[CS] Greg Pauloski Dissertation Defense/Apr 2, 2025

[via cs]

This is an announcement of James Pauloski's Dissertation Defense.
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Candidate: James Pauloski

Date: Wednesday, April 02, 2025

Time:  1 pm CST

Remote Location: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/99087802391?pwd%3DD7RE4gATbYzdvk8nNH2Vg7sSi06uId.1__;!!BpyFHLRN4TMTrA!6LA_jIny4jRWGrhm1uLfpj9JMZqV8hmw2wNVcjRa6wktBPsWmL8pyXQ9G9uFMs_PhlauyeqZfy6j90iuhc0rVMr7zw$&sa=D&source=calendar&ust=1740608579652702&usg=AOvVaw1QwzWpS3ZGwG8_7g2KMdRY

Location: JCL 298

Title: Programming the Continuum: Towards Better Techniques for Developing Distributed Science Applications

Abstract: Advances in networks, accelerators, and cloud services encourage programmers to reconsider where to compute---such as when fast networks make it cost-effective to compute on remote accelerators despite added latency. Workflow and cloud-hosted serverless computing frameworks can manage multi-step computations spanning federated collections of cloud, high-performance computing, and edge systems, but rely on simple abstractions that pose challenges when building applications composed of multiple distinct software with differing communication and patterns. This dissertation introduces new techniques for programming distributed science applications deployed across the computing continuum. TaPS, a benchmarking suite for reliable evaluation of parallel execution frameworks, is developed and used to investigate limitations in existing solutions. This investigation motivates the design of ProxyStore, a library that extends the pass-by-reference model to distributed applications with the goal of decoupling data flow from control flow. ProxyStore's object proxy paradigm enables the dynamic selection of different data movement methods, depending on what data are moved, where data are moved, or when data are moved---a long-standing challenge in distributed applications. Three high-level patterns---distributed futures, streaming, and ownership---extend the low-level proxy paradigm to support science applications spanning bioinformatics, federated learning, and molecular design, in which substantial improvements in runtime, throughput, and memory usage are demonstrated. Last, a federated agents system is designed to target limitations in control flow and stateful computations and to support the creation and deployment of pervasive autonomous agents. These techniques encompass an open-source toolbox for developing novel and performant science applications and federated frameworks for the computing continuum.

Advisors: Ian Foster, Kyle Chard

Commitee: Kyle Chard, Ian Foster, Michael Franklin