In fact, it required more than 20,000 CPU hours on System X, a 2200 processor parallel computer, using two new algorithms, DIRECT (DIviding RECTangles) and MADS (Mesh Adaptive Direct Search), to estimate the 143 parameters.
"With a tool like this scientists can spend more time working on the model and less time twiddling parameters," said Tyson.
The research is due to appear in 2007 in the Journal of Global Optimization, in the article "Deterministic Parallel Global Parameter Estimation for a Model of the Budding Yeast Cell Cycle," by Thomas D. Panning, Layne T. Watson, Nicholas A. Allen, Katherine C. Chen, Clifford A. Shaffer, and John J. Tyson.
Panning, who is from Tulsa, Okla., received his master of science in computer science in May 2006 and is currently working as a programmer in Germantown, Md. Watson, of Blacksburg, is professor of computer science in the College of Engineering and professor of mathematics in the College of Science. Allen, who is from Columbia, Md., received his Ph.D. in computer science in November 2005 and is now with Microsoft. Chen, of Blacksburg, is a research scientist biological sciences in the College of Science. Shaffer, of Newport, is associate professor of computer science. Tyson, of Blacksburg, is a University Distinguished Professor of biological sciences.
The Virginia Tech computer science team created massively parallel versions of a deterministic global search algorithm, DIRECT, and a deterministic local search algorithm, MADS, to do the twiddling, and then combined the results. "A deterministic global search algorithm systematically explores the parameter space, finding good va
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Source:Virginia Tech