Join Us for September People Network Calls

Mark your calendars for these upcoming People Network virtual meetings. (For handy calendar entries, try the CaRCC Events Calendar.)

Data-Facing Track (first Tuesdays)

Tuesday, Sept 1, 1p ET/ 12p CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT

An Institution-wide Examination of Data Needs: NSF EPOC Deep Dive at the University of Cincinnati

The Engagement and Performance Operations Center: Overview and Opportunities. The Engagement and Performance Operations Center (EPOC), funded by the US National Science Foundation, is a collaborative focal point for operational expertise and analysis jointly lead by Indiana University (IU) and the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet). The Center enables researchers to routinely, reliably, and robustly transfer data through a holistic approach to understanding the full pipeline of data movement to better support collaborative science. Through its measurement and monitoring work, as well as associated service advice and training, it brings together multiple knowledgeable and experienced science engagement teams.

A University’s Point of View. The University of Cincinnati was fortunate to be one of the first EPOC Deep Dive locations.  We will 1) share the process we used to collect the data/case studies from the researchers before the onsite visit from EPOC, 2) the two-day visit with the EPOC team and 3) outcomes, challenges and opportunities for implementation of the recommendations.

Researcher-Facing Track (second Thursdays)

Thursday, September 10, 1p ET/ 12p CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT

Supporting Researchers in the Cloud: One University’s Approach

A presentation led by Cyd Burrows-Schilling, Alan Moxley, and Harry Zhou from UC San Diego

University of CA San Diego has developed a consolidated billing approach to commercial cloud accounts, under a single Master Payer Account for Amazon Web Services (AWS), along with spend discounts and saving opportunities. Beyond account logistics and savings, their Research IT team has taken a lead role in shifting facilitation to the cloud. They’ll discuss handling the research-owned accounts, assisting PIs with best practices, and some time-saving approaches in administration. The team will also explore the added benefit of technical expertise in available cloud services; how those services are either similar or different from on-prem solutions; and how a good understanding of faculty research/researchers is at the foundation of how UC San Diego supports their researchers in the commercial cloud world.

Emerging Centers Track (third Wednesdays)

Wednesday, September 16, 12pm ET/ 11am CT/ 10am MT/ 9am PT/ 7am HT

RCD Professionalization Working Group presents the Job Elements and Career Guide, by Scott Yockel, Harvard University

People across a range of roles support research computing and data (RCD) services; the community of people in these roles is evolving into  a distinct profession, and is widely understood to be an integral part of scholarly research. The RCD Professionalization* working group is supporting this evolution of thought through a series of targeted initiatives. Our vision is to develop and disseminate frameworks, models, and approaches that can be used by institutional leaders in Human Resources, Information Technology, Research, and Teaching & Learning, as well as by practitioners, to support and elevate RCD roles as distinct and highly-valued career paths. 

Research Computing and Data Professionals Job Elements and Career Guide (draft, 28 April 2018) 

Systems-Facing Track (third Thursdays)

Thursday, September 17, 1p ET/ 12p CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT

Overview of HPC File Systems and One Site’s Experience, discussion facilitated by Alex Younts, Purdue University

Storage is never large enough or fast enough. There are many different options out in the marketplace, from old timers to hip startups, and they are all equally unobtainable for our budgets. This presentation will provide an overview of some popular options (BeeGFS, Lustre, and GPFS), and the presenter will start a discussion with some tales of hope and sorrow from many file system deployments at Purdue University.

Interested members of the People Network need not subscribe to a particular track to participate in calls. Additional details for track members, including notes documents and any pre-call activities, will be distributed ahead of the call via the email lists and other communication channels within each track.

The CaRCC (Campus Research Computing Consortium) People Network, aims “to foster, build and grow an inclusive community (termed the “People Network”) for campus CI, research computing and data professionals.” If you have received this email NOT via CaRCC’s People Network, and you would like to join the People Network, which includes Researcher-facing, Data-facing, Systems-facing, and other tracks, please fill in the form at http://bit.ly/join_carcc_people_network.

All calls will take place within the same Zoom room distributed via email. Please join the People Network (link just above) or contact help@carcc.org for details.