Research Groups

Containers for HPC environments

Rethinking High performance computing Platforms: Challenges, Opportunities and Recommendations, co-authored by Adam Barker and a team (Ole Weidner, Malcolm Atkinson, Rosa Filgueira Vicente) in the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh was recently featured in the Communications of the ACM and HPC Wire.

The paper focuses on container technology and argues that a number of “second generation” high-performance computing applications with heterogeneous, dynamic and data-intensive properties have an extended set of requirements, which are not met by the current production HPC platform models and policies. These applications (and users) require a new approach to supporting infrastructure, which draws on container-like technology and services. The paper then goes on to describe cHPC: an early prototype of an implementation based on Linux Containers (LXC).

Ali Khajeh-Hosseini, Co-founder of AbarCloud and former co-founder of ShopForCloud (acquired by RightScale as PlanForCloud) said of this research, “Containers have helped speed-up the development and deployment of applications in heterogeneous environments found in larger enterprises. It’s interesting to investigate their applications in similar types of environments in newer HPC applications.“

DHSI Seminar Series (Digital Health Science Initiative)

“Addiction”

Seminar Room 1 School of Medicine

12:00: Alex Baldacchino- Introduction

12:15: Ognjen Arandjelović & Aniqa Aslam- Understanding Fatal and Non-Fatal Drug Overdose Risk Factors in Fife: Overdose Risk (OdRi) tool

12:45: Damien Williams & Fergus Neville- Transdermal alcohol monitoring

13:15: David Harris-Birtill & David Morrison- Narco Cat – waste water analysis in substance misuse – a novel epidemiological tool

13:15 – 14.00: All Questions & Opportunities

Event details

  • When: 14th June 2017 12:00 - 14:00
  • Where: N Haugh, St Andrews
  • Format: Seminar

Seminar: Propagation and Reification: SAT and SMT in Prolog (continued)

Jacob Howe, City University, London

Abstract: This talk will recap how a watched literal DPLL based SAT solver can be succinctly coded in 20 lines of Prolog. The focus of the talk will be the extension of this solver to an SMT solver which will be discussed with a particular focus on the case where the theory is that of rational-tree constraints, and its application in a reverse engineering problem.
[Note change of time from that previously advertised]

Event details

  • When: 23rd June 2017 13:00 - 14:00
  • Where: Cole 1.33a
  • Series: AI Seminar Series
  • Format: Seminar

SRG Seminar: Evaluation Techniques for Detection Model Performance in Anomaly Network Intrusion Detection System by Amjad Al Tobi

Everyday advancements in technology brings with it novel challenges and threats. Such advancement imposes greater risks than ever on systems and services, including individual privacy information. Relying on intrusion specialists to come up with new signatures to detect different types of new attacks, does not seem to scale with excessive traffic growth. Therefore, anomaly-based detection provides a promising solution for this problem area.

Anomaly-based IDS applies machine learning, data mining and/or artificial intelligence along with many other methods to solve this problem. Currently, these solutions seem not to be tractable for real production environments due to the high false alarms rate. This might be a result of such systems not being able to determine the point at which an update is required. It is not clear how detection models will behave over time, when traffic behaviour has changed since the last time the model was re-generated.
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Event details

  • When: 1st June 2017 13:00 - 14:00
  • Where: Cole 1.33b
  • Series: Systems Seminars Series
  • Format: Seminar

SRG Seminar: New Network Functionality using ILNPv6 and DNS by Khawar Shehzad

This research deals with the introduction of a new network functionality based on Identifier-Locator Network Protocol version 6 (ILNPv6), and Domain Name System (DNS). The chosen area of concern is security and specifically mitigation of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS). The functionality proposed and tested deals with the issues of vulnerability testing, probing, and scanning which directly lead to a successful DDoS attack. The solutions presented can be used as a reactive measure to these security issues. The DDoS is chosen because in recent years DDoS have become the most common and hard to defend attacks. These attacks are on the availability of system/site. There are multiple solutions in the literature but no one solution is based on ILNPv6, and are complex in nature. Similarly, the solutions in literature either require modification in the providers’ networks or they are complex if they are only site-based solutions. Most of these solutions are based on IPv6 protocol and they do not use the concept of naming, as proposed by ILNPv6.

The prime objectives of this research are:

  • to defend against DDoS attacks with the use of naming and DNS
  • to increase the attacker’s effort, reduce vulnerability testing, and random probing by attackers
  • to practically demonstrate the effectiveness of the ILNPv6-based solution for security

Event details

  • When: 18th May 2017 13:00 - 14:00
  • Where: Cole 1.33b
  • Series: Systems Seminars Series
  • Format: Seminar

SRG Seminar: Investigation of Virtual Network Isolation Security in Cloud Computing Using Penetration Testing by Haifa Al Nasseri

Software Defined Networking (SDN) or Virtual Networks (VNs) are required for cloud tenants to leverage demands. However, multi-tenancy can be compromised without proper isolation. Much research has been conducted into VN Isolation; many researchers are not tackling security aspects or checking if their isolation evaluation is complete. Therefore, data leakage is a major security concern in the cloud in general.

This research uses an OpenStack VN and OpenStack Tenant Network to test multi-tenancy features. We are evaluating the relationship between isolation methods used in cloud VN and the amount of data being leaked through using penetration tests. These tests will be used to identify the vulnerabilities causing cloud VN data leakage and to investigate how the vulnerabilities, and the leaked data, can compromise the tenant Virtual Networks.

Event details

  • When: 4th May 2017 13:00 - 14:00
  • Where: Cole 1.33b
  • Series: Systems Seminars Series
  • Format: Talk

Workshop on Considering Technology through a Philosophical Lens

Technology fundamentally shapes our communication, relationships, and access to information. It also evolves through our interaction with it. Dialoguing across disciplines can facilitate an understanding of these complex and reciprocal relationships and fuel reflection and innovation.

This hands-on, participant-driven and experimental workshop will start a discussion of what can come from considering technology through a philosophical lens. Through discussions and hands-on design activities, it will provide an introduction to and reflection on questions at the intersection of computer science and philosophy, such as:

  • How have philosophy and technology shaped each other in the past?
  • How can philosophical ideas and methods guide research in Computer Science?
  • How can thinking through technology help Humanities researchers discover relevance and articulate impact in their research?

Engaging these questions can provide participants an entry-point into exploring these themes in the context of their own research.

This workshop is aimed at researchers from computer science who are curious about philosophy and how to leverage it to inform technically oriented research questions and designing for innovation. It is also aimed at researchers in the arts & humanities, social sciences, and philosophy who are curious about current research questions and approaches in computer science and how questions of technology can stimulate philosophical thought and research.

Attending the workshop is free but please register by emailing Nick Daly: nd40[at]st-andrews.ac.uk

Organisers: Nick Daly (School of Modern Languages) and Uta Hinrichs (School of Computer Science)

 

Event details

  • When: 18th May 2017 10:00 - 13:00
  • Where: Cole 1.33a
  • Format: Workshop