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The Paraguin Project
GridNexus

CS Dept.
 

 

 


Dr. Ferner's Research

Research Interests 

  • Grid Computing

  • Parallel and Distributed Computing

  • Parallel Compilers for Parallel and Distributed Computing

I am participating on two research project: the Paraguin Project and the UNCW Grid Computing Project.

The goal of the Paraguin Project is to adapt the SUIF Compiler from Stanford University to generate message-passing code for distributed systems and then to implement a technique called a Metaheuristic[2,3] using this resulting compiler.

The goal of the UNCW Grid Computing Project is to build a grid computing environment at UNCW, to incorporate UNCW's grid computing environment into the North Carolina state-wide grid, and to develop a GUI workflow tool for interating with a grid and its resources.  The workflow editor that we have been developing is call GridNexus.

Students Advised

  • Tammy Tran, B.S. Computer Science with University Honors and Honors in Computer Science. Honor Project: "Development of an Electronic Medical Record System for the University of North Carolina Wilmington School of Nursing." May 2011.
  • Shun Jiang, M.S. Computer Science and Information Systems. Masters Project: "Optimizing Join Query in Distributed Database", May 2011.
  • P. Jerry Martin, M.S. Computer Science and Information Systems. Masters Project: "Suppressing Independent Loops in Packing/Unpacking Loop Nests to Reduce Message Size for Message-Passing Code", May 2010.

Publications

[23]
 Tammy Tran and Clayton Ferner, "Development of an Electronic Medical Record System for the University of North Carolina Wilmington School of Nursing", in The 2011 International Conference on e-Learning, e-Business, Enterprise Information Systems, and e-Grovernment (EEE'11), WORLDCOMP'11, Las Vegas, NV, June 18-21, 2011. (acceptance rate - 23%) (pdf).

[22]

C. Ferner and B. Wilkinson, "Constructing Distributed Computations in an Undergraduate Grid Computing Course", in The 2010 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering (FECS'10), WORLDCOMP'10, Las Vegas, NV, June 12-15, 2010. (acceptance rate - 26%) (pdf).

[21]

P. Jerry Martin and C.S. Ferner, "Independent loop suppression to reduce message size for message-passing code", in The 2009 International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Processing Techniques and Applications (PDPTA'09 ), WORLDCOMP'09, Las Vegas, NV, June 13-16, 2009. (acceptance rate - 25%) (pdf)

[20]

Clayton Ferner and Barry Wilkinson, "Pair-teaching a course on Grid computing from two campuses on NCREN", in The 2009 International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering (FECS'09), WORLDCOMP'09, Las Vegas, NV, June 13-16, 2009. (acceptance rate - 25%) (pdf)

[19]

Barry Wilkinson and Clayton Ferner, "Towards a top-down approach to teaching an undergraduate grid computing course," in the Proceedings of  The 36th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE2008), Portland, Oregon, March 12-15, 2008. (acceptance rate - 31%) (pdf)

[18]

P. Jerry Martin and C.S. Ferner, "Suppressing independent loops in packing/unpacking loop nest to reduce message size for message-passing code", in the Proceedings of the The 2007 International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Processing Techniques and Applications (PDPTA'07), WorldComp'07, Las Vegas, NV, June 15-18, 2007. (pdf)

[17]

B. Wilkinson and C. Ferner, "Statewide Undergraduate Grid Computing Course," NSF CCLI Project Showcase Poster presentation at the ACM SIGCSE 2007 Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Covington Kentucky, March 7-10, 2007.

[16]

B. Wilkinson and C.S. Ferner, "Chapter 151 Grid Computing Implementation and Applications", chapter in The Handbook of Computer Networks, H. Bidgolo, Editor-in-Chief, John Wiley & Sons, 2006.

[15]

Barry Wilkinson and Clayton Ferner, "Teaching Grid Computing in North Carolina: Part II," IEEE Distributed Systems Online, vol. 7, no. 7, 2006, art. no. 0607-o7003. (html, pdf)

[14]

Barry Wilkinson and Clayton Ferner, "Teaching Grid Computing in North Carolina: Part I," IEEE Distributed Systems Online, vol. 7, no. 6, 2006, art. no. 0606-o6003. (html, pdf)

[13]

C.S. Ferner, "Revisiting communication code generation algorithms for message-passing systems", International Journal of Parallel, Emergent and Distributed Systems (JPEDS), 21(5):323--344, October 2006. (pdf)

[12]

J. Brown, C. Ferner, T. Hudson, A. Stapleton, R. Vetter, T. Carland, A. Martin, J. Martin, A. Rawls,
W. Shipman, and M. Wood, "GridNexus: A grid services scientific workflow system", International Journal of Computer & Information Science (IJCIS), 6(2):72--82, June 2005. (pdf)

[11]

M. Baker, A. Apon, C. Ferner, J. Brown, "Emerging grid standards", IEEE Computer, 38(4):43--50, April 2005. (acceptance rate - 25%) (pdf)

[10]

B. Wilkinson, M. Holliday, and C. Ferner, "Experiences in teaching a geographically distributed undergraduate grid computing course", in the Proceedings of The Second International Workshop on Collaborative and Learning Applications of Grid Technology and Grid Education (Held in conjunction with CCGrid2005), May 9 - 12, 2005, Cardiff, United Kingdom. (pdf)

[9]

C.S. Hunt, C.S. Ferner, and J.L. Brown, "JXPL: An XML-based scripting language for workflow execution in a grid environment", in the Proceedings of the IEEE SoutheastCon 2005, Fort Lauderdale, FL, April 8-10, 2005. (pdf)

[8]

M.A. Holliday, B. Wilkinson, J. House, S. Daoud, C. Ferner, “Geographically-distributed, assignment-structured undergraduate grid computing course”, in the Procceedings of the 36th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE2005), St. Louis, Missouri, pp 206--210, February 23-27, 2005. (acceptance rate - 32%) (pdf)

[7]

M. Wood, C. Ferner, J. Brown, "Toward a graphical user interface for grid services," in the Proceedings of the IEEE Southeastern Conference, Greensboro, NC, pp. 316--324, March 26-28, 2004. (pdf)

[6]

C.S. Ferner and R. Vetter. "An integrated framework for implementing quality of network concepts," Journal of Network and Systems Management, 10(4):439--455, December 2002. (pdf)

[5]

C.S. Ferner, "The Paraguin compiler---Message-passing code generation using SUIF," in the Proceedings of the IEEE SoutheastCon 2002, Columbia, SC, pp. 1--6, April 5-7, 2002. (pdf)

[4]

N.H. Martin, K.H. Nance, J.D. Brown, C.S. Ferner,  and W.A. Randall, "Predicting Through-Space NMR Deshielding by Several Organic Functional Groups," poster session at  The 84th Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC) Conference and Exhibition , Montreal, Canada, May 26, 2001.

[3]

C.S. Ferner and R.G. Babb, "Automatic choice of scheduling heuristics for parallel/distributed computing,"  Scientific Programming, 7(1):47--65, 1999. (pdf , postscript , postscript.gzip ).

[2]

C.S. Ferner, "Automatic Choice of Scheduling Heuristics for Parallel/Distributed Computing," Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Denver, 1997.

[1]

C.S. Ferner and K.Y. Lee, "Hyperbanyan networks: A new class of networks for distributed-memory multiprocessors," in the Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium on the Frontiers of Massively Parallel Computation, McLean, Virginia, pp. 254--261, October 19-21, 1992.


Presentations, Workshops, and Invited Talks

  • C. Ferner, "Other Means of Executing Parallel Programs: OpenMP and Paraguin", presented to the Grid Computing course (CSC 446/546), November 15, 2011. (ppt)

  • B. Wilkinson and C. Ferner, "Teaching a Hands-On Undergraduate Grid Computing Course”, workshop at The 41st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE2010), Milwaukee, WI, March 12, 2010.

  • Clayton Ferner and Barry Wilkinson, "Introduction to Teaching Grid Computing", presented at Open Source Grid & Cluster Conference, Oakland, CA, May 12-14, 2008.

  • Clayton Ferner and Barry Wilkinson, “New Developments in a State-wide Undergraduate Grid Computing Course”, presented at SIAM Conference on Parallel Processing for Scientific Computing (SIAM PP08), Atlanta, GA, March 12-14, 2008. 

  • P. Jerry Martin and C.S. Ferner, "Suppressing independent loops in packing/unpacking loop nest to reduce message size for message-passing code", presented at PDPTA'07- The 2007 International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Processing Techniques and Applications (as part of WorldComp'07), Las Vegas, NV, June 15-18, 2007.

  • J.L. Brown, C.S. Ferner, and B. Shipman, “GridNexus and JXPL: A Grid Services Workflow System”, presented at globusWORLD, Boston, Massachusetts, February 7-11, 2005.

  • "Demonstration of Grid Services," North Carolina Grid Computing Initiative, October 28-29,2003.

  • "Creating Message Passing code for MPI," Computer Science Department Spring 2002 Seminar Series, March 21, 2002.

Grants, Contracts, and Other Funding

  • Lead Principal Investigator, "Collaborative Research: Enhancing Teaching of Grid Computing to Undergraduate Students by using a Workflow Editor" with B. Wilkinson, Y. Li sumitted to NSF CCLI - Phase I, awarded $149,924, June 2008 - June 2010.

  • Co-Principal Investigator, "Fostering Undergraduate Research Partnerships through a Graphical User Environment for the North Carolina Computing Grid," with R. Vetter, J. Brown, T. Hudson, T. Janicki, N. Martin, A. Stapleton, B. Tyndall, B. Miller, D. Berman, R. Boston, L. Bartolotti, M. McClelland, J. Port, and A. Wilkinson, UNC Office of the President, awarded $557,634, June 1, 2004 - June 30, 2006.

  • Co-Principal Investigator, "The UNCW Grid Computing Project," with R. Tyndall, B. Miller, S. Cowdrey, J. Brown, N. Martin, A. Stapleton, and R. Vetter, submitted to UNC Office of the President, awarded UNC OP: $82,723; UNCW HPC: $65,000; In-kind Support: $59,097; Project total: $206,820; March 17, 2003 - June 30, 2003.

  • Co-Principal Investigator, "The UNCW Grid Computing Project," with J. Brown and R. Vetter, UNCW Information Technology Award, awarded $23,760, March 17, 2003 - October 31, 2003.

  • Co-Investigator, "Monograph and Phylogenetic Research on the Saprolegnials (Watermolds)," with David Padgett and Craig Baley,  submitted to NSF Systematic Biology directorat, NSF Grant #DEB0328316, awarded $742,000, Sep. 1 2003 - Aug. 31 2008.

  • UNCW International Programs for travel expenses to attend the IPDPS 2003 conference in Nice, France April 21 to April 26 2003, awarded $400.

  • Principal Investigator, "Comparison of Message-Passing vs. Distributed-Shared Memory", Charles L. Cahill Award, awarded $2,500, 2002. 

  • Principal Investigator, "Paraguin - Parallelizing Compiler for Distributed Memory Parallel Systems; CSC 337 - Parallel Computing", Computational Science Faculty Account submitted to the North Carolina Supercomputing Center  (NCSC), awarded: 200 hours of time on the SGI Origin 2400 and 2000 hours of time on the IBM SP, August 2001 - October 2002. 

  • Co-Principal Investigator, "A Collaborative Proposal for E-Learning in Computer Science and Engineering", submitted to UNC Office of the President, awarded $60,000, Summer 2001.

  • Principal Investigator, UNCW Faculty Summer Research Initiative, awarded $3000, Summer 2000.

  • UNCW International Programs for travel expenses to attend the IPDPS 2000 conference in Cancun, Mexico May 1 to May 5, awarded $500, 2000.. 

  • Co-Investigator, "Incorporation of Additional New Algorithms into Existing Commercial Software for Predicting NMR Spectra," with Ned H. Martin and Allen. Randall, submitted to UNCW Information Technology Systems Division (ITSD), awarded $11,148.00, 2000.

Media Coverage



This page was last updated: November 15, 2011

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