Chief Scientist for Computing

Biography

James (Jim) Ang is the Chief Scientist for Computing in the Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate (PCSD) at PNNL. Jim’s primary role is to serve as PNNL’s Sector Lead for the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) Office. At PNNL, the ASCR portfolio includes over a dozen research and development projects in computer science, applied mathematics, networking, and computational modeling and simulation. Jim also serves as the lead of the Data-Model Convergence Initiative, a lab-wide 5 year investment to develop new computer science capabilities that support integration of scientific high performance computing and data analytics computing paradigms. Through a co-design process, challenge problems that integrate scientific modeling and simulation, domain-aware machine learning, and graph analytics are used to drive the development of a supporting system software stack that maps these heterogeneous applications to conceptual designs for System-on-Chip (SoC) heterogeneous processors. A key element of this converged computing strategy is to support PNNL objectives in accelerating scientific discovery, and real time control of the power grid. Jim’s prior connections to other government agencies transferred to PNNL with him and has led to PNNL and Jim’s engagement in several national security programs.

Prior to joining PNNL, Jim served as the a member of the initial DOE Exascale Computing Project (ECP) leadership team from 2015-2017. Jim’s role was the Director of ECP’s hardware technology focus area. His primary role and responsibility was the development and definition of the DOE ECP's hardware R&D strategy. The key elements of the strategy included: 1) Establish a portfolio of PathForward vendor-led hardware R&D projects for component, node and system architecture design, and 2) Create a Design Space Evaluation team to provide ECP with independent architectural analysis of the PathForward vendors' designs and the ability to facilitate co-design communication among the PathForward vendors and the ECP's application and system software development teams.

In 2009, Jim established the Association for High Speed Computing (AHSC), a professional non-for-profit organization established to host conferences, workshops, and technical exchanges among, national laboratory, industry, university and other government agency representatives. These technical exchange events are focused on high performance computing-related topics and may include other activities authorized by the AHSC Board of Directors. This is professional service to foster development of interdisciplinary and inter-organizational communication and collaboration for the HPC community. Regular conferences that are sponsored by AHSC include: The Salishan Conference on High Speed Computing, the Chesapeake Large Scale Analytics Conference (CLSAC), and the Current Challenges in Computing (Ccubed) Conference - (organized by LLNL).

Disciplines and Skills

Heterogeneous System-on-Chip processor and node architectures and enabling technologies

Data movement capabilities: advanced memory subsystems, and HPC system interconnection network fabrics

HPC application performance analysis

HPC architectural system simulation

Pre-production and advanced architecture test beds

Holistic Co-design: multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional collaborations

Open Innovation, Lead Users

Education

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 12/1986

M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 12/1984

B.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 5/1982

B.A., Physics, Grinnell College, 5/1981

Affiliations and Professional Service

Association for High Speed Computing, President and Founding Member: 2009-present

IEEE Computer Society

Salishan Conference on High Speed Computing: Organizing Committee: 2003-2018

Chesapeake Large-Scale Analytics Conference: Organizing Committee: 2012-present

Awards and Recognitions

NNSA Defense Program Award of Excellence

National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship

UIUC, Dept of M&IE, Caterpillar Award 

Honor Societies: Tau Beta Pi, and Pi Tau Sigma

Publications

Data-Model Convergence (DMC) Initiative Overview, James A. Ang. Invited presentation, 9th Multi-core World Conference, Feb 18-20, 2020, Wellington, New Zealand, PNNL-SA-151186.

U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science Report: Basic Research Needs for Microelectronics: Discovery science to revolutionize microelectronics beyond today's roadmaps, James Ang and Thomas Conte, Chapter on Co-design for High Performance Computing Beyond Exascale; and James Ang and Rick Stevens, Chapter on Flip the current paradigm: Define innovative materials, device, and architecture requirements driven by applications, algorithms and software, November 12, 2019, PNNL-29395.
https://science.osti.gov/-/media/bes/pdf/reports/2019/BRN_Microelectronics_rpt.pdf

Data-Model Convergence (DMC): Initiative Overview, James A. Ang.  Invited presentation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, September 24, 2019, Gaithersburg, MD. PNNL-SA-147665.

ModSim for Microelectronics Initiatives, James A. Ang. Invited Panel presentation, ModSim 2019 Workshop, August 14-16, 2019, Seattle, WA, PNNL-SA-146351.

PNNL’s Data-Model Convergence Initiative, James A. Ang. Invited presentation, 8th Multi-core World Conference, Feb 12-14, 2019, Wellington, New Zealand, PNNL-SA-140780.

The Evolution of DOE’s Strategy for Advanced Computing Technology, James A. Ang, Future Architecture Computing Technology Study, October 22, 2018, Tysons Corner, VA, PNNL-SA-138998.

A Vision for the Next Era in HPC, James A. Ang, Keynote Presentation, TechFest 2018, June 7, 2018, PNNL Discovery Hall, Richland, WA, PNNL-SA-135205.

Purpose-designed Hardware Opportunity for Microelectronics R&D, James A. Ang, DOE Office of Science Roundtable on Microelectronics, May 18, 2018, Germantown, MD, PNNL-SA-134919.

The DOE Exascale Computing Initiative: ECP and Holistic Co-design, James A. Ang, Computing@PNNL Seminar Series, Dec. 12, 2017. Richland, WA, SAND2017-13295 PE.

The DOE Exascale Computing Project: Strategy for System Development, James A. Ang, Coordination Panel for Advanced Detector R&D, Div. of Particles and Fields of the APS, University of New Mexico, Oct. 14, 2017, Albuquerque, NM.  SAND2017-11208 PE.

Book Chapter: Exascale Co-design Progress and Accomplishments, James A. Ang, Jeanine Cook, Stefan P. Domino Micheal W. Glass, Simon D. Hammond, K. Scott Hemmert, Michael A. Heroux, Robert J. Hoekstra, James H. Laros III, Paul T. Lin, Hai Ah Nam, Robert Neely, Arun F. Rodrigues, Christian R. Trott and Gwendolyn R. Voskuilen, Advances in Parallel Computing series, G. Fox, V. Getov, L. Grandinetti, G. Joubert, T. Sterling (Eds.), Convergence of Big Data and High-Performance Computing, IOS Press, Amsterdam, New York, Tokyo, SAND2017-8788B.  DOI:  10.3233/978-1-61499-816-7-3

Abstract Machine Models and Proxy Architectures for Exascale Computing, Rev. 2.0, J.A. Ang, R.F. Barrett, R.E. Benner, D. Burke, C. Chan, J. Cook, C.S. Daly, D. Donofrio, S.D. Hammond, K.S. Hemmert, R.J. Hoekstra, K. Ibrahim, S.M. Kelly, H. Le, V.J. Leung, G. Michelogiannakis, D.R. Resnick, A.F. Rodrigues, J. Shalf, D. Stark, D. Unat, N.J. Wright, and G.R. Voskuilen, Technical report, Department of Energy Computer Architecture Laboratory (Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), June 2016.  SAND2016-6049.  DOI:  10.2172/1561498

Advanced Simulation and Computing: Co-design Strategy, James A. Ang, Thuc T. Hoang, Suzanne M. Kelly, Allen McPherson, Rob Neely, February 2016, SAND2015-9821R.  https://prod-ng.sandia.gov/techlib-noauth/access-control.cgi/2015/159821r.pdf

High Performance Computing Co-design Strategies, James A. Ang, In Proceedings of the ACM International Symposium on Memory Systems (2015), SAND2015-6387C. 
DOI: 10.1145/2818950.2818959

Design Space Exploration with Proxy/Proto Architecture Models and miniApps, J.A. Ang, Invited Talk at ASCR Modeling and Simulation of Exascale Systems and Applications Workshop, September 18-19, 2013, Seattle, WA, SAND2013-8026P.  https://cfwebprod.sandia.gov/cfdocs/CompResearch/docs/Ang_CAL_ProjOverviewModSimWS.pdf

Advanced Simulation and Computing: Computing Strategy, Jim Ang, Paul Henning, Thuc Hoang, Rob Neely, April 2013, SAND2013-3196P. https://cfwebprod.sandia.gov/cfdocs/CompResearch/docs/ASC-StratV5.F.pdf

Early Experiences with Co-Design, S.D. Hammond, J.A. Ang, R.J. Barrett, D. Doerfler, M.A. Heroux, and J.H. Laros, 2012, ExaChallenge Symposium, October 15-18, 2012, Dublin, Ireland, SAND2012-8609C.

Advanced Architecture Test Beds, Suzanne M. Kelly, James A. Ang, and James H. Laros III, Poster and Technical Paper at the Exascale Research Conference, April 16-18, 2012, Portland, OR.  SAND2012-1724C.  https://cfwebprod.sandia.gov/cfdocs/CompResearch/docs/SAND2012-1724C-TestBedsWhitePaper.pdf

Book Chapter: Exascale Computing and the Role of Co-Design, James Ang, Ron Brightwell, David Donofrio, Sudip Dosanjh, K. Scott Hemmert, Arun Rodrigues, John Shalf, and Kyle Wheeler, In: High Performance Computing: From Grids to Clouds to Exascale, I. Foster et al. (Eds.) IOS Press, 2011. DOI: 10.3233/978-1-60750-803-8-43

Introducing the Graph500, Brian W. Barrett, Richard C. Murphy, Kyle B. Wheeler, and James A. Ang, Presentation for the Cray User Group Proceedings, May 2010, Edinburgh, Scotland, SAND2010-3260C. https://cug.org/5-publications/proceedings_attendee_lists/CUG10CD/pages/1-program/final_program/CUG10_Proceedings/pages/authors/11-15Wednesday/14C-Murphy-paper.pdf