SC

Welcome to Reno, Nevada, the host of the 20th annual international conference. SC07 represents the premier forum for the exchange of information and highlights on the most innovative developments in high performance computing (HPC), storage, networking and analysis. The conference is sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the IEEE Computer Society. The SC07 Conference Committee has worked very hard to prepare this conference for your scientific exchange, education, and enjoyment. A complete listing of the various offerings over this week is laid out for you in the pages of this program. There is so much to choose from this week that we feel confident you will find your days very full of activities.

SC07 continues in the SC conference tradition of bringing together scientists and engineers, researchers, educators and managers from the world's leading computing and network installations and companies. It showcases innovative developments that are sparking new ideas and new industries. This week is the culmination of three years of planning by an outstanding committee of your peers. The result is the best SC conference ever! First and foremost, an extraordinary technical program is in store for you. The research portions of the technical program this year reflect ever-higher levels of selectivity, while the invited presentations feature an exceptional lineup of speakers. You will be treated to a selection of 54 refereed papers, a series of excellent plenary sessions, 11 independently planned workshops and 25 tutorials. Seven panel sessions have been selected with an eye toward spanning many of today's "hot" HPC topics. We have teamed with the U.S. Council on Competitiveness to bring you a set of Masterworks sessions which include industry speakers from global corporations who will discuss complex, real-world problems that demand high performance computing solutions. A new feature at SC07 is the Doctoral Research Showcase. This session provides a venue for 12 Ph.D. students who will be graduating in the next 12 months to present a short summary of their research. Looking further ahead than most forecasts commonly do, two panel sessions and five exhibits on Disruptive Technologies will suggest and display those innovations most likely to overturn today's dominant HPC technologies in just a few years. A record number of Birds-of-a-Feather submissions will provide you with highlights on a wide variety of technology and software topics. The Storage, Analytics and Bandwidth Challenges have been reshaped, and you will find fierce competition in all of these areas. An exciting new challenge---the the Cluster Challenge---has been added and will showcase the computational power that is easily in reach to anyone today. In this challenge, teams of undergraduate students will assemble small clusters on the Exhibit floor and run benchmarks and applications selected by industry and HPC veterans. To round out the technical program, in the hallway in front of the ballroom, we will have 39 regular posters and six student posters on display. Come to our poster reception on Tuesday evening from 5:15 p.m. -7:00 p.m. to discuss the research displays with presenters in a casual setting.

The Industry and Research Exhibits in the Reno-Sparks Convention Center occupy over 120,000 square feet of net space - more than any previous SC conference- 270 companies and organizations are onsite to offer the most up-to-date information on products and research results. You will have plenty of space in the exhibit halls to network with the exhibitors and your colleagues. In the exhibit hall, please take time to visit the students working on the Cluster Challenge and experience the Disruptive Technologies exhibits that are in Exhibit Hall 1. A highlight of the Exhibits program is the Exhibitor Forum. These talks showcase the latest advances by our Industry Exhibitors, including new products and upgrades, recent research and development and future plans and roadmaps. As in previous years, SCinet has leveraged new advances in network technology to bring you a unique infrastructure for research, demonstrations and general networking.

The Education Program is the start of a new three-year initiative. This year's program started in the summer with nine week-long summer workshops held at colleges and universities in nine states. Four were held at a minority-serving institutions and one was held at a women's college. At SC07, there will be 110 participants from 50 colleges, universities and high schools in 21 states, as well as Puerto Rico and Santo Domingo, who will have four days of discussions and hands-on applications of computational science resources, tools, and methodologies to enhance the preparation of the next generation of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians. The Learning and Physical Challenges Education Program is combined with the general Education Program this year. It will engage a dozen educators in ensuring that all students are able to fully participate in the use of computational science tools to enhance learning.