Research Computing Bootcamps Are Back
Bootcamps take place January 27 - February 7. Whether your questions revolve around scheduling jobs or data analysis, we have an abundance of workshops. See something you like? Sign up now as these workshops often have waitlists for registration. If you are unable to attend a workshop after registering, please let us know at istcomms@ualberta.ca so we can provide the spot to another registrant.
Introduction to Python, Pandas, and Plotting (Day 1)
Date: Monday, January 27
Time: 9am - 4pm
Location: Cameron Library 3-10
Facilitators: Chris Want
AT CAPACITY - Join the waitlist!
This is a two day introductory session on using the Python programming language, with a particular focus on data analysis using the Pandas library and plotting. No previous programming experience assumed. Bring your own laptop with Python 3 installed. If you do not have a version of Python and are not sure where to start, then consider following the instructions for your operating system here: https://swcarpentry.github.io/python-novice-gapminder/setup/
Introduction to Python, Pandas, and Plotting (Day 2)
Date: Tuesday, January 28
Time: 9am - 4pm
Location: Cameron Library 3-10
Facilitators: Chris Want
This is the continuation of the Introductory Python workshop. If you have registered for day one, then you are automatically registered for day two.
HPC: Shell
Date: Wednesday, January 29
Time: 9am - 12pm
Location: Cameron Library 3-10
Facilitator: John Simpson
This is the first workshop in a three-part series designed to move researchers from no previous experience using high performance computing (HPC) clusters towards a position of confidence and competence. The HPC clusters available for research-use to U of A researchers all use various flavours of Linux and so some experience in a command line environment is needed to begin to use them. This workshop provides that background in a friendly, jargon-minimized, hands-on environment.
Research Solutions Networking
Date: Wednesday, January 29
Time: 2:30pm - 4pm
Location: Digital Scholarship Centre Multipurpose Room, 2nd Floor, Cameron Library
Research computing on campus is supported by a number of different people and organizations, making it the case that deploying new or suitably complicated projects can be difficult to coordinate. This session targets both research support providers and those in need of support, putting them in the same place for informal networking. Come out for quick conversations to discover common challenges and discover the people and ideas that can help you get your research done.
HPC: Essentials
Date: Thursday, January 30
Time: 9am - 12pm
Location: Cameron Library 3-10
Facilitator: Kamil Marcinkowski
This is the second workshop in a three-part series designed to move researchers from no previous experience using high performance computing (HPC) clusters towards a position of confident and competence. This workshop focuses on the mechanics of submitting programs (aka “jobs”) to the clusters so that they can be scheduled and run. Led by Kamil Marcinkowski, scheduling team lead for Compute Canada, this workshop will contain extra emphasis on interacting with the scheduler to ensure that your work is getting done rather than sitting in the queue. This workshop provides that background in a friendly, jargon-minimized, hands-on environment.
HPC: Beyond
Date: Thursday, January 30
Time: 1pm - 4pm
Location: Cameron Library 3-10
Facilitator: Chris Want
This is the third workshop in a three-part series designed to move researchers from no previous experience using high performance computing (HPC) clusters towards a position of confident and competence. This final workshop builds on the previous two by covering content that will influence how programs are written and compiled in the first place to make sure that you are getting the most work done for the time you have on the system. This workshop provides that background in a friendly, jargon-minimized, hands-on environment.
Intermediate Python: Parallelism
Date: Friday, January 31
Time: 9am - 12pm
Location: Cameron Library 3-10
Facilitator: Chris Want
AT CAPACITY - Join the waitlist!
This half-day session will focus on writing parallel programs with Python (via the DASK library). Students should know some Python and some command line/shell.
Bring your own laptop with Python 3 and a shell installed. If you do not have a version of Python and are not sure where to start, then consider following the instructions for you operating system here: https://swcarpentry.github.io/python-novice-gapminder/setup/
If you are using Windows and do not already have a Shell installed (Linux and MacOS come with them built in) the option we recommend is to install the Git Shell from https://git-scm.com/download/win but you are welcome to use any option that will give you the ability to open a secure shell (SSh) to a remote system.
**Note: This session is a half-day course that runs from 9am - 12pm on Friday, January 31. It was incorrectly listed as running from 9am - 4pm on Tuesday, January 28. We apologize for any confusion.
Intermediate Python: Plotting
Date: Friday, January 31
Time: 1pm - 4pm
Location: Cameron Library 3-10
Facilitators: Chris Want
AT CAPACITY - Join the waitlist!
This half-day session will look at some additional plotting packages (Plotly and others) beyond the standard MatPlotLib. Students should know some Python.
Bring your own laptop with Python 3 installed. If you do not have a version of Python and are not sure where to start, then consider following the instructions for your operating system that are found at https://swcarpentry.github.io/python-novice-gapminder/setup/
Introduction to R
Date: Monday, February 3
Time: 9am - 4pm
Location: Cameron Library 3-10
Facilitator: John Simpson
AT CAPACITY - Join the waitlist!
This workshop uses a tabular interview dataset from the SAFI Teaching Database and teaches data analysis and visualization using R. There are no prerequisites, and the materials assume no prior knowledge about the tools. The point of the workshop is to introduce R in general so that students are in a position to explore specific techniques relevant to their disciplines afterwards. We use a single dataset throughout the workshop to model the data management and analysis workflow that a researcher would use. The workshop is drawn directly from Data Carpentry which participants are welcome to either view in advance or independently from the workshop.
Scheduling (aka How do I get more work done on a cluster?)
Date: Wednesday, February 5
Time: 9am - 4pm
Location: Digital Scholarship Centre Multipurpose Room, 2nd Floor, Cameron Library
Facilitator: Kamil Marcinkowski
AT CAPACITY - Join the waitlist!
This session is designed for participants familiar with Linux, Shell Scripting and running simple jobs on a cluster (attending the earlier sessions HPC: Shell and HPC: Essentials will suffice).
We will cover the following topics:
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How the scheduler works on Compute Canada systems and how it picks (allocates) which jobs run next;
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Why your jobs do not run, either at all or quickly, and what can be done about it;
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How to use resources more efficiently to maximize throughput; and
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How to troubleshoot and deal with crashes.
We will also touch on some specialized topics, such as running a large number of jobs, running interactive jobs, long-running jobs, large memory use, and Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).
As we will be doing hands-on work, participants are strongly encouraged to bring a laptop to submit jobs and examine the cluster. We recommend having a Compute Canada account in order to inspect a decently sized working cluster, but this is not a requirement.
If you are using Windows and do not already have a Shell installed (Linux and MacOS come with them built in), the option we recommend is to install the Git Shell from https://git-scm.com/download/win but you are welcome to use any option that will give you the ability to open a secure shell (SSH) to a remote system and also emulate a shell on in your desktop environment.
Introduction to OpenRefine
Date: Friday, February 7
Time: 9am-10am
Location: Digital Scholarship Centre
Facilitator: Abigail Sparling
This session will introduce participants to OpenRefine, a powerful free and open source tool to work with large datasets. We will quickly work through how to use OpenRefine to effectively clean and format data and automatically track any changes. This session is suitable for beginners with no prior knowledge of OpenRefine.
Research Security Panel
Date: Friday, February 7
Time: 10am-11:30am
Location: Digital Scholarship Centre
Facilitator: Gordie Mah, Michael Spaling, Nuno Luzio
Join Chief Information Security Officer Gordie Mah, IST Security Lead Michael Spaling, and Productivity Applications Lead Nuno Luzio as they interweave discussions of security, data, and the Google suite of applications and how it applies to the security of your data.
Supporting research data deposit with Dataverse!
Date: Friday, February 7
Time: 11:30am-12:30pm
Location: Digital Scholarship Centre
Facilitator: James Doiron
James Doiron, the UofA Libraries Research Data Management Services Coordinator, will offer an applied session focused upon research data deposit and Dataverse. Topics covered will include the importance and benefits of depositing your research data, impending related funder policies, as well as a hands-on demonstration of the UofA Libraries' freely available Dataverse platform and its key features. Participants are welcome to bring their own laptops should they wish to create an account and learn to navigate and use Dataverse, and there will be time built in to allow for questions and discussion.
Research Computing Winter Bootcamps are held in collaboration with University of Alberta Libraries and Information Services & Technology (IST).