Lael Verace
Status: Former Trainee
- Software Engineering for Scientific Computing
- GPU Programming
- FPGA Programming
Biography and Interests
I am a third-year graduate student in the CMS group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, advised by Professor Kevin Black.
Project
I work with Fermilab scientists Dr. Syed Asif Raza Shah, Dr. Oliver Gutsche, and Dr. Philip DeMar on a networking R&D project titled “Performance Testing of High-Speed Scientific Networks through A Distributed Load Generation Approach.” Our goal is to develop an infrastructure which allows us to test the performance of wide area network connections among scientific computing sites on a large scale. We aim to do this through the dynamic deployment of lightweight perfSONAR Testpoint containers across multiple machines which generate network traffic to a given site. This approach allows us to send enough traffic to saturate the network pipe, enabling tests of the network performance in realistic high-volume scenarios. Monitoring the resulting throughput and comparing it to expected values enables us to diagnose unforeseen bottlenecks that might be limiting the performance of scientific network connections once data-volumes increase past their current amounts. By finding and fixing those bottlenecks now, we can prepare and optimize our high-speed scientific network for the future.
Accomplishments
- Gained hands-on experience in containerization, networking, and server management while developing our project on Tier-1 and Tier-2 CMS computing sites.
- Built a system for conducting automated iPerf3 network performance tests using Podman containers hosted across two computing sites. Demonstrated a full scale 200 Gb/s network test between UW-Madison and Fermilab involving 12 total server nodes running our software.
- Organized software into a Python-based Flask applicaiton for efficient and reproducible workflows that can be connected to a web interface.
- Poster presentation at 2025 US CMS Collaboration Meeting. Link
- Oral presentation accepted for the 2026 Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics
Mentors
- Kevin Black (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
- Syed Asif Raza Shah (Fermilab)
- Oliver Gutsche (Fermilab)
- Philip DeMar (Fermilab)