So after my last trip to Lisbon, Portugal, work resumed and tests continued on the virtual machines system. Different tests were done testing mainly Weka-Grid. It was frustrating seeing how this tools would process the requested task. In part it truly parallelize the model building (at least it claims it does based on documentation), plus it also parallelizes the Cross-validation tasks. However, its performance in regards to time taken to complete the task was really not impressive at all. It has a huge overhead before it presents the results, the actual times of building the models are ok but from the moment once sends the command to execute the task to the moment it presents the result it can take from 1 to 3 minutes. This compared to the same task executed locally with regular Weka is very disappointing. In any case even when executing a task locally with Weka-grid it would take a long time to present the results and in many cases it just won;t presetn a result and freeze (maybe was the network system between the virtual machines but could not find any particual cause for this behavior). Weka-grid actually evaluates if the servers have enough memory available then test the connections and rank each server, the first three process the data mining task, and the Cross-validation is executed on how many servers/host one indicates. Besides this fact, another annoying occurrence with Weka-grid was that when performing the RandomForest algorithm tasks, Weka-grid would never complete its initial testing and ranking of servers. No matter how many times I tried it could never display results either on parallel or localhost mode. In any case many insightful results were obtained and the results still have to be evaluated properly. In another area, a little meeting with the collaborators at UPC was scheduled to present some of the insights and results of the experiments. To this meeting Dr. Ricard Gavalda, Dr. Jordi Guitart, Ferran Julia, and Íñigo Goiri were present. I thank them endlessly for their help especially to Ferran and Íñigo since they both are in charge of the virtual machines I use for the experiments ( which continusly ran into issues and questions). We had a picture session but I can't yet post them (but will in the next day or so).

After that meeting more work was done this time on Weka-parallel. I could only implement one of the three algorithms planned due to the fact that Weka-parallel was implemented over an old version of Weka that did not had RandomForest or MultilayerPerceptron implementations. Regardless, Weka-parallel only parallelized the cross-validation portion of the data mining task. I ran with some issues trying to execute it from the command line which made me use the GUI explorer interface of it. but overall the results were gathered. Doing these tests I have learned a lot not just about data mining but also about the virtual systems and UNIX. Also about the many requirements that tools like Weka4ws need to execute properly. 

In any case the International PIRE experience is coming to an end but at the same time is the opening door to my ongoing desire to learn and give to the research community new tools and developments on the parallelization of data mining tools. This task I feel is way bigger than what I am capable of doing at the moment but it has open my eyes to appreciate each and every one of the experiences and knowledge I have and knowledge I need to acquire to accomplish my final goal of creating a plug-in parallelization tool for Weka and the data mining task. For the moment the PIRE experience is the start of a long journey into my research tasks. I just hope now that I am going back to Florida, I can manage my working life with my research life.

Dr. Gavalda and myself, last day in Barcelona:

Moving on into details about living and leaving Barcelona, Spain, last two days I was trying to cancel he HSI service I contracted, and well there was a problem with the last payment. They charge more than what I was expecting and the bank didn’t have enough funds (I opened a bank account here in Barcelona so I could order the HSI service). In any case I deposited enough to cover and I saw today they charged it so this is good since I won’t be leaving debts, at least not a big one. I say at least because they will cancel the service in 10 days so the service will be charged, but no matter how much I fought on the phone with the company they won’t cancel sooner…so I guess there is going to be a balance to pay and they do not accept over the phone or via internet payments. So I I will do a direct deposit from the U.S. as I see possible. But then maybe I don’t need too…I have to wait. In another area of the living experiences in Barcelona, I went souvenir hunting and I found out that one can ask to buy something for less than what is advertised…Yes, one has to kind of fight with the seller and try to convince him to deduct 1 to 5 Euros of an item but is doable, so a tip on saving money on souvenirs is to haggle. Now is a matter of catching some sleep before we go to the airport to take the flight back home.

But before that I just want to thank each and every one of the people that have made this research experience possible including the NSF itself and all the people at FIU and FAU and also the people at UPC and the BSC that in one or another way have collaborated to the PIRE program. I enjoyed knowing people in the field I am interested to develop my study and work, as well as acquiring knowledge and experience in new fields before unknown to me. I am glad I took this opportunity to get to know what I am capable of doing by myself with some help. The living abroad experience was the best I have had but after all I miss Florida and all the big advantages we can enjoy in the United States of America.

 

Then Weka-parallel tests were initiated and work with this tool is on the going.

Here are some pics of where I have my desk and usually work there since my connections to the system are remote to a machine in the computer architecture department, then sometimes I do my work from the flat.

 

 

So many things and activities have taken place over the past 2 weeks. Mainly, Marlon, Javier and I went for a day trip to Madrid, which was a very a exhausting task since we took a train for 8hrs going there walked for about 12hrs and then a bus back to Barcelona for 6hrs. But we had a good time and got to know the city. We visited the archeological museum, the royal palace, another Colon monument and finally an international car show.

Here are some pictures:

After that weekend, at work I was granted access to 8 virtual machines with the Globus toolkit and one without it for me to practice its deployment. The Globus toolkit deployment was very very difficult and couldn’t really complete it, but it served me as a learning tool to unix systems and also gave me a perspective of the work involved on grid computers. In any case in the other virtual machines, I was able to install the weka2ws services which took some time due to the machines needing upgrades on their core services, plus I had to run them one by one. When I proceeded to deploy the client Weka4ws on the machine without Globus toolkit it gave an error due to the lack of the toolkit, which made me move the client to one of the other 8 machines but then there was the issue that Weka4ws cannot be run from the command line but instead it needs a GUI which the system was not configured for it. I requested Dr. Ferran Julia for this and he already setup a client machine for the GUI and added an extra virtual machine to the pool. I have to say that I feel very glad that I am having so much support from the people at UPC, my advisor Dr. Gavalda, and the people at the computer architecture, Dr. Jordi Guitart, Dr. Ferran Julia and Inigo Goiri. I have determined with the assistance of my FAU advisors a work plan to start testing the weka4ws and also Weka-parallel and Weka-grid. Soon I should be able to discuss the positive and negative aspects of each and also do performances reviews.

Last weekend we experienced the nightlife, went to a “discoteca” and overall it was interesting, but one thing I didn’t like was how smoking is so impregnated to the nightlife here in Barcelona. In any case there was much dance music in one room and much spanish music in the other room. Then on Sunday we went to the highest point in Barcelona Mont Tibidabo.

There is a church there and also a theme park. We walked all around and did some sightseeing then we went for a late lunch by the beach and a walk.

 Sunday was a very sunny day, I am glad we enjoyed such a beautiful day.

So the internet got activated in 2 days from the day I requested it. That was very fast yet they didn’t deduct from the bank account the money to pay for it. I suspect they will do it in a month.

Friday night Justin and some people from his office and me went for dinner to the Cerverceria Catalana in the Ramblas Catalunya. This was an upscale Tapas place. We had to write our names down and after about 1 hour we where called for our table. We were 6 people so it took some time to be seated. But oh boy if it was worth it. I am not a seafood person but I ate squid, oysters and even little tiny fried complete fishes. It was delicious. We had 2 bottles of wine and we even shared 3 types of desserts. We ate like kings that day and yes we had to pay like kings (the total bill was about 170 Euros so each one of us paid 30 Euros). Justin office friends said this was the best place for tapas and I agree completely. After being eating for about 3hrs, we left the place at about midnight and then we walked a bit and stopped for a drink and conversation. Everyone left before the metro closing time so were back to our rooms by about 3am after walking back for like 30 mins.

Meanwhile, over the weekend we did some more getting to know Barcelona by going via cable car or teleferico in Spanish to MontJuic, then another cable car to reach the castle of MontJuic.

 This fortress was very impressive; it combined old architecture with middle of this century cannons and heavy artillery. Inside the castle there was a military museum filled with guns, sables and stories.

We paid 1 Euro to access the main areas and there was a 3 Euro fee to access the lower level. I separated from the group just going around and without noticing went to the lower level (that’s right I didn’t pay to go there but there was no guards or anything telling me I was going were I shouldn’t.- actually I remember a guard fighting verbally to another old guy…don’t know why so I just walk by them but they didn’t say anything.)

In any case the lower level was outrageously filled with sables from everywhere and armors from the medieval times. It has also a large room showing only miniatures Spanish soldiers from all times and scaled models of fortresses and cities.

By the time I returned to the main level Marlon, Justin and Javier where all over looking for me...oops. After this we walked to the Olympic complex of Barcelona where the ’92 Olympics took place. It was great. The architecture and the size of every building were impressive.

We rested a bit in the front of the stadium next to the Jordi Palau where there seemed to be a concert of classical music. You could hear a bit of it since it was a closed dome like building. Then we visited this huge cathedral which is a museum. I don’t remember the name but sure will remember it shapes. Coming downhill we pass by the only fountain working in Barcelona due to water restrictions, but it was not working because they only turn it on during the night.

 Also, people were preparing many volleyball-beach stages for a tournament that is going to be taking place. ( I don’t know why they didn’t do it by the beach but in the hill). Lastly, after walking for about 7 hours we came back to our beds to sleep away our memories of the day. On Sunday, since it was so rainy and dark we sleep/rest the morning away. In the afternoon we went to the Plaza Monumental, were a Corrida de Toros was going to be held but in disappointment it was cancelled maybe due to the weather. It was interesting seeing protesters for animal rights, there was even a guy dress in white with blood stain all over and a big poster saying something like no more bloodshed of animals. In any case, we ate something and then walked down to the beach to try to get into the casino, but we didn’t bring any original documents so they didn’t let us in. Instead, more walking by the beach to catch the metro going back home. Monday came, and I finally have a system where I can work. I meet with Dr. Guitart and another researcher from the UPC Computer Architecture Department and they were very kind and open to help me. Access rights and accounts were granted and now I am starting to set up what needed to run Weka4WS successfully. Oh I forgot, we are planning on going to Rome, Italy so tickets and hostel have been reserved. I was very surprised of how cheap the tickets were (about 75 Euros roundtrip), also I’m considering going to Lisboa, Portugal. We will see what else the old continent has in reserve for us.

So Monday came and the main event was a meeting with Dra.Yolanda Becerra to discuss my project and program access to the needed resources. This meeting was at the end of the day so during the morning and early afternoon I read all about the installation and requirements of the Weka4WS grid data mining tool in preparation to the meeting. But once we had the meeting I explained what my intentions were and what I wanted to accomplish during my project. But since Weka4WS runs under the Globus Toolkit framework Yolanda could not help us much since she works in the group of grid virtualization and mainly under the framework of the Hadoop MapReduce for grids. However, we discussed the possibility to use the MapReduce framework to test some of the other Grid/Parallel data mining tools and compare against the Globus Toolkit framework. This is an interesting topic since MapReduce is an emergent technology and is used mainly by search engine companies like Yahoo, Amazon, and Google.  After, reading and reviewing the documentation about Hadoop MapReduce technology I think this framework can be used for the planned development of a grid enabling plug-in module for Weka. This plug-in module development is planned for the future since I want to compare, benchmark, and test the present tools available for Grid/Parallel enabled Data Mining Weka projects. From this analysis then I can see the weak and strong points on the applications and define where improvements can be made. At the end of the meeting we determined we need to talk to a different person that was related to Globus Toolkit so I can start working on the Weka4WS. Meanwhile, I am trying to get installed the Hadoop MapReduce framework locally to get a feel of it.

Talking about other situations, we had agreed to pay for the internet service for the flat, but when I went to sign up the prices actually dropped drastically (only 14 for the line, and 40 for the adsl, no fee for the router or the activation) but one downside was that I had to have a local bank account. So I did open an account at La Caixa, they only requested my passport and the account is a a regular account for non residents. The good thing is that any fees where waived because the bank only charges them to people of age 26 or older. Also one can close the account anytime. This was very convinient. So with this account I was able to finish the sign-up process for the Internet. Now it is a matter of waiting some days to get it running.

So I have written about my experiences for the past week but haven't post them until today , so here is a long one :P.

Not much happened at the beginning of the week up until the trip started. Actually, I do want to make a comment on the exchange dollars for Euros issue. I actually exchanged half the money that was given to us ($2000 US) for Euros at a great rate (1.55, at other places the rate was 1.66 or 1.72 plus service fee) at a place in downtown Miami called Abbots foreign exchange. The only thing to be aware at this place is that they will try to give you as many 500 Euro Bills as possible. My advice is to actually exchange half the money you receive for your trip to Spain since once you get to Spain you have to pay cash and upfront for all the housing charges.

Now, the fun part was the trip. I was probably the first person to check in since I checked in at about 10 am. I did this so I could have lunch with my family. I actually had time to go to the dolphin mall buy a pair of shoes, have lunch and come back to the airport at about 12:30pm. Then I went through the security screening which was really fast and without any complications. We departed from Miami at about 2pm and arrived to Philadelphia at 4:30pm. We just had to check in for the Barcelona flight and wait about 15 mins before we boarded. Javier actually almost didn’t make it because he was hungry and went away to get food. I think he was the last person boarding the plane. In any case we departed from Philadelphia at about 6:20pm with final destination Barcelona. The flight itself was uneventful. Most of the time I was either listening to music from my player or sleeping. The chairs were kind of not comfortable I guess because I am a little big sized, but I for an 8hrs flight was not too bad. We had dinner and a little breakfast.

Once we got to Barcelona we picked up our luggage and went out to meet with Ivan Rodero who warmly greeted us.

We waited for sometime for a taxi big enough to fit all of us 5 and the entire luggage we brought. Ivan was impressed of how much stuff we had with us, maybe we could have brought less? In any case we went from the airport straight to the Barcelona housing services were we ran into an issue due to not having enough cash from some of the guys.

They requested the money up front and in cash. Fortunately, I had the money but not the other guys. So they had to run to an ATM and withdraw as much as possible to cover the housing charges. Justin could not withdraw enough but the owner of the flat accepted the amount we had and a note was made that about 470 Euros were left unpaid to be paid in the coming days. After this ordeal we went to the flat to leave the bags and then Ivan explained us a lot of places in Barcelona. I am very thankful to him since he took the time to receive us and actually marked on a big map all of the places we should visit and not visit. In addition he explained to us the metro system and we bought our first metro card for 10-trips which was bout 7.20 Euros. Then since we were so tired we stopped at the next food looking place to eat which ended up being not so good. We had some sandwiches which really were not that great but after that we went to the flat to decide on the rooms.

We draw numbers to determine our rooms. The flat was furnished, but it lacked some essentials like towels and toilet paper and other little things so we went to do a little grocery shopping. After that we went to sleep since it was probably too much for us due to the trip.

Next day we took the metro to the UPC and we registered at the OMI office. There we got complimentary bags and Barcelona information and then each one of us went to our advisors to set up our work places and discuss our projects.

I met with Dr. Ricard Gavalda and he was very helpful and nice. He helped me to request accounts access and set up a desk for my work. I still need to talk to someone else about the grid environment setup but this will come Monday. Meanwhile, since I had access to the internet I caught up with my finances, emails, family and friends. I also read about Weka4WS in preparation to the main work I will be doing. I forgot that I met also with Dra. Rosa Badia for lunch with Javier and Marlon, she was also very helpful and nice. After all this I went back to our flat and went on my quest to sign up for internet service for the flat. It actually was not too good because the cheapest way to get ADSL installed required a contract for 12 months and without a contract the charges were high (80 for setup, 35 for wifi router, and 45 per month of service. Compared to the contract it would be 13 for setup, free wifi router and only 25 per month for service but if the contract was broken the penalty fee would be 170 Euros). We still discussing if we are going to acquire the service. In any case we met back at the flat and went on a walking trip to Las Ramblas strip and the port where the monument to Colon is. It was dark so not much sigh seeing but the walk was very nice and got to see a lot of people. A nice moment was when we went to the Museum of history close to the Plaza de la Constitucion and there was live music and dance. But this music was the kind of music to dance in palaces and the dance was like for ballrooms, almost like the stile of the movies in the times of kings and queens. Later, we were tired of walking so we stopped for some rest and then went back to the flat. Next day we will try to take one of the tour buses to get a grip of all Barcelona but we will see. Pictures will come once I download them from my camera.

Next day......

The aquarium and the beach

Saturday came and we went to the aquarium. In the way and by our flat there was shopping tents and one team of human towers. They were training but was fu seeing them making a tall human tower.

We didn’t take the tourist bus, but the metro to go there, the aquarium was nice if you like fishes. We saw a UK war ship too and houndreds of little boats in the pier.

It was about 14 euros with ISIC discount. After it we went walking to one of the tower that takes you in a cable cart to the mountain by the coast. I think it was called St. Sebastian tower but the waiting time was 45mins and the price 9 Euros. Because of the time we didn’t go but walked instead all the beach side (Barceloneta beach) from the aquarium up to the two towers next to each other (Olimpic complex), or in other words up until the Barcelona casino.

We then found a cultural event it was called Jornada de Castilla y Leon, there was live folklore music and dance.

here is a video of the dance with music, i hope it woks:

 After this it was the metro once more and back to the flat to rest.

On Sunday it was more productive since we visited La Sagrada Familia cathedral,

 la casa Pedrera

and the park Guell.

We walked a lot but it was great. To go to the park Guell one has to climb about 700 meters uphill, but once there the sight is impressive. There Justin tried to play the trumpet but failed.

 Also, in the morning by our flat there was a marching band, I wonder if this kind of cultural demonstrations are done every weekend at the Gracia district. For now rest, do finances and prepare for next workday.

So from my last post many things have occurred. Firstly, I did get my Visa to the Schengen states so I am clear to enter Spain :). Next, we recently received notice of our accomodations..still the actual address I don't know it but I know the distric...waiting on details, there was a link to pictures and details of the flat but the webpage for it is down. Also, I just received the deposit to cover the housing and the food, it is 80% of the total budgeted money, so I will have to bring receipts for anything to get the other 20% once back from Spain.

Since its my first international trip from the US, I am very exited and even stressed over all the little details I have to take care of. Just acquiered my luggage (didnt have any, but you can find a nice 4 piece set and cheap -compare to the shops at the sawgrass mall Ross or others - at the Sunrise flea market :)  ). Also, a new picture camera because my old one was just way too old. And some clothes, and pair of shoes. I gues this research-trip experience is making me overhaul myself...  Some details about luggage policies, with US Airways one can take two checked bags to and from Europe with limits of up to 50 pounds and size up to 61 inches (length + width + height). and a  carry-on bag of up to 51inches, and a personal item which can be a briefcase or laptop bag. I am planning on taking maybe both checked bags and a carry-on with my laptop bag. maybe only one... it really depends on how much they will weight.

Other than that, I already have an appointment with Dr. Gavalda at the BSC to discuss my project next Friday, one day after our arrival to Barcelona.

For now that's it. will post more if anything important or interesting happens before my flight :P.

It has been very challenging acquiring all the documentation to be able to apply for the Visa to Spain. Since I am only a US resident with Colombian Citizenship, I am required to have a Visa to enter the Schengen States which includes Spain.

Originally, the consulate requieres you to have an appointment but the apointment system gave me one 3 months in advance. This was very bad since I ask for it on Feb. but got ot for May 15, and I am suppoused to travel on May 12. Thanks to FIU they could arrange somehow that I could present my application at the beginning of April without an appointment. I just went there when they opened on the date FIU told me to go. there was no delays and no lines, the whole process in the consulate took me about 1hr and 30 mins. I noticed however that when I got out there was a line of people...so it was good I went early as soon as they opened.

I had already presented the application and paperwork, although I think incomplete since I could not get on time a letter from FIU stating details about my trip to Spain such as accommodations and financial support. In any case I presented the original letter of acceptance to the PIRE program from FAU and the letter from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. I believe that was enough for the Spanish consulate to accept my application. they didn’t asked me for an actual insurance document or anything else, which is part of the required documents, but at the same time before leaving the consulate I asked if they needed any other supporting documentation and they said no and to come back on April 25th to pick up my passport. So I am currently eager to get my passport and once for all know if I am able to travel or not to Spain. I Will post soon with any news.

BTW link to Spain consulate: http://www.conspainmiami.org/

Student Name: Juan Bernal  (from FAU)

Supervisor’s Name and Title at FIU/FAU: Andres Folleco, Assistant Professor 

Name of the PIRE International Partner’s Institution: Barcelona Supercomputing Center

Supervisor’s Name and Title at the PIRE International Partner’s Institution: Jordi Torres (Autonomic Systems and eBusiness Platform Manager) Ricard Gavalda (Assistant Professor – LARCA Research Group)

Project Title: Data Mining and Machine Learning Cross Validation over Distributed Networks

 Problem Statement: One common problem our empirical research faces in every experiment is the serialization of fold processing during cross-validation (CV) operations. This situation arises under any data mining and machine learning experiments that use CV operations, regardless of the type of algorithm used or application domain. 

Motivation and Impact: There is a serious bottle-neck when conducting CV operations for any Data Mining and Machine Learning initiative. Wasted time as well as inefficient use of resources are ubiquitous problems faced constantly in these settings. The plan is to use High Performance Super Computing resources that are Grid-enabled and/or distributed over heterogeneous networks to alleviate serialization issues and significant delays during CV operations. 

 Current Status: There have been at least two other initiatives directly related to the GRID initiative that may address the problem stated above (directly or indirectly). Initially, we plan to conduct a technical survey of these studies in order to evaluate and verify their value. We are not aware of any FIU/FAU group currently conducting such study.

 Research Roadmap: 1-) Technical survey of “solutions” directly and/or indirectly related to the stated goals above. 2-) Based on the results of the survey we can either harness any reusable code/solutions/etc. that enhance CV operations and/or3-) Design a solution for the Weka open source commonly used data mining and machine learning tool that minimizes required changes/additions into its architecture. The idea is to create a “pluggable” solution that enables CV operations to be conducted over a GRID enabled and/or distributed heterogeneous network (not necessarily LA- Grid enabled systems). 4-) Implementation of the “pluggable” modules into the Weka tool architecture. All in Java.5-) Test and verification phase. 

Relation to PIRE Core Research Projects: This project fits the CI Integration Layer and specifically the “Data Mining Software Tools” box within this layer. We can foresee similar/spin-off projects into other closely related areas in at least one other layer: The CI Enablement Layer. On the other hand, this project can significantly benefit any of the application domain areas under the CI Application Layer that can use Data Mining and Machine Learning technology directly.