Advanced Research Computing Training Program

The CCAST Advanced Research Computing Training Program is offering a workshop series to introduce advanced research computing (high-performance computing/supercomputing, high-throughput computing, data storage and management, etc.) to faculty, staff, and students at NDSU and certain other colleges and universities in North Dakota and Minnesota. This series aims to provide researchers with the basic knowledge and hands-on skills that help them make the best use of local and national high-performance computing (HPC) facilities, and ultimately to advance their research capabilities.

Workshops will be offered both in person (preferred) and via Zoom, and will include lectures, demonstrations, and hands-on tutorials where participants will have opportunities to perform simple and not-so-simple tasks on CCAST’s HPC systems. Recordings and workshop materials will be available for those who cannot attend live.There are no prerequisites, except a strong willingness to learn. Some familiarity with computer programming and Linux shell scripting would be helpful, but not required.

The schedule for Fall 2023 is as follows:

     Five (5) core training workshops

• September 25, 1-3 PM: Introduction to high-performance computing (HPC)
  Basics of HPC, computer clusters, parallel computing, HPC resources at NDSU and elsewhere, access to CCAST's HPC systems
  
  
• September 27, 1-3 PM: Linux for HPC: Working with Linux-based HPC systems
  Basics of UNIX/Linux, job scheduler, queue policies, running and monitoring jobs on HPC systems
  
  
• September 29, 1-3 PM: Linux for HPC: Text processing and shell scripting
  Linux utilities for searching texts and manipulating text files, Bash shell scripting to automate tasks
  
  
• October 2, 1-3 PM: How to get your work done faster? Parallel computing
  Parallel programming models, work distribution among CPU cores, parallel scaling performance, tips on running parallel jobs
  
  
• October 4, 1-3 PM: Accelerated computing with GPUs
  Basics of graphics processing units (GPUs) and GPU programming, running scientific applications on GPU compute nodes

     Three (3) special training workshops

• October 23, 1-3 PM: Running Python on HPC systems
  Running Python codes on CCAST HPC systems, available Python versions and where to find them, creating custom Python environments and installing packages, integrating with Jupyter Notebook
  
  
• October 25, 1-3 PM: Running R on HPC systems
  Running R code on CCAST HPC systems, installing R packages, converting R code to run in batch jobs, parallel processing in R
  
  
• October 27, 1-3 PM: HPC for materials modeling and simulation
  Running complex materials modeling software packages (VASP, Gaussian, NAMD, LAMMPS, etc.) properly and efficiently on HPC systems

The training is FREE; however, pre-registration is required. Applicants can register by completing the online registration form. Deadlines for registration are different for internal and external applicants:

• September 4, 2023 for non-NDSU applicants
• September 18, 2023 for NDSU applicants

Attending all the core training workshops is strongly recommended, if you are new to HPC and/or CCAST, as one needs basic HPC and Linux knowledge and skills to follow the special workshops.

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CCAST provides advanced research computing resources, training, and consulting to faculty, students, and staff at NDSU and beyond. The research we enable spans a broad range of disciplines, including science, engineering, agriculture, public health, business, finance, etc.