Brian Van Straalen

Brian Van Straalen received his BASc Mechanical Engineering in 1993 and MMath in Applied Mathematics in 1995 from University of Waterloo. He has been working in the area of scientific computing since he was an undergraduate. He worked with Advanced Scientific Computing Ltd. developing CFD codes written largely in Fortran 77 running on VAX and UNIX workstations. He then worked as part of the thermal modeling group with Bell Northern Research. His Master's thesis work was in the area of a posteriori error estimation for Navier-Stokes equations, which is an area that is still relevant to Department of Energy scientific computing. He worked for Beam Technologies developing the PDESolve package: a combined symbolic manipulation package and finite element solver running in parallel on some of the earliest NSF and DOE MPP parallel computers. He came to LBNL in 1998 to work with Phil Colella and start up the Chombo Project, now in its 13th year of development. He is currently working on his Ph.D. in the Computer Science department at UC Berkeley.
Journal Articles
Protonu Basu, Samuel Williams, Brian Van Straalen, Leonid Oliker, Phillip Colella, Mary Hall, "Compiler-Based Code Generation and Autotuning for Geometric Multigrid on GPU-Accelerated Supercomputers", Parallel Computing (PARCO), April 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.parco.2017.04.002
Andrew Myers, Phillip Colella, Brian Van Straalen, "A 4th-Order Particle-in-Cell Method with Phase-Space Remapping for the Vlasov-Poisson Equation", submitted to SISC, February 1, 2016,
Andrew Myers, Phillip Colella, Brian Van Straalen, "The Convergence of Particle-in-Cell Schemes for Cosmological Dark Matter Simulations", The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 816, Issue 2, article id. 56, 2016,
A Chien, P Balaji, P Beckman, N Dun, A Fang, H Fujita, K Iskra, Z… more authors » "Versioned Distributed Arrays for Resilience in Scientific Applications: Global View Resilience", Journal of Computational Science, 2015,
Anshu Dubey, Ann Almgren, John Bell, Martin Berzins, Steve Brandt, Greg… more authors » "A survey of high level frameworks in block-structured adaptive mesh refinement packages", Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing, 2014, 74:3217--3227, doi: 10.1016/j.jpdc.2014.07.001
A Dubey, B Van Straalen, "Experiences from software engineering of large scale AMR multiphysics code frameworks", arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.1781, January 1, 2013, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/jors.am
Vay, J.L., Colella, P., McCorquodale, P., Van Straalen, B., Friedman, A., Grote, D.P., "Mesh Refinement for Particle-in-Cell Plasma Simulations: Applications to and Benefits for Heavy Ion Fusion", Laser and Particle Beams. Vol.20 N.4 (2002), pp. 569-575, 2002,
- Download File: A151.pdf (pdf: 624 KB)
Conference Papers
John Bachan, Dan Bonachea, Paul H Hargrove, Steve Hofmeyr, Mathias… more authors » "The UPC++ PGAS library for Exascale Computing", Proceedings of the Second Annual PGAS Applications Workshop (PAW17), November 13, 2017, doi: 10.1145/3144779.3169108
Dharshi Devendran, Suren Byna, Bin Dong, Brian van Straalen, Hans Johansen,… more authors » "Collective I/O Optimizations for Adaptive Mesh Refinement Data Writes on Lustre File System", Cray User Group (CUG) 2016, May 10, 2016,
Andrey Ovsyannikov, Melissa Romanus, Brian Van Straalen, Gunther H. Weber, David Trebotich, "Scientific Workflows at DataWarp-Speed: Accelerated Data-Intensive Science using NERSC s Burst Buffer", Proceedings of the 1st Joint International Workshop on Parallel Data Storage & Data Intensive Scalable Computing Systems, IEEE Press, 2016, 1--6, doi: 10.1109/PDSW-DISCS.2016.005
Protonu Basu, Samuel Williams, Brian Van Straalen, Mary Hall, Leonid Oliker, Phillip Colella, "Compiler-Directed Transformation for Higher-Order Stencils", International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS), May 2015,
- Download File: ipdps15CHiLL.pdf (pdf: 1.8 MB)
Yu Jung Lo, Samuel Williams, Brian Van Straalen, Terry J. Ligocki, Matthew… more authors » "Roofline Model Toolkit: A Practical Tool for Architectural and Program Analysis", Performance Modeling, Benchmarking and Simulation of High Performance Computer Systems (PMBS), November 2014, doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-17248-4_7
- Download File: PMBS14-Roofline.pdf (pdf: 340 KB)
Protonu Basu, Samuel Williams, Brian Van Straalen, Leonid Oliker, Mary Hall, "Converting Stencils to Accumulations for Communication-Avoiding Optimization in Geometric Multigrid", Workshop on Stencil Computations (WOSC), October 2014,
- Download File: wosc14chill.pdf (pdf: 973 KB)
Samuel Williams, Mike Lijewski, Ann Almgren, Brian Van Straalen, Erin… more authors » "s-step Krylov subspace methods as bottom solvers for geometric multigrid", Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium, 2014 IEEE 28th International, January 2014, 1149--1158, doi: 10.1109/IPDPS.2014.119
- Download File: ipdps14cabicgstabfinal.pdf (pdf: 943 KB)
- Download File: ipdps14CABiCGStabtalk.pdf (pdf: 944 KB)
Protonu Basu, Anand Venkat, Mary Hall, Samuel Williams, Brian Van Straalen, Leonid Oliker, "Compiler generation and autotuning of communication-avoiding operators for geometric multigrid", 20th International Conference on High Performance Computing (HiPC), December 2013, 452--461,
- Download File: hipc13chill.pdf (pdf: 989 KB)
P. Basu, A. Venkat, M. Hall, S. Williams, B. Van Straalen, L. Oliker, "Compiler Generation and Autotuning of Communication-Avoiding Operators for Geometric Multigrid", Workshop on Stencil Computations (WOSC), 2013,
Christopher D. Krieger, Michelle Mills Strout, Catherine Olschanowsky,… more authors » "Loop chaining: A programming abstraction for balancing locality and parallelism", Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium Workshops & PhD Forum (IPDPSW), 2013 IEEE 27th International, May 2013, 375--384, doi: 10.1109/IPDPSW.2013.68
S. Williams, D. Kalamkar, A. Singh, A. Deshpande, B. Van Straalen, M.… more authors » "Optimization of Geometric Multigrid for Emerging Multi- and Manycore Processors", Proceedings of the International Conference on High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis (SC), November 2012, doi: 10.1109/SC.2012.85
- Download File: sc12-mg.pdf (pdf: 808 KB)
- Download File: sc12mgtalk.pdf (pdf: 1.9 MB)
B. Van Straalen, P. Colella, D. T. Graves, N. Keen, "Petascale Block-Structured AMR Applications Without Distributed Meta-data", Euro-Par 2011 Parallel Processing - 17th International Conference, Euro-Par 2011, August 29 - September 2, 2011, Proceedings, Part II. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 6853 Springer 2011, ISBN 978-3-642-23396-8, Bordeaux, France, 2011,
- Download File: EuroPar2011bvs.pdf (pdf: 400 KB)
Deines E., Weber, G.H., Garth, C., Van Straalen, B. Borovikov, S., Martin,… more authors » "On the computation of integral curves in adaptive mesh refinement vector fields", Proceedings of Dagstuhl Seminar on Scientific Visualization 2009, Schloss Dagstuhl, 2011, 2:73-91, LBNL 4972E,
- Download File: 7.pdf (pdf: 799 KB)
Chaopeng Shen, David Trebotich, Sergi Molins, Daniel T Graves, BV Straalen,… more authors » "High performance computations of subsurface reactive transport processes at the pore scale", Proceedings of SciDAC, 2011,
- Download File: SciDAC2011sim.pdf (pdf: 1.1 MB)
Gunther Weber, "Recent advances in visit: Amr streamlines and query-driven visualization", 2010,
- Download File: LBNL-3185E.pdf (pdf: 2.1 MB)
Brian van Straalen, Shalf, J. Ligocki, Keen, Woo-Sun Yang, "Scalability challenges for massively parallel AMR applications", IPDPS, 2009, 1-12,
- Download File: ipdps09submit.pdf (pdf: 529 KB)
B.V. Straalen, J. Shalf, T. Ligocki, N. Keen, and W. Yang, "Scalability Challenges for Massively Parallel AMR Application", 23rd IEEE International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing, 2009., 2009,
- Download File: ipdps09finalcertified.pdf (pdf: 366 KB)
G.H. Weber, V. Beckner, H. Childs, T. Ligocki, M. Miller, B. van Straalen, E.W. Bethel, "Visualization of Scalar Adaptive Mesh Refinement Data", Numerical Modeling of Space Plasma Flows: Astronum-2007 (Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series), April 2008, 385:309-320, LBNL 220E,
- Download File: LBNL-220E.pdf (pdf: 1.5 MB)
D. Trebotich, B.V. Straalen, D. Graves and P. Colella, "Performance of Embedded Boundary Methods for CFD with Complex Geometry", 2008 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 125 012083, 2008,
- Download File: SciDAC2008-EBPerform.pdf (pdf: 167 KB)
P. Colella, D. Graves, T. Ligocki, D. Trebotich and B.V. Straalen, "Embedded Boundary Algorithms and Software for Partial Differential Equations", 2008 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 125 012084, 2008,
- Download File: SciDAC2008-EBAlgor.pdf (pdf: 972 KB)
Phillip Colella, John Bell, Noel Keen, Terry Ligocki, Michael Lijewski, Brian van Straalen, "Performance and Scaling of Locally-Structured Grid Methods for Partial Differential Equations", presented at SciDAC 2007 Annual Meeting, 2007,
- Download File: AMRPerformance.pdf (pdf: 386 KB)
Kevin Long, Brian Van Straalen, "PDESolve: an object-oriented PDE analysis environment", Object Oriented Methods for Interoperable Scientific and Engineering Computing: Proceedings of the 1998 SIAM Workshop, 1998, 99:225,
Book Chapters
B. Van Straalen, D. Trebotich, A. Ovsyannikov and D.T. Graves, "Scalable Structured Adaptive Mesh Refinement with Complex Geometry", Exascale Scientific Applications: Programming Approaches for Scalability, Performance, and Portability, edited by Straatsma, T., Antypas, K., Williams, T., (Chapman and Hall/CRC: November 9, 2017)
Presentation/Talks
Samuel Williams, Mark Adams, Brian Van Straalen, Performance Portability in Hybrid and Heterogeneous Multigrid Solvers, Copper Moutain, March 2016,
- Download File: CU16SWWilliams.pptx (pptx: 1 MB)
Reports
John Bachan, Scott B. Baden, Dan Bonachea, Johnny Corbino, Max Grossman,… more authors » "UPC++ v1.0 Programmer’s Guide, Revision 2023.9.0", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report LBNL-2001560, December 2023, doi: 10.25344/S4P01J
John Bachan, Scott B. Baden, Dan Bonachea, Johnny Corbino, Max Grossman,… more authors » "UPC++ v1.0 Programmer’s Guide, Revision 2023.3.0", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, March 30, 2023, LBNL 2001517, doi: 10.25344/S43591
John Bachan, Scott B. Baden, Dan Bonachea, Johnny Corbino, Max Grossman,… more authors » "UPC++ v1.0 Programmer’s Guide, Revision 2022.9.0", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, September 30, 2022, LBNL 2001479, doi: 10.25344/S4QW26
John Bachan, Scott B. Baden, Dan Bonachea, Max Grossman, Paul H. Hargrove,… more authors » "UPC++ v1.0 Programmer’s Guide, Revision 2022.3.0", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, March 2022, LBNL 2001453, doi: 10.25344/S41C7Q
John Bachan, Scott B. Baden, Dan Bonachea, Max Grossman, Paul H. Hargrove,… more authors » "UPC++ v1.0 Programmer’s Guide, Revision 2021.9.0", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, September 2021, LBNL 2001424, doi: 10.25344/S4SW2T
John Bachan, Scott B. Baden, Dan Bonachea, Max Grossman, Paul H. Hargrove,… more authors » "UPC++ v1.0 Programmer’s Guide, Revision 2020.10.0", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, October 2020, LBNL 2001368, doi: 10.25344/S4HG6Q
John Bachan, Scott B. Baden, Dan Bonachea, Max Grossman, Paul H. Hargrove,… more authors » "UPC++ v1.0 Programmer’s Guide, Revision 2020.3.0", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, March 2020, LBNL 2001269, doi: 10.25344/S4P88Z
John Bachan, Scott Baden, Dan Bonachea, Paul Hargrove, Steven Hofmeyr,… more authors » "UPC++ v1.0 Programmer’s Guide, Revision 2019.9.0", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, September 2019, LBNL 2001236, doi: 10.25344/S4V30R
John Bachan, Scott Baden, Dan Bonachea, Paul Hargrove, Steven Hofmeyr,… more authors » "UPC++ v1.0 Specification, Revision 2019.9.0", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, September 14, 2019, LBNL 2001237, doi: 10.25344/S4ZW2C
John Bachan, Scott Baden, Dan Bonachea, Paul Hargrove, Steven Hofmeyr,… more authors » "UPC++ Programmer's Guide, v1.0-2019.3.0", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, March 2019, LBNL 2001191, doi: 10.25344/S4F301
John Bachan, Scott Baden, Dan Bonachea, Paul Hargrove, Steven Hofmeyr,… more authors » "UPC++ Specification v1.0, Draft 10", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, March 15, 2019, LBNL 2001192, doi: 10.25344/S4JS30
John Bachan, Scott Baden, Dan Bonachea, Paul Hargrove, Steven Hofmeyr,… more authors » "UPC++ Programmer's Guide, v1.0-2018.9.0", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, September 2018, LBNL 2001180, doi: 10.25344/S49G6V
John Bachan, Scott Baden, Dan Bonachea, Paul Hargrove, Steven Hofmeyr,… more authors » "UPC++ Specification v1.0, Draft 8", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, September 26, 2018, LBNL 2001179, doi: 10.25344/S45P4X
John Bachan, Scott Baden, Dan Bonachea, Paul H. Hargrove, Steven Hofmeyr,… more authors » "UPC++ Specification v1.0, Draft 6", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, March 26, 2018, LBNL 2001135, doi: 10.2172/1430689
John Bachan, Scott Baden, Dan Bonachea, Paul H. Hargrove, Steven Hofmeyr,… more authors » "UPC++ Programmer’s Guide, v1.0-2018.3.0", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, March 2018, LBNL 2001136, doi: 10.2172/1430693
John Bachan, Scott Baden, Dan Bonachea, Paul Hargrove, Steven Hofmeyr,… more authors » "UPC++ Programmer’s Guide, v1.0-2017.9", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, September 2017, LBNL 2001065, doi: 10.2172/1398522
John Bachan, Scott Baden, Dan Bonachea, Paul H. Hargrove, Steven Hofmeyr,… more authors » "UPC++ Specification v1.0, Draft 4", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Tech Report, September 27, 2017, LBNL 2001066, doi: 10.2172/1398521
P. Colella, D. T. Graves, T. J. Ligocki, G.H. Miller , D. Modiano, P.O.… more authors » "EBChombo Software Package for Cartesian Grid, Embedded Boundary Applications", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Technical Report LBNL-6615E, January 9, 2015,
- Download File: ebmain.pdf (pdf: 681 KB)
M. Adams, P. Colella, D. T. Graves, J.N. Johnson, N.D. Keen, T. J. Ligocki.… more authors » "Chombo Software Package for AMR Applications - Design Document", Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Technical Report LBNL-6616E, January 9, 2015,
- Download File: chomboDesign.pdf (pdf: 994 KB)
Mark F. Adams, Jed Brown, John Shalf, Brian Van Straalen, Erich Strohmaier, Samuel Williams, "HPGMG 1.0: A Benchmark for Ranking High Performance Computing Systems", LBNL Technical Report, 2014, LBNL 6630E,
- Download File: hpgmg.pdf (pdf: 183 KB)
Samuel Williams, Dhiraj D. Kalamkar, Amik Singh, Anand M. Deshpande, Brian… more authors » "Implementation and Optimization of miniGMG - a Compact Geometric Multigrid Benchmark", December 2012, LBNL 6676E,
- Download File: miniGMGLBNL-6676E.pdf (pdf: 906 KB)
Brian Van Straalen, David Trebotich, Terry Ligocki, Daniel T. Graves,… more authors » "An Adaptive Cartesian Grid Embedded Boundary Method for the Incompressible Navier Stokes Equations in Complex Geometry", LBNL Report Number: LBNL-1003767, 2012, LBNL LBNL Report Numb,
- Download File: paper5.pdf (pdf: 360 KB)