Welcome to the latest edition of the NAISS training newsletter.   This week we have a long list of events ranging from introduction events for new users of our systems to courses in programming, parallel programming, code management as well as sensitive data handling.

Users who would like to discuss their issues in a face-to-face setting are invited to join our zoom-in on the 7th November.

ENCCS asked us to share some of their events.

Overview

NAISS training

• Online hackathon: Bianca In-Depth: Improve Your Handling of Sensitive Research Data, 11 November
• Online course: Python for Scientific Computing, 5-7 November
• Online training and support event: “NSC introduction to Tetralith/Sigma”, 12 November 2024 at 10:00
• Online course: Programming Formalisms, 18-22 November
• Online training course: "Introduction to Git", 25-29 November 2024
• Online training seminar: Introduction seminar for Alvis users, 2 December 2024
• Online course: An introduction to parallel programming using Message Passing with MPI, 3, 4, 10 and 11 December 2024
• Online training course: Using Python in an HPC environment, 5-6 December 2024

CodeRefinery events

• Online course: Python for Scientific Computing, 5-7 November

Online interactive support and discussion forum:

• NAISS Zoom-in - a virtual open-house, 7 November from 14:00 until 15:00

ENCCS training

• GPU Programming. Why. When. How (Online), 12-14 November
• Training workshop: Introduction to Quantum Computing (online), 28 November
• Hybrid event: Quantum Autumn School 2024, 2-4 December
• Julia for High-Performance Scientific Computing (Online), 9-12 December
• Publicly available training material
• Training events from around Europe

NAISS training

Online hackathon: Bianca In-Depth: Improve Your Handling of Sensitive Research Data, 11 November

Are you already working with sensitive data in your research and feel that your workflows can be improved? If yes, welcome to 1-day hackathon where you'll learn smarter ways of working on the Bianca cluster. We will tell you how to do file transfer from a terminal, advanced SLURM, using IDEs (e.g. RStudio), and installing custom software and packages.

To attend this event, we expect you to be able to login to Bianca, submit a simple Slurm batch job, and know the basics of file transfer. A NAISS-SENS course project will be available to all participants.

When: Monday, November 11, 9.00-16.00

Where: online via Zoom

For more information and registration please visit the Bianca hackathon page (UPPMAX).

Online training and support event: “NSC introduction to Tetralith/Sigma”, 12 November 2024 at 10:00

An online event with two parts:

• A short introduction suitable for new users to the NSC Tetralith (NAISS) and Sigma (LiU) clusters. Topics include the module system, submitting jobs, working with Python, allocating GPU:s for simulations or graphics and other useful information.
• An open session for questions with several NSC application experts attending.

Feel free to join (and leave) whenever depending on your interest. The online event is open for all present and prospective NSC users.

Time: 12 Nov 2024, 10:00 - ca. 11:15 Introduction, ca 11:15 - Open session

Location: online via Zoom

The presentation will be available on the NSC event page.

Online course: Programming Formalisms, 18-22 November

Collaboration between UPPMAX and NBIS

This full 5-day course aims to give scientists, bioinformaticians and other research engineers  with some experience in programming and scripting an understanding of the underlying principles of software development, design, and programming. The course aims to strengthen the understanding of more advanced programming concepts, ability to produce more reusable scripts through modular programming and to enable a better understanding of how to evaluate a script or programs performance.

We will cover a formal development process form start to finish. We use Test-Driven Development as a good example of a development process, requirements modeling, risk assessment and structured design.

Some of the topics covered are modular development and (code) reusability, testing and optimization.

We will cover theory with bridging practical examples and applications to enhance the theoretical understanding of the principles.

When: November 18-22, onboarding: November 15

For more information and registration, please visit the programming formalisms course page (UPPMAX).

Online training seminar: Introduction seminar for Alvis users, 2 December 2024

Description: This seminar is for new and prospective users of the NAISS cluster for AI/ML, Alvis. You will learn all that you need to know to get started on the system.

Time: December 2 13:15-15:00

Registration: Alvis event registration form (Chalmers)

Online training course: "Introduction to Git", 25-29 November 2024

Collaboration between HPC2N and UPPMAX

The training course "Introduction to Git" will be given on 25-29 November 2024, 09:00 - 12:00 each day.  The course will be an introduction to version control, with a strong focus on Git.

Some of the main concepts, like repositories, commits, trees, branches, and merges will be covered, as will many of the basic commands, like clone, add, push, pull, commit, and fork.

The lectures will be complemented by demos, as well as hands-ons, during which the participants will learn both how to do simple Git commands as well as more complex cases. The hands-ons will mainly be done on your own computers and using GitHub.

This NAISS course is a cooperation between HPC2N and UPPMAX. It is open to NAISS users, prospective NAISS users and academics throughout the Nordic region.

For more information and registration, see the introduction to Git event page (HPC2N).

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Online course: An introduction to parallel programming using Message Passing with MPI, 3, 4, 10 and 11 December 2024

Collaboration between HPC2N, LUNARC and PDC

Message Passing is presently a widely deployed programming model in massively parallel high performance computing. Message Passing is suitable for programming a wide range of current computer architectures, ranging from multi-core desk top equipment to the fastest HPC systems in the world, offering several hundred thousand processing elements.

This online course is at the beginners level and assumes no prior experience in parallel computing. The concepts behind message passing and distributed memory computing will be introduced and the syntax of the key MPI calls will be explained. The course will include point-to-point communications, non-blocking communication and the collective communications calls.  Live demonstrations and practical sessions to deepen the understanding of the lectures will be part of the course. At the end of the course participants should be able to write their own MPI programs at an intermediate level. The teaching language will be English.

For more information and access to registration, please refer to the event pages at HPC2N, LUNARC and PDC:

• MPI event page at LUNARC
• MPI event page at HPC2N

Online training course: Using Python in an HPC environment, 5-6 December 2024

Collaboration between UPPMAX, HPC2N and LUNARC

This two-day online course aims to give a brief, but comprehensive introduction to using Python in an HPC environment. You will learn how to use modules to load Python, how to find site installed Python packages, as well as how to install packages yourself. In addition, you will learn how to use virtual environments, write a batch script for running Python, use Python in parallel, and how to use Python for ML and on GPUs. In addition, the second day will be more advanced, with a focus on Pandas.

The course is a cooperation between UPPMAX, HPC2N, and LUNARC. The instructors will use UPPMAX's systems for demos and there will be hands-on exercises for the participants.

This course will consist of lectures interspersed with hands-on sessions where you get to try out what you have just learned.

Remote/online participation: The course will be completely online and we will use Zoom. More information about connecting and such will be sent to the participants close to the course.

The goal for the course is that you will be able to

• Load Python modules and site-installed Python packages
• Create a virtual environment and install your own Python packages to it
• Write a batch script for running Python
• Use Python in parallel
• Use Python for ML
• Use GPUs with Python
• Use pandas
• Learn about matplotlib

Prerequisites: familiarity with the LINUX command line, basic Python

Date and time: 5-6 December 2024, 9-17 each day.

For more info and registration, please visit the Python in HPC course page (HPC2N).

CodeRefinery events

Online course: Python for Scientific Computing, 5-7 November

Organized by Aalto University, CodeRefinery, and partners

This is a medium-advanced course in Python tools such as NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, and Pandas. It is suitable for people who have a basic understanding of basic Python and want to know some internals and important libraries for science. Read the learner personas to see if the course is right for you.

The course streamed via Twitch (the CodeRefinery channel) so that anyone may follow along without registration. There is a "Notes" link (collaborative edited notes) which is used for asking questions during the course.

The course is organized by Aalto Scientific Computing in collaboration with CodeRefinery, and multiple Nordic partners.

For more information and registration, please visit the Python course page (Aalto University).

Online interactive support and discussion forum

NAISS Zoom-in - a virtual open-house, 7 November from 14:00 until 15:00

You are invited to a virtual meeting room.  Inside the meeting room we like to discuss services offered by NAISS and how they can be used for your computational needs, help you process your data and visualise your results.  Participants are highly encouraged to pose their own questions.

We also expect to have experts available from C3SE, HPC2N and LUNARC, to discuss the University operated HPC services at Chalmers, Umeå and Lund University.

Location: Zoom-link for the NAISS Zoomin-in session on 7 November

ENCCS training

GPU Programming. Why. When. How (Online), 12-14 November

Abstract: This workshop is based on a multilateral collaboration between GPU programming specialists from the Nordic countries. This workshop will cover basic aspects of GPU programming concepts and models including: GPU hardware and software ecosystem, GPU programming concepts & models, Directive-based models (OpenACC, OpenMP), Portable kernel-based models (Kokkos, OpenCL, SYCL, etc.), Non-portable kernel-based models I (CUDA, HIP), High-level language support (Python, Julia), Multi-GPU programming with MPI, Preparing code for GPU porting, Hand-on examples.

Detailed information at the GPU programming why when how page (ENCCS).

Time: Nov. 12-14, 09:00-16:00 (CET) (2024).

Training workshop: Introduction to Quantum Computing (online), 28 November

Abstract: This interactive workshop is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction or refresher on the fundamental concepts of quantum computing, ensuring a solid foundation for participants to engage with the content of the Quantum Autumn School 2024.

Detailed information at the quantum computing workshop page (ENCCS).

Time: Nov. 28, 09:00-12:00 (CET) (2024).

Hybrid event: Quantum Autumn School 2024, 2-4 December

Abstract: Experts from other organisations and industry will showcase the possibilities offered by quantum computing during the school. The school will cover more advanced topics and tutorials compared to QAS23, which serves as a good starting point for people interested in participating.

The QAS24 will include: 1)Overview of the main state-of-the-art QC hardware approaches; 2) Overview and update on recent developments in QC software stacks; 3) Integration of QC with classical computing: hybrid classical/quantum algorithms and HPC+QC systems; and 4) QC programming in high-level languages for scientific and industrial use cases.

Detailed information at the Quantum Autumn School page (ENCCS)

Time: Dec. 2-4, 09:00-17:00 (CET) (2024).

Julia for High-Performance Scientific Computing (Online), 9-12 December

Abstract: This workshop is an interactive online event, featuring live coding, demos, and practical exercises. We aim to equip you with the tools and knowledge to write efficient, high-performance code using Julia. In this four-half-day course, we will start with the basic features of Julia, and then delve into the specific topics on writing performant Julia code, multithreading, and distributed computing. Additionally, we will focus on Julia programming on HPC clusters using GPU accelerators, and the interfacing of Julia with other programing languages (C/C++, Fortran, Python, etc.).

Detailed information at the Julia workshop page (ENCCS).

Time: Dec. 9-12, 9:30-14:30 (CET) (2024).

Publicly available training material

ENCCS develops and maintains a library of training material on topics in HPC, AI and Quantum Computing which is suitable for self-paced learning, see the training library at ENCCS.

Training events from around Europe

Many HPC centres and National Competence Centres around Europe offer diverse HPC training workshops open to anyone in Europe, many of which are online. Upcoming workshops can be found at the European HPC Portal.