Welcome to the latest edition of the SNIC training newsletter. In this edition we announce training events for early 2022. We also highlight training events provided by the ENCCS, which are focusing on users who want to access pre-exascale systems, in particular LUMI. The research software engineers in the SNIC community might want to participate in the international RSE survey.

The SNIC training team wishes every one a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

• Training for new users
• Online training course: "Introduction to HPC2N" in Umeå, 19 January 2022
• Online training workshop: "Awk Workshop", Uppsala, 17 + 18 January 2022
• Online training course: "UPPMAX Introductory Course", 14-17 February, 2022
• Training on installing software
• Online workshop: "Running and installing custom Python packages at UPPMAX", 11 January, 2022
Application training
• Online PRACE/SNIC workshop: "VASP Best Practices Workshop", Linköping, 22-23 February 2022
• Online interactive support and discussion forum
• SNIC zoom-in - a virtual open-house: will restart in 2022
• Training events from ENCCS for users preparing for LUMI access
• A.I. as a Tool for Change, 26 January 2022
• Upscaling A.I. with Containers, 1-3 February 2022
• Advanced deep learning with Graph Neural Networks and Transformers, 8-9 February 2022
• Julia for High-Performance Scientific Computing, 15-16 February 2022
• Introduction to Deep-Learning, 22-23 February 2022
• For Research Software Engineer
• International RSE survey

Training for new users

Online training course: "Introduction to HPC2N" in Umeå, 19 January 2022

HPC2N is offering an introduction course to HPC and our systems. The course will be ONLINE.

We begin with a short (optional) introduction to Linux, then continue with an introduction to HPC and a walk-through of Kebnekaise, including the GPUs and the KNLs. In the afternoon we look at the module system and loading the software you need, and how to submit jobs through the batch system.

There will be a hands-on part of the course, where the participants get the opportunity to load modules, compile programs, and submit jobs to the Kebnekaise system.

Date and time for the course: 2022-01-19, 9:00-17:00

Deadline for signing up: 2022-01-10

For more information and registration, please visit the "Introduction to HPC2N" at HPC2N

Online training workshop: "Awk Workshop", Uppsala, 17 + 18 January 2022

This 1+1 days workshop aims to promote the awk tool for use in everyday research work and urges you to find solutions yourself rather than expecting ready-made ones. Thus, the material given during the seminar will not be a complete guide or manual. The purpose of the workshop is to give an overview of the capabilities of the awk language and to underline some of its particular strengths as well as its disadvantages.

When: January 17(+18)*, 2022

During the workshop, you will be able to register for the second day of the workshop.

For more information and registration, please visit the Awk workshop page at UPPMAX.

Online training course: "UPPMAX Introductory Course", 14-17 February, 2022

This 4-day course provides an introduction to the high-performance computing (HPC) environment offered at UPPMAX. It offers an overview on how the systems work and covers skills from basic Linux usage to more advanced tips and tricks, including Python scripting. Participation is open to all existing and prospective SNIC users from Swedish institutions.

When: Monday, February 14 – Thursday, February 17, 2022.

Where: online.

For more information and registration, please visit the "UPPMAX Introductory Course" page at UPPMAX

Training on installing software

UPPMAX is organizing a 1+1 hour interactive introduction on how to run and install additional Python packages on the computer resources provided by UPPMAX - Rackham, Snowy, and Bianca.

The following will be covered during the first hour:

• Loading the appropriate Python module from the software tree
• Installing additional packages in the common user space under $HOME
• Installing packages in Python virtual environments in project folders
• Using `conda` to install packages in virtual environments - suitable approach for Bianca
• Alternative approaches

In the following hour, participants will be able to bring their particular software request for discussion with the UPPMAX application experts.

When: Tuesday, January 11, 2022.

Time: 13:15 - 15:00.

Where: online.

For more information and registration, please visit the "Running and installing custom Python packages at UPPMAX" page at UPPMAX

Application training

Online PRACE/SNIC workshop: "VASP Best Practices Workshop", Linköping, 22-23 February 2022

In this online workshop, including seminars and hands-on sessions, we will consider how to run the Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package (VASP) efficiently on supercomputers. The workshop is mostly suitable for beginners and the focus will be on best practices for running VASP calculations. The hands-on part will be done at the Tetralith cluster, NSC, LiU. Parts of the presentations (to be made available for download) can also be of interest for advanced users.

Time: Tuesday 22 February 10:00 - 17:00 and Wednesday 23 February 10:00 - 17:00

Information and registration page for the VASP workshop hosted by PRACE.

Materials for the workshop will be available from the VASP workshop page at NSC

Online interactive support and discussion forum

SNIC zoom-in - a virtual open-hous

You are invited to a virtual meeting room. Inside the meeting room we like to discuss services offered by the SNIC centres 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.

Zoom-in will restart in 2022. If you have any issues with SNIC services, please submit a support request.

Training events from ENCCS for users preparing for LUMI access

26 January 2022 - A.I. as a Tool for Change

ENCCS with RISE offer a half-day course in A.I. as a tool for change. Participants will get an understanding of what artificial intelligence is, which problems can be solved with those techniques, and how they can be used within an organization.

We will give an overview on what processes one goes through when they utilize A.I. to solve problems. We are also going to illuminate the limitations of those techniques and give examples of when they are appropriate.

A.I. as a Tool for Change page at ENCCS

1-3 February 2022 - Upscaling A.I. with Containers

Active practitioners in deep learning primarily develop and train their networks on local computing devices. Nonetheless, the accuracy of such networks is dependent on their depth and the amount of training data. Moreover, since local computing devices such as laptops or clusters provide limited computational capacity, training a deep neural network (NN) requires access to large clusters, i.e., supercomputers.

Upscaling A.I. with Containers page at ENCCS

8-9 February 2022 - Advanced deep learning with Graph Neural Networks and Transformers

This workshop will take you from the representation of graphs as inputs for neural networks to the implementation of full GNNs for a variety of tasks. You will learn about the central concepts used in GNNs in a hands-on setting using Jupyter Notebooks and a series of coding exercises. While the workshop will use problems from the field of chemistry as an example for applications, the skills you learn can be transferred to any domain where finite sets or graph-based representations of data are appropriate. From GNNs, we will make the leap to Transformer architectures, and explain the conceptual ties between the two.

Advanced deep learning with Graph Neural Networks and Transformers page at ENCCS

15-16 February 2022 - Julia for High-Performance Scientific Computing

This online workshop will start by briefly covering the basics of Julia’s syntax and features, and then introduce methods and libraries which are useful for writing high-performance code for modern HPC systems. After attending the workshop you will:

Julia for High-Performance Scientific Computing page at ENCCS

22-23 February 2022 - Introduction to Deep-Learning

We start with explaining the basic concepts of neural networks, and then go through the different steps of a Deep Learning workflow. Learners will learn how to prepare data for deep learning, how to implement a basic Deep Learning model in Python with Keras, how to monitor and troubleshoot the training process and how to implement different layer types such as convolutional layers.

Introduction to Deep-Learning page at ENCCS

For Research Software Engineer

International RSE survey

Do you develop research codes, or generally work with research software or data analysis? Perhaps you even feel more connected to the technology side: programming, software, data, etc., rather than the writing of papers? Although this work is crucial to the research, the modern research environment seldom fully recognises it, in contrast to other methodology development. Take part in the international Research Software Engineer (RSE) survey to help us understand how we can improve the situation. Your current position or job title does not matter, only that you feel connected to software, data, computation, or similar technology. The results will be anonymized and published openly, and will be invaluable to obtain better support from universities/institutes, national associations, funders and other policy makers.

Please share this survey with colleagues and groups who do research software engineering.

The survey was created by Nordic-RSE in collaboration with other national RSE associations. Nordic-RSE is the Nordic+Baltics organization advocating for RSEs. Founded in 2017 and registered in Finland in 2021, it provides a community, periodic seminars, and in the future other events which can connect RSEs to like-minded individuals to promote career development. It will also advocate for the value of RSE services within the research process.

Please take the survey through the form at LimeSurvey

You can read more about the survey and Nordic-RSE at the survey page of the Nordic-RSE site.

Training overview

SNIC training webpage

In addition to these news letters we also provide a SNIC training webpage.

This webpage currently gives an overview on all courses currently planned. It provides links to more information and the actual registration. The webpage also includes training which is expected to be mostly of interest to individual SNIC centres. Information will be added to this page as it becomes available.