People Network and Other Community Calls for October

Greetings Community Members! 
Mark your calendars for these upcoming People Network calls (Zoom details at the end). For handy calendar entries, try the CaRCC Events Calendar.
If you’re not on our mailing lists, please fill out our Join the People Network form and join our Slack channels.

Data-Facing Track (1st Tuesdays)

The Data Science Ethos – Infusing the research process with ethics and human dimensions
Speaker: Steve Van Tuyl, Program Manager, Academic Data Science Alliance
Tue. Sep 5, 1p ET/ 12a CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT

Data Science is often taught and implemented without little consideration for ethics or human impacts of the work, and where these concepts are employed, they are often considered an afterthought. Seeking to address this issue, the Academic Data Science Alliance (ADSA) community convened a working group that produced The Data Science Ethos – a framework for defining responsible data science that includes considering the human dimensions of each stage of the research workflow. Based on the framework, ADSA has implemented an interactive tool that allows learners to explore the ethical dimensions of conceptual and real-world research projects. In this talk, we will discuss the foundation of the Data Science Ethos, how it is implemented through our interactive tool, and future directions for this work. 

Strategy and Policy-Facing Track (1st Wednesdays)

Satisfaction Surveys
Wed. Oct 4th, 12p ET/ 11a CT/ 10a MT/ 9a PT

We’ll discuss practices around conducting Satisfaction Surveys for RCD programs. Please bring your experiences with this (and if possible, an example survey/questionnaire), or just bring your questions about how to do this well for your program. Some of the issues we’ll explore include: How to get a good response (and what is a good response rate)?; How to “sell” participation in surveys to the user community?; Why should users contribute?; How often to conduct surveys?; and What to do with the data (how to analyze and report). 

Researcher-Facing Track (2nd Thursdays)

Cloud for Research: AWS Lightsail.
Speakers: Scott Friedman, Ph.D, AWS Higher Education Research 
Thu. Oct 12, 1p ET/ 12a CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT

Many researchers could benefit from using cloud resources but don’t because of the high learning curve. Amazon Lightsail for Research is a new offering from AWS that makes it easy for researchers to create and manage a high-performance CPU or a GPU research computer in just a few clicks on the cloud. On this call, Scott Friedman, Ph.D, will demonstrate how researchers can analyze large datasets or run complex simulations on custom cloud research environments using a web browser.

Emerging Centers Track (3rd Wednesdays)

Containers – The Why, When  and high level How -and- CASC Fall meeting highlights
Wed. Oct. 18, 12p ET/ 11a CT/ 10a MT/ 9a PT

Containers are becoming more popular and necessary as researchers are required to ensure that their research is reproducible and shareable.  On this call, we will hear ‘why’ containers are a good choice for research data management requirements from Joe Stubbs, Research Associate; Manager, Cloud and Interactive Computing, TACC.  A representative from the Apptainer team will also join us to describe a high level overview of the ‘how’ and technology behind containers.  And, finally, Jane, Rich and other persons on the call who attended the fall CASC meeting will provide highlights and any critical information for this community.
Note:  If you are looking for a more technical presentation on containers, please plan to attend the Systems-Facing Track call this month also!

Systems-Facing Track (3rd Thursdays)

Containerized HPC.
Speakers: Matthew R. Sgambati, INL; Shin Leong & Craig Pohl, WUSTL
Thu. Oct. 19, 1p ET/ 12a CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT

In the rapidly evolving landscape of High-Performance Computing (HPC), the quest for portable, reproducible, and maintainable software is ongoing. As HPC systems grow in complexity and diversity, traditional methods often grapple with the unique demands posed by these environments. Enter the realm of containerized HPC — a confluence of traditional HPC systems and modern container technology. For this meeting we’ll hear two presentations that stem from the insights shared at PEARC’23. Our first presentation offers a pioneering strategy for building containers tailored for HPC applications, emphasizing software quality assurance through layering. Contrastingly, the second presentation provides a tangible glimpse into a real-world implementation of HPC with container technology.

Also please note the complimentary presentation this month that the Emerging Centers Track will be hosting on, “Containers and CASC Fall meeting highlights”.

CaRCC Interest Groups

Tue Oct 10th, 1p ET/ 10a PT (2nd Tuesdays): RCD Capabilities Model Office Hours – come and go as you please to learn how to get started with the Research Computing and Data Capabilities Model, discuss where you are in the process, make suggestions for improvements, and more!
Meeting coordinates: Zoom Session URL (Meeting ID: 381 654 7290; Passcode: carcc). Join the capsmodel-discuss@carcc.org mailing list or send questions to capsmodel-help@carcc.org.

Join the RCD Staff and Student Workforce Development Interest Groups on Tuesday, October 10th, 2p ET/ 1p CT/ 12p MT/ 11a PT. This month we will have a Student Workforce Development focused call with a panel of former RCD student workers and a discussion on what they got out of their experience. 

Join the Interest Group here https://groups.google.com/a/carcc.org/g/rcd-student-workforcedev/members to receive calendar events and Zoom details: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3816547290?pwd=cGpHY3pTVDQ4ejM0czRqekFDSzlOUT09 

Additional Community Opportunities

Fri Oct 13th, 2p ET/ 11a PT (2nd Thursdays/2nd Fridays): US Research Software Engineers monthly community call. See https://us-rse.org/calendar/ for more information.

Mon 4p ET/ 1p PT (every Monday): OSG Consortium/PATh Project host weekly Campus Office Hours, Mondays at 3:00–3:30 pm US Central Time. Join any week. Zoom: https://osg-htc.org/campus-office-hours-zoom. For more information, please contact Christina Koch.

Wed Oct 11th, 2p ET/ 11a PT (2nd Wednesdays): Regulated Research Community of Practice (RRCoP) Community Discussions. Please use this Zoom link, and contact info@regulatedresearch.org or Carolyn Ellis with any questions.

Zoom Details for CaRCC Calls

All calls will take place within a Zoom room communicated via email. Please help us keep these details secure (non-public), but feel free to share with a colleague.