Like no other platform, HUBzero can host interactive simulation tools, so users aren't just reading about research, they can experience it,” says Michael McLennan, senior research scientist and hub technology architect at Purdue. “HUBzero allows users to work together as they interact with content.”

Other hubs link researchers transforming laboratory discoveries into new medical treatments; working to revolutionize cancer prevention, detection, treatment and care delivery; promoting assistive technologies innovation to better serve those with disabilities; improving pharmaceutical manufacturing; and engineering earthquake-resistant buildings, bridges and related structures. A hub will be at the center of the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), a $105 Million NSF program announced in 2009.

Writer: Greg Kline, science and technology writer, Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP), 765-494-8167 (office), 765-426-8545 (mobile), gkline@purdue.edu