August People Network & RCD Community Calls

Greetings to all members of the Campus Research Computing Consortium (CaRCC) People Network! Mark your calendars for these upcoming People Network Calls (Zoom details included in associated emails). For handy calendar entries, please try the CaRCC Events Calendar.

We’d also like to highlight other calls from our RCD Ecosystem partners and collaborators, as these events touch many, if not all, in our community.

Finally, we have brief information about CaRCC and the People Network. If you’re not on our mailing lists, please fill out our Join the People Network form; or join our Slack channels.

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Join the EPSCoR CI Working Group exploring CI/RCD access for emerging and under-funded institutions!

Greetings, CaRCC members, from all of us in the newly formed EPSCoR CI Working Group (WG)!  Our work centers around recognition that increased access to cyberinfrastructure (CI) and associated best practices is the next challenge for emerging and under-resourced institutions.

The National Science Foundation recently funded an effort (award #2033483) designed to boost awareness, communication, and partnerships using CaRCC-driven assessment and planning tools. Led by the University of Hawai’i, in collaboration with institutional partners from Alaska, Mississippi, Montana, and Nevada, the project advocates for broad use of the Research Computing and Data Capabilities Model (RCD CM) assessment tool across the nation’s Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) jurisdictions and other emerging or under-resourced institutions (interested? Contact us). 

Assessment data will be used by participating institutions in training efforts centered on CI strategic planning and partnership development.  Assessment and training activities will culminate in a workshop to be held in conjunction with the NSF EPSCoR National Conference in Portland, Maine, May 22–25, 2022.  An open access report, publication and related outreach activities will be made available to share findings and planning and partnership initiatives and opportunities. Check back on the working group site to keep up with our work. 

Welcome to CaRCC

The Campus Research Computing Consortium is an organization of research computing and data (RCD) and related professionals serving to:

  • Advocate for and advance the RCD profession
  • Build and foster an inclusive RCD community
  • Establish and promote leading practices and encourage sharing of expertise and resources across the RCD community
  • Facilitate collaboration and partnerships within the RCD community and connect the broader RCD ecosystem 
  • Offer expert feedback and strategic direction to support campus leadership and funding agencies
  • Support RCD workforce development, student activities, and instruction
  • Provide professional materials, education, and career resources via RCD Nexus

* Research computing & data involves people, scholarship, and resources… (more…)

CaRCC Activities at PEARC21

Greetings to members of the Campus Research Computing (CaRCC) Communities!

The PEARC21 Virtual Conference (July 19-22) is almost here. Be sure to attend the many great workshops, tutorials, presentations, and panels from persons in the community. And here are some of the CaRCC-related activities you won’t want to miss:

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July People Network/RCD Community Calls and RCD Survey

Greetings, members of the Campus Research Computing Consortium (CaRCC) People Network and beyond! 

Before you mark your calendars, I want to make sure you saw the opportunity to participate in a study of the Research Computing and Data Workforce.  Please also share this with others on your teams and relevant communities: 

Mark your calendars for these upcoming People Network Calls. For handy calendar entries, please try the CaRCC Events Calendar.

We’d also like to highlight other calls from our RCD Ecosystem partners and collaborators, as these events touch many, if not all, in our community.

Finally, we have brief information about CaRCC and the People Network. If you’re not on our mailing lists, please fill out our Join the People Network form

Continue reading “July People Network/RCD Community Calls and RCD Survey”

June Line-up of CaRCC People Network and RCD Community Calls

Greetings Community!

Please mark your calendars for our upcoming People Network Track calls for the month of May, with Zoom details below. For handy calendar entries, please try the CaRCC Events Calendar.

We’d also like to highlight a number of calls from our RCD Ecosystem partners and collaborators, as these events touch many, if not all, in our community.

Continue reading “June Line-up of CaRCC People Network and RCD Community Calls”

People Network Calls, April 2021

Greetings, everyone. Welcome to Spring and April… No Joke!

Please mark your calendars for these upcoming People Network remote Zoom meetings. For handy calendar entries please try the CaRCC Events calendar.

Data-Facing Track (first Tuesdays)

Digital Scholarship Platforms and Workflows – HathiTrust Research Center and Model of Models
Eleanor Koehl (HathiTrust) and Erin McCabe (University of Cincinnati)
Tuesday, April 6, 1p ET/ 12p CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT/ 8a HT

HathiTrust is the largest non-profit digital library in the world, and roughly 2/3 of the collection is not available for human reading. This presentation will discuss how the HathiTrust Research Center leverages compute resources at Indiana University to make text data from the HathiTrust Digital Library available for text data mining. HTRC services attempt to meet the needs of scholars with a range of skill levels, who use a variety of research methods.

UC’s Digital Scholarship Center (DSC) has developed its own platform for text mining and visualization of large-scale unstructured language datasets. This presentation will provide a demonstration of the platform in addition to reviewing topic modeling concepts that form its primary visualizations. Additionally, we will look at 1-2 analytical approaches to the platform’s output, as well as cover some of the DSC’s work / challenges with data curation, parallel modeling, and working with researchers across disciplines. 

Researcher-Facing Track (second Thursdays)

On Measuring the Impact of Training
Presentations by Kari Jordan (Carpentries), and Julie Wilson Rojewski and Astri Briliyanti, CyberAmbassadors
Thurs, April 8th, 1p ET/ 12p CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT/ 8a HT

On previous Researcher-Facing calls, we’ve had the opportunity to discuss topics relating to measuring impact and improving training. And as discussed in the Leading Practices of Facilitation, “training & education” is one of the major pillars of our efforts. Many of us provide training opportunities and struggle to define and measure “impact” or “success” — is it short terms gains (quality scores for the class & instructors, reduced support burden, and acclimating users), long term considerations (effectiveness of training programs, building relationships, promoting awareness and participation), and does it depend on the kind of training (professional skills, technical topics)?  Or are we confounding these, complicating both the objectives and outcomes?

April’s call will showcase two “case studies” of measuring training impact, where each presenter will talk about their programs, define “impact”, and explain their approach to measuring this. Please also join us by contributing to our pre-talk survey: What challenges do you currently face in measuring training impact? And what successful strategies have you tried?

Emerging Centers Track (third Wednesdays)

New Resources Available to the National Research Community: Jetstream 2, Bridges 2, and Anvil
Wednesday, April 21st, 12pm ET/ 11am CT/ 10am MT/ 9am PT/ 7am HT

Representatives from Indiana University, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, and Purdue University will discuss the new systems at each of these sites and their capabilities offered to the national research community. All of these resources will be available to researchers nationwide via the XSEDE project allocations system.

Systems-Facing Track (third Thursdays)

Experiences and Advice for Large and Small Data Centers – Cooling
Thursday April 15th, 1p ET/ 12p CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT/ 8a HT  

Our panel will discuss experiences managing cooling (heat) in data centers – from large scale systems to clusters in closets. The brief presentations will include experiences designing and managing cooling for their infrastructure. Our panelists will take questions from participants and discuss options. Any questions about power/security will be collated for a future session.

General Track Call Information

Interested participants need not subscribe to a particular track to participate in calls. However, 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.

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.

The CaRCC 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 information NOT via CaRCC’s People Network email list and you would like to join the People Network – Researcher-Facing, Data-Facing, Systems-Facing, Emerging-Centers, and other tracks – please fill in our Join the People Network form.

Join us for March People Network Calls

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

Plenary session hosted by the Data-Facing Track (first Tuesdays)

Tuesday, March 2, 1p ET/ 12p CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT

PLENARY: Using Data to Benchmark your Research Computing and Data Program: The RCD Capabilities Model and Community Dataset

Presenters: Claire Mizumoto, UC San Diego & Patrick Schmitz, Semper Cognito Consulting

Join us during the regular data-facing slot for the first (and hopefully not last) People Network plenary session! Claire Mizumoto and Patrick Schmitz from the Capabilities Model working group will present the results from the first community dataset. These assessments were completed using the 1.0 version of the Research Computing and Data Capabilities Model (RCD CM), over a period of several months in the Spring and Summer of 2020. This Community Dataset provides insight into the current state of support for RCD across the community and in a number of key sub-communities.

Across science, engineering, social sciences, and the humanities, every university depends upon research computing and data (RCD) professionals and infrastructure. The rapid evolution and diversification of RCD infrastructure, services, and support poses significant challenges to academic institutions as they try to effectively assess and plan for the growing needs of researchers. Many institutions would also like to assess their capabilities in comparison to peers. The lack of a shared vocabulary to describe the various aspects of RCD support hinders coordinated efforts to advance support of and for researchers. These challenges are especially acute for smaller and emerging RCD support organizations, which often lack experience supporting RCD and have limited resources to develop an analysis framework for strategic planning. To address these gaps, a collaborative team developed a Research Computing and Data Capabilities Model that allows an organization to self-evaluate across a range of RCD services. The Model provides structured input to guide strategic planning, leveraging a defined and shared community vocabulary and enabling benchmarking relative to peer institutions.

Researcher-Facing Track (second Thursdays)

Thursday, March 11, 1pm ET (12pm CT/11am MT/10am PT)

All About Orienting Researchers to Research Computing + Data Resources

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Welcome to February 2021!

Please see below for People Network calls this month, and make sure to join in! (For handy calendar entries, see the CaRCC Events Calendar.) 

Data-Facing Track (first Tuesdays)

Tuesday, February 2, 1p ET/ 12p CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT

Casual Tuesday Community Roundtable

We want to take this month to hear a bit about what everyone is up to. This session will be a general sharing and free-form brainstorming session. We’d love to hear 3-5 minutes about projects that people are working on currently or new developments. If you’re stuck on something, feel free to bring that forward and get advice from the brain trust. We can also make breakout rooms for deeper discussions that arise.

Researcher-Facing Track (second Thursdays)

Thursday, February 11, 1pm ET (12pm CT/11am MT/10am PT)

Supporting Researchers with Containers

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