[hpc-announce] ACM PASC16 - Call for Papers - due in less than two weeks!

Mon Jan 4 09:22:26 CST 2016

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                            CALL FOR PAPERS
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              Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing
                             ACM PASC 2016
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    A new opportunity for computational science and HPC in Europe
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                              EPFL Campus              
                         Lausanne, Switzerland
                           June 08-10, 2016

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ACM PASC16 is the third conference that was initiated by the Swiss Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing (PASC). The PASC Conference is an international event for the exchange of high-performance computing competences in computational science. PASC16 will bring together talented scientists from diverse backgrounds (such as Climate, Solid Earth, Life Sciences, Materials, Physics, Mechanics and Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science, and Emerging Domains) to creatively reflect on their field, and promote exchange of expertise in HPC and interdisciplinary collaboration. We believe that this conference represents a rare opportunity to have domain science heard within a computer science context.

The major news regarding PASC16 is the introduction of the first technical papers session into its program, which already includes plenary sessions; a public lecture; minisymposia and contributed talks; poster sessions; exhibition booths and inter-PASC Communities discussions. The previous two PASC conferences were strong and attracted more than 350 attendees.

In view of providing a high-quality offering to the scientific community, we built a small board of leading editors that will be supported by a larger pool of reviewers in each area. The select group of board members will guide the paper selection using external experts selected specifically for each paper. 

The paper selection process is different from standard conference procedures.  It combines the strengths of a conference publication (timely dissemination and solid selection through in-person TPC meetings) with the strengths of journal publication (dialog with the reviewers through revision and targeted reviewers). The submission will consist of two stages: a paper is submitted to stage 1 and will be reviewed by a committee selected by the area chair. Then a preliminary decision will be made and the strongest papers will continue to the next stage of the selection process. The authors can then revise their work marking the differences to the first submission. The committee (potentially extended with experts in the specific field) will then consider the revision in a second review stage where a final decision will be made. All stages are aligned with a strict conference submission schedule to ensure timely dissemination that the authors can rely on.

The Platform for Advanced Scientific Computing (PASC) is inviting submissions for the Papers Session of its next conference (PASC16) cosponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and SIGHPC to be held from June 8 to 10, 2016 at the SwissTech Convention Center, located on the campus of the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland.

PASC's structure enables efficient communication between various areas arranged in the following eight domain-specific tracks:

   - Climate and Weather
   - Computer Science and Mathematics
   - Emerging Domains
   - Engineering
   - Life Sciences
   - Materials
   - Physics
   - Solid Earth

The PASC papers program is soliciting high-quality contributions in all of these areas. Papers will be presented during the PASC16 Conference and published in the ACM Digital Library associated with the PASC conference series. Areas of interest include (but are not limited to):

   - Implementation strategies for computational science applications
   - Programming languages and models for science domains
   - Tools for application development
   - Domain-specific libraries or frameworks
   - Use of heterogeneous or advanced computing for scientific applications

Authors should first submit an abstract for their paper; the abstracts will not be reviewed but are necessary for logistical reasons. Authors will be invited to submit their full paper (pdf) shortly after abstract submission. These papers will undergo a first round of review, and the strongest papers will be selected for a second round of review. Authors will have the opportunity to revise their manuscripts based on feedback prior to the second round of reviews.

Submissions will be evaluated double blind (authors should not be listed in the (pdf) paper; references to own previous work should be in the third person). Papers should be in the ACM proceedings format [1] and should be no more than 10 pages in length (including everything besides references, for which there is no limit). We suggest using "An Author", "Another Author", etc. in the ACM templates, and leaving affiliations and contact details blank.

The submissions page is open and further information about formatting and submissions guidelines can be found at http://www.pasc16.org/submission/call-for-papers/ .

SUBMISSION DEADLINES

To ensure a timely dissemination of research results, contributors are required to work according to the following schedule:

   - By January 15, 2016: Provide authors' data, and title and abstract 
     of the paper (maximum 500 words)
   - By January 22, 2016: Provide the full paper (maximum 10 pages)
   - By February 26, 2016: First review notification
   - By March 11, 2016: Provide the revised paper (if the submission 
     has been invited to go forward to the second round of review)
   - By April 7, 2016: Final review notification

REVIEW PROCESS

The review process is organized in tracks. The editor of each track selects appropriate reviewers who are experts in the relevant area. The editorial board will attend the selection meeting in person and each paper will be discussed in detail. We believe that this new review process bridges the gap between journals and conferences and combine the benefits of both. Timely dissemination is most important in computational sciences where software moves fast. All papers will be published and archived in the well-known ACM digital library with ACM quality standards.

Contributions are to be submitted using the PASC16 online system. 

PAPERS CHAIRS

* Torsten Hoefler (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
* David Keyes (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology,    
  Saudi Arabia)

EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE SCIENTIFIC TRACKS 

* Climate & Weather: Michael Wehner (Lawrence Berkeley National 
  Laboratory & University of California, USA)
* Solid Earth: Jeroen Tromp (Princeton University, USA)
* Life Sciences: Ioannis Xenarios (Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, 
  Switzerland)
* Physics: George Lake (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
* Computer Science & Mathematics: David Keyes (King Abdullah University 
  of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia)
* Engineering: George Biros (The University of Texas, USA)
* Materials: Mark van Schilfgaarde (King's College London, UK)
* Emerging Domains: Omar Ghattas (The University of Texas, USA)

PASC16 poster: http://www.pasc16.org/fileadmin/conference/pasc16/Poster_ACM_Call_for_Papers.pdf

[1]: http://www.acm.org/publications/article-templates/proceedings-template.html