Barbara Jewett is a good friend and colleague in Public Affairs at NCSA who very ably manages NCSA’s print and online publication, Access Magazine. She’s the one who first conceived Petascale Day in 2012 and now oversees it as an annual event. She kept count last night as we directed people to the Advanced Visualization Laboratory 3D visualization demonstrations and tells me that, over the course of three hours, according to the folks down at the National Petascale Computing Facility, over 250 people came by to see Blue Waters.
Meanwhile, we had 148 visitors at NCSA–also a great turnout! It was especially wonderful to see visitors of all ages–preschoolers, elementary- and high-school-age students, undergraduate and graduate students, interested folks from around town who stopped in after work, and retired folks who finally have the time to pursue new interests–it’s never too late to get interested in supercomputing! We even had a gentleman all the way from NYC, who was visiting his grandchildren in Urbana, stop in and see us, which was delightful.
Thanks also to Donna Cox, director of NCSA’s Advanced Visualization Laboratory, for helping out and talking about AVL with the folks waiting to go in and watch the demonstrations. Her presence and participation only improved the whole experience.
And if you missed the Petascale Day festivities and you’re interested in seeing NCSA’s facilities with your class or group, please consider scheduling a tour!
