Ioana Banicescu - [ CSE Faculty and Staff ]

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Phone: (662) 325-2756
Email: ioana@cse.msstate.edu

Professor, Ph.D.,
Polytechnic University (New York)
Personal Home Page

Research Areas:

Parallel Algorithms, Scientific Computing

Ioana Banicescu received the Diploma in Engineering (Electronics and Telecommunications) from Polytechnic University, Bucharest - Romania, and the M.S. and the Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from Polytechnic University, New York in 1991 and 1996, respectively. In 1996 she joined the faculty of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Mississippi State University (MSU) as an assistant professor. In 2001 she became an associate professor and in 2006 she was promoted to full professor. Her research interests include parallel algorithms, scientific computing, scheduling theory, load balancing algorithms, performance analysis, optimization, and prediction. Ioana Banicescu also holds a research faculty position in the Center for Computational Sciences (CCS) of the Engineering Research Center (ERC) at MSU, where she is involved in the development of dynamic scheduling algorithms for scalable parallelization and performance optimization of problems in computational sciences. Presently, she is chair of the Scientific Computing Research Focus Group at Mississippi State University.

Ioana Banicescu is a recipient of numerous awards for research and academic excellence including the National Science Foundation (NSF) Early CAREER Award and a few NSF Information Technology Research awards. Ioana Banicescu has served on a number of NSF review panels. She has given many invited talks at universities, government laboratories, and at various national and international forums in the United States and overseas. She has authored and co-authored more than 70 articles published in journals, books, and conference proceedings.

Ioana Banicescu is a member of the editorial boards of Cluster Computing journal and of the International Journal on Computational Science and Engineering. She has served as guest editor of a number of special issue journals, as editor of a symposium proceedings, and co-editor of a number of workshop proceedings. In 2003, she has served as General Chair of High Performance Computing Symposium (HPC2003) of the Society of Modeling and Simulation, and as Co-founder and Program Chair in 2003 of the IEEE International workshop on Challenges of Large Applications in Distributed Environments (CLADE). In 2003, she has also served as a Co-Chair of the seminar at Dagstuhl Schloss (Germany) on "Adaptivity in Parallel Scientific Computing".

Ioana Banicescu is a senior member of the IEEE Computer Society, and a member of ACM, SIAM and AMS. She serves on steering and program committees of a number of international conferences, symposia and workshops, and on the Executive Board of the IEEE Technical Committee on Parallel Processing (TCPP). In 2004, Bagley College of Engineering at MSU has recognized Ioana Banicescu's scholarly contributions by awarding her the Outstanding Faculty Engineering Research Award , and in 2005 she received the University Faculty Research Award for College of Engineering, and the Hearin Eminent Scholar Award.

Teaching

• Theory of Computation
• Complexity of Sequential and Parallel Algorithms
• Introduction to Autonomic Computing
• Parallel and Distributed Scientific Computing
• Designing Parallel Algorithms
• Advanced Scientific Computing
• Scheduling and Load Balancing Algorithms
• Operating Systems I

Special Topics and Directed Individual Study: Advanced Scientific Computing, Dynamic Scheduling and Load Balancing Algorithms, Algorithms for Problems in Molecular Dynamics, Parallel Algorithms for Unstructured and Dynamically Varying Problems, Parallel Algorithms and Scientific Computing, Models of Parallel Computation, Task Scheduling and Load Balancing Algorithms, Loop Scheduling Algorithms: A Survey, Graph Partitioning Algorithms, Effectiveness of Factoring Methods in Computational Field Simulation on Unstructured Grids, Dynamic Domain Decomposition in Parallel CFD Applications, Computational Topics in Web-based High Performance Simulation.

Academic Awards and Honors

• Hearin Eminent Scholar Award - MSU, 2005.
• National Science Foundation Early CAREER Award (2000-2005).
• University Faculty Research Award for Bagley College of Engineeering - MSU, 2005.
• Outstanding Faculty Engineering Research Award - Bagley College of Engineering - MSU 2004.
• Hearin Professor of Engineering Award - College of Engineering - Mississippi State University, 2001.
• Stanford University - New Century Scholars - National Science Foundation Award, August 1998.

Selected Publications

Journal Articles

• Design and Implementation of a Novel Dynamic Load Balancing Library for Cluster Computing, I. Banicescu, R. Carino, J. Pabico and M. Balasubramaniam. Parallel Computing - Elsevier - Vol. 31(7), pp 736-756, July 2005.
• A Load Balancing Tool for Distributed Parallel Loops, R. Carino and I. Banicescu. Cluster Computing: The Journal of Networks, Tools, and Applications-Kluwer Academic Publishers, (To Appear), Vol. 8(4), Oct 2005.
• Performance Evaluation of Dynamic Load Balancing Library for Cluster Computing, R. Carino, I. Banicescu, J. Pabico and M. Balasubramaniam. International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering, (To Appear), Vol. 3(4), 2005.
• Vector Nonlinear Time-Series Analysis of Gamma-Ray Burst Datasets on Heterogeneous Clusters, I. Banicescu and R. Carino, Scientific Programming, (To Appear), Vol. 13(2), 2005.
• On the Scalability of Dynamic Scheduling Scientific Applications with Adaptive Weighted Factoring, I. Banicescu and V. Velusamy. Cluster Computing: The Journal of Networks, Software Tools and Applications -Kluwer Academic Publishers, Vol. 6 (3), pp. 213-226, 2003.
• Transient Effect of a Free Particle Wave Packet in the Hydrodynamic Formulation of the Time-dependent Schroedinger Equation, R. Vadapalli, C. Weatherford, I. Banicescu, R. Cari�o, J. Zhu, International Journal of Quantum Chemistry - John Wiley and Sons, - Vol. 94 (1), pp. 1-8, 2003.
• Loop Scheduling with Adaptive Factoring Methods in Scientific Applications, R. Cari�o and I. Banicescu, Journal of Supercomputing Accepted 2005.
• Parallel Adaptive Quantum Trajectory Method for Wavepacket Simulations, R. Cari�o and I. Banicescu, Parallel Processing Letters, World Scientific Publishing Co., (To Appear), Vol. 15(4), December 2005.
• Accuracy Studies of a Parallel Algorithm for Solving the Hydrodynamic Formulation of the Time-Dependent Scroedinger Equation, G. Brook, P. Oppenheimer, C. Weatherford, I. Banicescu, J. Zhu. Journal of Molecular Structure: THEOCHEM (Theory and Modeling in Chemistry) - Special Issue on "Current Trends in Computational Chemistry", - Elsevier Science - Vol. 592, pp. 69-77, 2002.
• Experiences from Integrating Algorithmic and Systemic Load Balancing Strategies, I. Banicescu, S. Ghafoor , V. Velusamy, S. Russ, and M. Bilderback, Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience - John Wiley and Sons, Ltd. - Vol. 13 (2), pp. 121-139, 2001.
• Solving the Hydrodynamic Formulation of Quantum Mechanics: A Parallel MLS Method, G. Brook, P. Oppenheimer, C. Weatherford, I. Banicescu, J. Zhu. International Journal of Quantum Chemistry - John Wiley & Sons, - Vol.85(11), pp. 263-271, 2001.
• The Optimal Effectiveness Metric for Parallel Application Analysis, E. Luke, I. Banicescu and J. Li. Information Processing Letters - (Special Issue on Parallel Models), - Elsevier - Vol. 66(5), pp. 223-229, June 1998.

Book Chapters

• Message Passing Parallel Adaptive Quantum Trajectory Method, R. Cari�o, I. Banicescu, R. Vadapalli, C. Weatherford and J. Zhu, Chapter 9, pp. 127-139, in High Performance Scientific and Engineering Computing, L. T Yang and Y. Pan (Editors), Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004.
• Load Balancing and Data Locality via Fractiling: An Experimental Study, S. F. Hummel, I. Banicescu, C-T. Wang and J. Wein. Chapter 7, pp. 85-98, in Languages, Compilers and Run-Time Systems for Scalable computers, B. K. Szymanski and B. Sinharoy (Editors), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, MA, 1996.

Articles in Conference Proceedings

• Overhead Analysis of a Dynamic Load Balancing Library fo Cluster Computing, I. Banicescu, R. Cari�o, J. Pabico and M. Balasubramaniam, In Proceedings of the IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS 2005) - Heterogeneous Computing Workshop, Denver, April 3-8, 2005, (on CD-ROM), IEEE Computer Society Press.
• Simulations of Vector Nonlinear Time Series Models on Clusters, R. Cari�o, I. Banicescu, J. Harvill and J.P. Lestrade, In Proceedings of the IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS 2005) - PDSEC Workshop, Denver, April 3-8, 2005, (on CD-ROM), IEEE Computer Society Press.
• Computational Challenges in Vector Functional Coefficient Autoregressive Models, I. Banicescu, R. Cari�o, J. Harvill and J.P. Lestrade, International Conference on Computational Science (ICCS'05), Lecture Notes in Computer Science 3514, V.S. Sunderam et. al. (Eds.) Springer Verlag, 2005, pp. 237-244.
• Automatic Selection of Loop Scheduling Algorithms Using Reinforcement Learning, S. Dhandayuthapani, I. Banicescu, R. Carino, E. Hansen, J. Pabico, M. Rashid, In Proceedings of the IEEE International Workshop on Challenges of Large Applications in Distributed Environments (CLADE2005), pp.87-96, July 2005, Research Triangle Park, NC, IEEE Computer Society Press.
• A Framework for Statistical Analysis of Datasets on Heterogeneous Clusters, R. Carino and I. Banicescu, In Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing 2005 (HeteroPar), September 27-30, Boston, MA, on CD-ROM, 2005.
• Quantum Trajectory with Dynamic Loop Scheduling and Reinforcement Learning, R. Carino, I. Banicescu, J. Pabico and M. Rashid, In IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing 2005, (refereed paper, accepted for presentation as poster), September 27-30, Boston, MA, 2005, IEEE Computer Society Press.
• A Resource Management System for Adaptive Parallel Applications in Cluster Environments, S. Ghafoor, T. Haupt, I. Banicescu, R. Carino, and N. Ammari, In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Linux Clusters: The HPC Revolution 2005, April 25-28, 2005, Chapel Hill, North Carolina - on CD -ROM.
• A Novel Dynamic Load Balancing Library for Cluster Computing, M. Balasubramaniam, K. Barker, I. Banicescu, N. Chrisochoides, J. Pabico and R. Carino, In Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Computing (ISPDC/HeteroPar 2004) - Cork, Ireland, July 5-8, 2004, (On CD-ROM), IEEE Computer Society Press.
• Dynamic Loop Scheduling with Processor Groups, R. Cari�o, I. Banicescu, T. Rauber and G. Ruenger, In Proceedings of 17th ISCA International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems (PDCS 2004), pp. 78-84.
• Parallel Adaptive Quantum Trajectory Method for Wavepacket Simulations, R. Cari�o, I. Banicescu, R. Vadapalli, C. Weatherford, J. Zhu, In Proceedings of the IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS 2003) - PDSECA Workshop, Nice, April 2003, (on CD-ROM), IEEE Computer Society Press.
• A Load Balancing Tool for Distributed Parallel Loops, R. L. Cari�o and I. Banicescu, In Proceedings of the IEEE International Workshop on Challenges of Large Applications in Distributed Environments (CLADE2003) - June 2003, Seattle, pp. 39-46, IEEE Computer Society Press.
• Wavepacket Simulations using the Quantum Trajectory Method with Loop Scheduling, R.L. Cari�o, I. Banicescu, R. Vadapalli, T. Dubreus, and C. Weatherford, and J. Zhu, In Proceedings of the High Performance Computing Symposium (HPC2003), Orlando FL, April 2003, pp. 93-99, also on CD-ROM.
• Load Balancing Highly Irregular Computations with the Adaptive Factoring, I. Banicescu and V. Velusamy. In Proceedings of the IEEE - International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS 2002) - Heterogeneous Computing Workshop - Fort Lauderdale, April 2002 - on CDROM - IEEE Computer Society Press.
• Dynamic Scheduling of Parallel Loops with Variable Iterate Execution Times, R.L. Cari�o and I. Banicescu. In Proceedings of the IEEE - International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS 2002) - Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Scientific and Engineering Computing with Applications - Fort Lauderdale, April 2002 - on CDROM - IEEE Computer Society Press.
• Load Balancing Parallel Loops on Message-Passing Systems, R. Cari�o and I. Banicescu, In Proceedings of the 14th IASTED International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems. S.G. Akl and T. Gonzales (Editors), Cambridge MA, USA. pp. 362-367, 2002.
• LBsim : A Load Balancing Simulator for Data Parallel Applications, M. Krishnan, S.K. Ghafoor and I. Banicescu, In Proceedings of the High Performance Computing Symposium (HPC 2002) - The Society for Modeling and Simulation International (SCS), on CDROM, San Diego, CA, 2002.*
• Improving Load Balancing and Data Locality in N-Body Simulations via Adaptive Weighted Fractiling, H. Zeng, J.Devaprasad, M.Krishnan, I.Banicescu, J.Zhu. In Proceedings of the High Performance Computing Symposium (HPC 2002), The Society for Modeling and Simulation International (SCS), on CDROM, San Diego, CA.*
• Performance of Scheduling Scientific Applications with Adaptive Weighted Factoring, I. Banicescu and V. Velusamy. In Proceedings of the IEEE - International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS 2001) - Heterogeneous Computing Workshop, San Francisco, April 2001, - on CD-ROM - IEEE Computer Society Press.
• Migration - A Mechanism for Enhancing Performance of Parallel Applications in Network of Workstations, S. K. Ghafoor, V.Velusamy, I. Banicescu and S. Russ. In Proceedings of the High Performance Computing Symposium (HPC 2001), The Society for Modeling and Simulation International (SCS), pp. 135-140, Seattle, April 2001.
• Parallel Genetic Algorithms for Tuning a Fuzzy Data Mining System, Q.Liu, S. M. Bridges, I. Banicescu. In Proceedings of ANNIE 2001, - Intelligent Engineering Systems Through Artificial Neural Networks, Vol.II, pp. 273-278, November 2001.
• Adaptive Factoring: A Dynamic Scheduling Method Tuned to the Rate of Weight Changes, I. Banicescu and Z. Liu. In Proceedings of the High Performance Computing Symposium (HPC 2000), The Society for Modeling and Simulation International (SCS), pp. 122-129, Washington, D.C., April 2000.
• Effectiveness of Adaptive Weighted Factoring in Computational Field Simulation on Unstructured Grids, I. Banicescu, P. Soni, S. Ghafoor, and V. Velusamy. In Proceedings of the High Performance Computing Symposium (HPC 2000), The Society for Modeling and Simulation International (SCS), pp. 168-177, Washington, D. C., April 2000.
• Dynamic Load Balancing with Adaptive Weighted Factoring in Computational Field Simulation Applications, I. Banicescu and V. Velusamy, In Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing Systems (PDCS 2000), pp. 352-359, Las Vegas, November 2000.
• Efficient Data Management for Load Balancing Scientific Applications in Distributed Computing Environment with Factoring Methods, V. Velusamy and I. Banicescu, In Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Processing Techniques and Applications (PDPTA 2000), pp. 1381-1388, Vol. 4, Las Vegas, June 2000.
• Guiding Factoring by Means of Reinforcement Learning: A New Approach to Load Balancing Scientific Applications, I. Banicescu, In Proceedings of the Third International Workshop on Distributed Communities on the Web, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, LNCS 1830, (addendum, pp. 1-8), Springer Verlag, June 2000.
• Performance Evaluation of the Parallel Fast Multipole Algorithm Using the Optimal Effectiveness Metric, I. Banicescu and M. Bilderback. In Proceedings of the High Performance Computing Symposium (HPC'99), pp. 206-210. San Diego, April 1999.
• Competitive Resource Management in Distributed Computing Environments with Hectiling, I. Banicescu, S. Russ, M. Bilderback and S. Ghafoor. In Proceedings of the High Performance Computing Symposium (HPC'99), pp. 337-343, San Diego, April 1999.
• Running Scientific Computations in a Web Operating System Environment, I. Banicescu and H. Unger. In Proceedings of the High Performance Computing Symposium (HPC'99) - Special Session on Adaptive and Intelligent Systems, pp. 356-362, San Diego, April 1999.
• Providing the Web Operating System with an Effective Search Method for Sharing Available Resources, D. W. Dearholt, U.K. Kudikyala, I. Banicescu, and M. L. Bilderback. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Distributed Computing on the Web (DCW'99), pp. 121-128, Germany, 1999.
• Experiences with Fractiling in N-Body Simulations, I. Banicescu and R. Lu. In Proceedings of High Performance Computing Symposium (HPC'98), pp. 121-126, Boston, April 1998.
• Hectiling: An Integration of Fine and Coarse-Grained Load Balancing Strategies, S. Russ, I. Banicescu, S. Ghafoor, B. Janapareddi, J. Robinson, and R. Lu. In Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on High Performance Distributed Computing (HPDC'98), pp. 106-113, Chicago, July 1998.
• Efficient Resource Management for Scientific Applications in Distributed Computing Environment, I. Banicescu, S. Ghafoor and M. Bilderback. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Distributed Computing on the Web (DCW'98), pp. 45-54, Germany, 1998.
• A Metric for Parallel Poly-Algorithm Design, E Luke, I. Banicescu and J. Li. In Symposium on Parallel Algorithms and Architectures (SPAA'97), (refereed paper, accepted as poster presentation, SPAA - Review), June 1997.
• Balancing Processor Loads and Exploiting Data Locality in N-Body Simulations, I. Banicescu and S. F. Hummel. In Proceedings of Supercomputing '95 Conference, (on CD-ROM) - IEEE Computer Society Press - San Diego, December 1995.
• On the Scalability of Dynamic Scheduling, I. Banicescu , S. F. Hummel, C-T. Wang and J. Wein. In Proceeding of the Third Workshop on Languages, Compilers and Run-Time Systems for Scalable Parallel Computers, 1995.

Other Publications

• Competitive Parallelization of the Fast Multipole Algorithm in Distributed Memory Architectures, I. Banicescu and R. Lu. In Proceedings of the 4th SIAM Congress - SIMAI'98 - Special Session: Numerical Grid Generation and Industrial Applications (extended abstract), pp. 72-75, Italy 1998.