Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing

Two Sessions:
• An Introduction to High Performance Computing Using MASSIVE - City (Tuesday, 31st January )
• Monash Clayton Campus (Tuesday, 28th February)

The MASSIVE High Performance Computing (HPC) facility has significant differences from the desktop computer most researchers are familiar with. This course is designed to get new users going as quickly as possible, by concentrating on basic skills and highlighting the areas of Advanced Computing.

This course is 'hands on'; most of the material presented is supported by exercises that the students are strongly encouraged to complete. Results are discussed with the presenter and other students.

This course is suitable for people who:

• Have limited experience with Linux;

• Have little or no experience using parallel computers;

• Intend to attend one of the more advanced courses or will be using precompiled applications only.

Training accounts will be provided for attendees that do not have an account on a MASSIVE.

Registration is required.

For more information please see: http://www.massive.org.au/events/hpcintro-jan_and_feb_2012

Lustre Installation and Administration Training by Whamcloud will be held on 6-8 March at VPAC, 110 Victoria Street, Carlton South, Victoria 3053 Australia.

See Whamcloud’s global events page.

Places at the VPAC session are limited and registrations will be confirmed in order received.
Please register now!

Course overview:

• Introduction to Lustre filesystem
• Architecting and designing Lustre clusters
• Lustre implementation and configuration
• Building large scale Lustre clusters
• Lustre client configuration and setup
• Lustre filesystem backup and restore
• Advanced Lustre Networking
• Tuning Lustre for your environment
• Troubleshooting a Lustre filesystem
• Interactive lab sessions to familiarize users with Lustre

Student Fees:

$AUD 2,500 (ex GST) for individuals, educational institutions and government agencies
$AUD 2,850 (ex GST) for commercial entities

VPAC accepts paypal, company cheques, or direct deposit, and can invoice from your institutional purchase order. Payment information will be sent in response to your registration. Registrations are refundable if cancelled by 1 February.

Please register here.

For visitors to Melbourne, there are a wide range of hotels in the Melbourne CBD that are a short walk or easy tram ride to VPAC.

For further information contact training@vpac.org

Today the NCMAS has announced the call for applications for the 2012 calendar year National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme (NCMAS), available to researchers from Australian public sector research organisations, including universities.

The NCMAS, which derives from the former NCI Merit Allocation Scheme, provides an integrated application platform enabling access to computational and data storage resources on major national computational facilities.

In 2012, the NCMAS will provide access to the:

* MASSIVE, the NCI Specialised Facility for Imaging and Visualisation
(See http://www.massive.org.au).
[Ed.Note -- VPAC Member institutions may access MASSIVE directly through VPAC.]

* NCI National Facility systems (see http://nf.nci.org.au),

* Pawsey Centre supercomputer system - iVEC@Murdoch
(see http://www.ivec.org/Supercomputing/Facilities/iVEC%40Murdoch /Epic%40Murdoch), and

* NCI Specialised Facility in Bioinformatics (see http://ncisf.org)

In all cases, the infrastructure has been funded by the Australian Government under its NCRIS and Super Science programs, while the operations of these facilities in 2012, and subsequent years, are funded by the major partners of the collaborations underpinning each of the facilities.

Accordingly, access through the NCMAS for researchers from universities, and other publicly-funded research organisations, is not charged. Commercial usage of these facilities is not permitted under the NCMAS, and suitable arrangements for such usage must be negotiated separately with the relevant facility operator.

For 2012, the value of the resources allocated under the NCMAS is approximately 10c per core hour, an amount which can be stated as a contribution to future research grant applications (e.g., ARC and NH&MRC).

Applications to the NCMAS are assessed on research quality, and computational merit and need, by an expert committee of peers using criteria described at http://ncmas.nci.org.au/policies/MAC_criteria.php.

Applications, which close on Friday, 4 November 2011 at 9:00 am (Australian Eastern Daylight Time), must be completed on the web forms available at http://ncmas.nci.org.au/applications/. As is described there, chief investigators (i.e., the researchers who lead the program of research to be supported by the NCMAS) must separately complete or update their CV information prior to the submission of the application form.

For any assistance with the NCMAS application process, please contact ncmas-help@ncmas.nci.org.au.

Further details on the National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme are available at http://ncmas.nci.org.au/. Please pass on this email and URL to any potential new applicants.

AARNet and QCIF are working together to determine a future roadmap for video based services and are providing an opportunity for the research and education sector to provide valuable input into this process at the following locations during October.

Melbourne, Tuesday 18 October 9.30am-1.30pm - Rydges on Swanston
Perth, Thursday 20 October 9.30am-1.30pm - Curtin University Bentley Campus
Brisbane, Monday 24 October 9.30am-1.30pm - University of Queensland Staff Club

These workshops are an opportunity for the research and education community to "have your say" on the current and future direction of video based services to meet your needs. For example, the utility, usability and features of the current video-conferencing/collaboration service offerings meeting your research, teaching or learning needs.

The workshops are free to attend, though places are limited to ensure the broadest representation possible ideally from those who regularly use or support Access Grid, EVO, AARNet National Video Conferencing and "AARNet Anywhere" Services , it is also an opportunity to hear from your peers and network with them.

The workshop process aims to achieve the following outcomes:

1. Identify current and future collaboration service use cases that need to be served
2. Identify the barriers to the adoption of video based services by users today
3. Identify current and future service requirements in priority order
4. Identify technology capability and expertise to overcome barriers to meet needs
5. Determine the roadmap for the delivery and development of video conferencing services and how these may be funded

QCIF and AARNet understand that there is unlikely to be a silver bullet like solution to meet every need and that the collaboration services area is both dynamic and increasingly complex as the number of mobile devices and platforms increase. Determining an appropriate roadmap to develop and deliver such services requires your input to know what is important to you and your organisation. Have your say! The consultation exercise is expected to conclude with a report and roadmap towards the end of the year.

Please register below to attend at one of the following locations:

Melbourne, Tuesday 18 October 9.30am-1.30pm - Rydges on Swanston
Click here to register: http://www.amiando.com/FPIADYW

Perth, Thursday 20 October 9.30am-1.30pm - Curtin University Bentley Campus
Click here to register: http://www.amiando.com/PYNZBTE

Brisbane, Monday 24 October 9.30am-1.30pm - University of Queensland Staff Club
Click here to register: http://www.amiando.com/HEGMWJT

Professor Mark Cook, Chair of Medicine and Director of Neurosciences at St. Vincent's Hospital will be speaking on Wednesday September 14 on 'Engineering Epilepsy' at the Auditorium of the Brain Research Centre, Cnr Royal Parade and Gene Tcs Lane, Parkville. Refreshments will be served from 5pm for a 6 pm start.

Register at http://www.ict4lifesciences.org.au