Announcement

Very Large System Simulation Workshop

Structure of the HIV Capsid

Computational biology in the petascale era offers a unique opportunity to connect atomic-level descriptions of biological systems such as viruses and cellular organelles. The course will introduce participants to the many challenges that arise in the course of conducting molecular dynamics simulations on very large biomolecular complexes. Relevant physical concepts, mathematical techniques, and computational methods will be introduced, including approaches for preparing, simulating, and analyzing large systems on state-of-the-art petascale supercomputing hardware, data management practices, and remote visualization, using the NAMD and VMD software. The workshop will be presented by members of the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The workshop is designed for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in computational and/or biophysical fields who seek to extend their research skills to include molecular dynamics simulation of large biomolecular complexes on petascale computing systems. Theory and methodology sessions in the morning will be followed by hands-on computer labs in the afternoon in which students will be able to set up and run simulations. The workshop will make use of remote computational and visualization resources at national supercomputer centers. Familiarity with NAMD and VMD is required*. Enrollment limited to 26 participants. The workshop will be held August 11-15, 2014, in Urbana, Illinois. All participants are required to bring their own laptop for use in the workshop training sessions. Those interested must apply for and be accepted into the workshop. Participants must arrange and pay for their own travel. Registration fees and important dates are described below.