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title = "C3SR Anniversary Celebration"
date = 2021-07-31T00:00:00
lastmod = 2021-07-31T00:00:00
draft = false

# Authors. Comma separated list, e.g. `["Bob Smith", "David Jones"]`.
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tags = ["c3sr"]

summary = "I MC'ed the Center for Cognitive Computing and Systems Research anniversary celebration."

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I was honored to be the MC of the [Center for Cognitive Cocomputing and Systems Research](c3sr.com) (C3SR) 5-year anniversary celebration.
C3SR was a joint research center between IBM and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, co-directed by Professor Wen-Mei Hwu, Dr. Jinjun Xiong, and Professor Sanjay Patel.
It was responsible for a lot of my funding and opportunities as a Ph.D student with Professor Hwu.


the original press release from April 15, 2016 ([original](https://newsroom.ibm.com/2016-04-15-IBM-and-the-University-of-Illinois-to-Pioneer-Next-Generation-Cognitive-Computing-Systems,1), [archive](https://web.archive.org/web/20210731200444/https://newsroom.ibm.com/2016-04-15-IBM-and-the-University-of-Illinois-to-Pioneer-Next-Generation-Cognitive-Computing-Systems,1)) describes a plan to "build and optimize integrated systems such as state-of-the-art cognitive computing systems modeled on IBM's Watson technology." I played a small part in this, working on projects related to improving productivity for developers of computing systems, and then more specifically on multi-GPU programming.
I also got experience managing some "Minsky" machines, with 2x POWER8 CPUs and 4x Nvidia P100 GPUs, mentoring students (including a high schooler), and spent a fall and a summer at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center.

I was honored to recieve the Director's Distinguished Service Award for my mentoring work, and the Best Research Award, for my ICPE paper.
As with anything done in grad school, evefything I did was only possible thanks to the following people:
* my advisor Wen-Mei Hwu
* Prfessor Vladimir Kindratenko and Dawei Mu for the NCSA HAL computing system
* I-Hsin Chung and Jinjun Xiong from IBM's T. J. Watson research for their help and mentorship
* Professors Steve Lumetta, Sanjay Patel, Luke Olson for serving on my Ph.D committe
* Professor Rakesh Nagi for his advice and guidance on graph algorithms
* Simon Garcia de Gonzalo, Mert Hidayetogu, and Omer Anjum for our many shared hours and discussions
* Tom Jablin for mentoring me early in my Ph.D and expanding my knowledge of C++
* the rest of the IMPACT research team that I didn't mention, for their help and support during our many meetings together.


C3SR was successfull enough that IBM and Illinois are doing it again ([original](https://newsroom.ibm.com/2021-05-26-IBM-and-the-University-of-Illinois-Urbana-Champaign-Plan-to-Launch-New-Discovery-Accelerator-Institute), [archive](https://web.archive.org/web/20210731200206/https://newsroom.ibm.com/2021-05-26-IBM-and-the-University-of-Illinois-Urbana-Champaign-Plan-to-Launch-New-Discovery-Accelerator-Institute)).
The Discovery Accelerator Institute will be similar to C3SR, but focused on  ybrid cloud and AI, quantum information science and technology, andaccelerated materials discovery.