Welcome to All Things AI, your quick-hit listing of opportunities, upcoming events, and training related to the NAIRR Pilot and other AI initiatives. See the complete list of NAIRR Pilot Events and Training and subscribe now to the NAIRR Pilot Newsletter.
Events and Conferences
AAC&U Conference on AI and Higher Education — October 28–30 in Atlanta, GA, and Online. The Association of American Colleges and Universities convenes faculty, staff, academic leaders, IT specialists, librarians, researchers, and administrators to share evidence-based practices and develop practical, ethical approaches to responsible AI adoption. Attendees will explore AI-informed classroom and curricular practices, research ethics, AI-enhanced student support, and operational strategies — with particular attention to institution-wide coordination and equity. Register.
2026 Internet2 Technology Exchange (TechEX26) — October 26–30 in Minneapolis, MN. The premier annual technical event for the global research and education community, TechEX26 brings together chief technologists, engineers, cloud architects, security analysts, IAM professionals, and researchers to solve real-world challenges. This year’s program reflects the pressures facing R&E institutions today: operationalizing AI, modernizing cloud and legacy infrastructure, securing networks, and managing identity at scale. Sessions span four tracks — Advanced Networking, Cloud Technology, Identity and Access Management, and Information Security — with interactive working meetings, unconference experiences, and hands-on tutorials. Register.
Training and Webinars
Internet2 CLASS: Globus for Sysadmins — Deployment and Configuration | October 6, 2–3:30 p.m. ET. Free.This session provides a practical introduction to Globus Connect Server for system administrators, covering installation, endpoint registration, and configuration of basic storage gateways and mapped collections for POSIX-based campus or lab storage systems. Participants will explore essential configuration files and concepts, discuss firewall and network considerations, and learn how to create and test a simple endpoint suitable for end-user data transfers and basic sharing. Register.
Internet2 CLASS: AWS Security for Non-Majors — Respond | October 14–15, 1–5 p.m. ET each day. The third installment in the AWS Security for Non-Majors series puts detection into action. Over two days, participants work through realistic incident response scenarios drawn from AWS CIRT’s workshop library, practicing investigating alerts, containing incidents, collecting evidence, and remediating compromised resources. Cost: $100 for CICP subscribers; $150 for Internet2 members; $200 for non-members. Learn more.
Internet2 CLASS: Google Cloud Fundamentals for Researchers | October 21–22, 1–5 p.m. ET each day. This workshop introduces researchers, research lab staff, and research computing data professionals to Google Cloud tools for data collection, storage, exploration, visualization, and sharing. Participants will learn how to absorb unstructured and structured data into Cloud Storage and BigQuery, understand costs, and leverage notebook environments for descriptive and predictive analysis. Cost: $100 for CICP subscribers; $150 for Internet2 members; $200 for non-members. Learn more.
Recurring Office Hours
ACCESS and NAIRR Pilot Office Hours — Every second Tuesday (October 13), 3–4 PM ET; every fourth Wednesday (October 28), 12–1 PM ET. Hosted by SCIPE Cyberinfrastructure Professionals (CIPs) and representatives from NSF’s ACCESS program, these sessions cover allocations and proposal submission, active NAIRR Pilot awards, ACCESS MATCH submissions, and resource usage and support. Register here.
Open OnDemand Office Hours — Tuesday, October 13, 11:15 AM–12:45 PM ET. Second Tuesday of each month. The Open OnDemand development team hosts Zoom office hours for questions and suggestions. More information and Zoom coordinates available on the Open OnDemand Discourse forum.
Jetstream2 Office Hours — Tuesdays, 2–3 PM ET. October dates: October 6, 13, 20, 27. Support for Jetstream2 cloud computing users. Learn more.
Anvil Support Hour — Thursdays, 2–3 PM ET. October dates: October 1, 8, 15, 22, 29. Support for Anvil users with questions about AI, data, and NAIRR Pilot resources. Register.
Application Deadlines and Upcoming Opportunities
SC26 Standard Registration — Closes October 14; conference November 15–20 in Chicago, IL. SC26 is the premier international conference for high-performance computing, networking, storage, and analysis, bringing together scientists, engineers, researchers, educators, and industry leaders under this year’s theme of “HPC Unites.” Register by October 14 to lock in the best rates before late registration pricing takes effect. SC26 housing also closes October 10. Register now.
NSF AI Datasets Program (NSF 26-512) — Full proposals due November 4. NSF has committed up to $100 million to making existing scientific datasets AI-ready, funding curation, harmonization, documentation, and machine-readable pipelines that AI tools can analyze automatically. The program anticipates 10–20 Impact awards of up to $2 million, 5–10 Flagship awards of up to $5 million, and 10–20 Planning grants of up to $200,000. Learn more.
NSF State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs (NSF 26-513) — Full proposals due November 4. This program supports flexible state and regional consortia bringing together government, research institutions, philanthropy, and the private sector to connect researchers with new computing and data infrastructure, accelerate AI-enabled scientific discovery, and develop a skilled AI workforce. Up to 10 cooperative agreement awards are anticipated, ranging from $4–12M each over five years. Learn more.
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation through Early-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) NSF award #2436057. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.