SADC HPC Framework Adoption Workshop

Capetown

University of Botswana HPC Roadmap

&National opportunities

2nd -3rd Dec 2013Dr T. Motshegwa,

Department of Computer Science

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Outline• University of Botswana (CS Department)

HPC Roadmap• UB's Research Strategy & Strategic Plan• Outline of HPC Roadmap• HPC/Big Data Landscape & Potential

Applications/Opportunities• Road Map Way Forward

• How are Innovations around HPC & Big Data like?

• National Opportunities & e-Government.• Preparedness: Computer Science

Department Infrastructure

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About UB• Largest established university in Botswana • 7 Established Faculties• Science, Engineering and Technology, Faculty of

Health Sciences, Business, Humanities, Social Sciences.

• School of graduate Studies• Office of Research & Development

• Commercialization unit• Research centres• A detailed updated University Research

Strategy (URS) approved by Senate in 2008• Strategic goals and vision for research

intensive institution

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• To increase staff participation• To increase and enhance student research

training• To increase internal and external research

funding• To increase international collaborative

research• To increase the volume and quality of

research outputs• To enhance the impact of research• To improve the integration of research and

teaching• Therefore HPC Regional initiative fits in

with our strategic outlook

Research Strategy & UB Strategic Plan

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University of BotswanaHPC Roadmap

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RoadMap: Outline• Formed a Steering Committee to:-• Complete and endorse country Needs

Assessment Survey (Ongoing). • Identify research problems & projects, e.g.

– SKA Related **

– HPC-As-A-Service***

– Bioinformatics*

– Health & Medical Informatics

– Epidemiological modeling** (Human, Animal diseases outbreaks)

– E-Government & Big Data ,Analytics Visualization***

– Meteorology**, Geological Surveys*, Remote Sensing*, Environmental observation*

– Economic modeling*

– Computational Finance*

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• University wide HPC-AS-A-Service• Currently: None• Beneficiaries: Faculties, researchers,

Government, outside stakeholders• SKA Project. • Currently: Conceived: Botswana to host

some array elements and local HPC data center?

• Beneficiaries: Physics, Computer Science & Mathematics Dept, Science education

HPC/Big Data Landscape & Potential Applications(1)

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• Epidemiological Modeling • Currently: Standard research, hampered

by lack of HPC for improved turnaround times

• Human health - Some disease models defined

• Animal health - None* • Foot & Mouth Disease (FMD) outbreak and

management• Animal movement traceability• Vaccine/Vaccination assessments

• Economic implications/Policy (EU Beef Exports) • Beneficiaries, Medical Schools, Ministry of

Health, Dept of Animal Health, Botswana Vaccine Institute (FMD Regional reference Lab)

– Etc...

Potential Applications(2)

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• Bioinformatics • Currently: None• Beneficiaries: Biological Sciences, CS –

Multidisciplinary research• Potential international collaboration – Biotec

Center Dresden, Prof Michael Schroeder?• Capacity building, Local problems focus:

Wildlife species genomics, proteomics? • Health & Medical Informatics • Currently: Standard Research, patient

records• Exploitation: Analytics,visualisation, policy• Beneficiaries: Ministry of Health, Health

sector

Potential Applications(3)

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• Meteorological/Climate modeling• Currently: Some outsourced - third party weather

forecast, wild fire monitoring?• Beneficiaries: Meteorological Services, Faculty of

science

• Stimulation of multidisciplinary research • Hydrology/Geological/Remote

Sensing/Environmental observation • Currently: Standard Research• Exploitation: Analytics, visualisation – mineral

prospecting, ground water resources: Policy• Beneficiaries: Ministry of minerals resources &,

Faculty of science

Potential Applications(4)

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• Economic modeling• Currently: Standard research• Beneficiaries: Government, Faculty of Social

Sciences, Economic Thinktanks e.g. Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA)

• Stimulation of Multidisciplinary research

• Policy formulation • Computational Finance / Modeling • Currently: Standard Research• Exploitation: Financial Instruments, Stochastic

models, Model validation/caliberation, Analytics, visualisation

• Beneficiaries: Finance sector,IFSC, BoB, Faculty of Business

Potential Applications(5)

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More Potential Applications(6)

• Telecommunications • Network usage, analytics, visualisation

• Defence & Security • Penetration games, • cryptology, strategy and• policy making

• R&D and Innovation Acceleration• Financial Markets and Financial Transactions

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UB Roadmap: Way Forward(1)

• Complete an extensive research proposal for HPC-AS-A-Service project

• Actively seek sources of funding– ORD, EU-Africa FP7,Wellcome Trust, British

council...

• Build alliance and collaborations• Liaise with regional partners– Formal programme and annual schedule

calendar/events • Curriculum review, Parallel & Concurrent

Programming course, Comp Finance+ HPC courses

• Evaluate further opportunities.

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• Infrastructure & Resources• Dedicated labs for HPC• Through networks with CHPC we can receive

hardware from Texas Advanced Computing Center

• Appointments– Dr D. Mpoeleng – Representation at the

Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology– Draft of a country plan for implementation

– Dr T. Motshegwa - Operational level interface with country stakeholders and external partners and collaborators

UB Roadmap: Way Forward (2):

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Opportunities: Innovations around HPC & Big Data

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Example of how Academic projects can evolve (UCL)

• Satalia NPComplete Ltd, UCL spin off– Prof Antony Finkelstein, Dr Daniel Hulme

• Provides Optimisation-As-A-Service• Satalia SolveEngine• “One stop shop” for state of the art

optimisation algorithms• Gives industry access to cutting edge

technology/Algorithms• Intelligent use of compute resources• Produces smarter faster solutions to complex

problems

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Example benefits

• Provides economic models to academics to commercialise their algorithmic inventions.

• Allows academics to get access to critical data to improve their research.

• Provides developers of software tools a new revenue mechanism to support development and exposure of their software.

• Optimisation problems exist across computer science and engineering.

• Satalia SolveEngine solve problems in graph theory, logistics,system verification, BigData and cryptography.

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How this is done• Provides a software platform• A portal and an API to allow submission of

optimisation and retrieve solutions.• New optimisation translators and

enconders to provide interoperability between algorithmic formats (SAT,CSP,FZN, LP,GPL,SMT,OPT).

• Machine learning to match the right algorithm to the problems received.

– Distributed computing running on HPC and on private and public clouds.

– Management console for academics to include algorithms in the platform, commercialise IP, access valuable data to enable better research.

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National Opportunities and Government's View

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Stakeholders & Gov Institutions

• Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology

• Department of Research Science and Technology • Mandate is to provide leadership in science and technology through the

• Provision of an enabling policy and legislation environment and

• Coordination of science and technology activities in the country.• Botswana Institute of Technology, Research

and Innovation (BTRI)• Mandate is to undertake research, identify and or develop

appropriate technologies in line with national priorities and needs of Botswana

• Botswana Innovation Hub•  Mandated to support new ventures and existing companies as well

as attract companies, universities, research and advanced training institutes to establish in the Science and Technology Park

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• “1Gov” Seamless Government with intergrated Services

• High Performance infrastructure and Data Warehousing

• Integrated data sources• Improved Service Delivery• Fast and informative business intelligence to

guide policy formulation

Botswana's National e-Government Strategy

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• Large budget for hardware, software, power, networking and storage

• Strong partnerships with private entities• Low levels of expertise – HR capacity building

over the near and long term• Policies or frameworks that can nurture HPC

advancement

Gap Analysis

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Preparedness: Computer Science Department

Infrastructure

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About UB

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Thank you

tshiamo.motshegwa@mopipi.ub.bw