Lighthouse: A User-Centered Web Service for Linear Algebra Software

Abstract

Various fields of science and engineering rely on linear algebra for large scale data analysis, modeling and simulation, machine learning, and other applied problems. Linear algebra computations often dominate the execution time of such applications. Meanwhile, experts in these domains typically lack the training or time required to develop efficient, high-performance implementations of linear algebra algorithms. In the Lighthouse project, we enable developers with varied backgrounds to readily discover and effectively apply the best available numerical software for their problems. We have developed a search-based expert system that combines expert knowledge, machine learningbased classification of existing numerical software collections, and automated code generation and optimization. Lighthouse provides a novel software engineering environment aimed at maximizing both developer productivity and application performance for dense and sparse linear algebra computations.