Fall 2023: Quarterly Mini-Workshop on HPC CI Onboarding for the UCSD Research Community

The mini-workshop is designed to provide the UCSD research community with a streamlined pathway to swiftly engage with the Expanse cluster for their scientific endeavors. Collaboratively organized by Research IT and SDSC, this workshop series offers participants the opportunity to start using the Expanse cluster through the Campus Champions allocation, while benefiting from comprehensive training resources and expert guidance provided by SDSC.

Audience:
Researchers who are considering switching from laptop/workstation to HPC clusters (first-time users), novice HPC users

Learning Objectives:

• Evaluate HPC Suitability: Assess the appropriateness of transitioning from personal computing setups to High-Performance Computing (HPC) for research needs, understanding the scenarios where HPC offers significant advantages. [Day 1]
• Navigate HPC Resources: Gain familiarity with local UCSD and national HPC resources, along with practical exposure to SDSU's Expanse cluster. Acquire the skills to access and explore these resources to determine their compatibility with individual research requirements. [Day 1]
• Execute Workloads on Expanse: Develop proficiency in running machine learning and scientific workloads on the Expanse cluster. [Day 2]

Prerequisites:

• Familiarity with high-level programming language such as Python and Jupyter notebook
• [Day 2] Familiarity with compiled languages, conda, Unix terminal, ssh

Participant time commitment:

• Day 1: Introduction and account setup (offered remotely and in-person)
  Tuesday, October 3, from 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm (PT)
  • Overview of HPC
  • Overview of the NSF ACCESS program
  • Local & national HPC resources
  • Hands-on session to create an NSF ACCESS account
• Day 2: Hands-on tutorials running on Expanse (offered in-person only)
  Wednesday, October 11, from 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm (PT)
  • Expanse 101 tutorial
  • Learning to launch a secure Jupyter notebook on Expanse
  • Using the Expanse portal

Registration closes on Friday, Sept. 29, 2023.