Why invest the time and effort to learn HPC?
Learning how to use HPC will likely not be valuable for all users in all cases, but it can be exceptionally valuable and save significant time and effort in certain situations. Learning these skills provide HPC knowledgable users with a strategic advantage that can serve them throughout their academic, research, and professional careers.
Anyone with a workstation crashing due to memory problems from too much data, running time consuming computational tasks, performing repetitive computations, wanting to scale their computational work, or just needing more compute power should consider using HPC resources for improved speed, efficiency and time-savings.
Common HPC Skills
Becoming an expert in HPC requires knowledge in Linux Command Line, and mastering a number of tools. The tools that provide the greatest value to you may be different from those in other scientific domains. While it may seem initially daunting, UW ARCC helps all researchers regardless of HPC experience level. Our department has developed a number of tutorials and we offer bi-weekly office hours allowing you to learn HPC at your own pace. Below is a very general list of common set of skill to master to become an expert HPC user:
General HPC Use and Knowledge
The Linux Operating System
Command Line Interface (CLI)
Data Transfers and Management
Common Software for HPC Clusters (Conda, Python, R, etc)
Scheduled Trainings
Due to demand, UW ARCC will host 2 HPC Bootcamps titled Research Computing & HPC Essentials - (Getting started with ARCC's services). Each Bootcamp runs for a full week and are scheduled for the following weeks:
August HPC Bootcamp (Monday August 12, 2024 through Friday August 16, 2024)
September HPC Bootcamp (Monday September 9, 2024 through Friday September 13, 2024)
These bootcamps can help train new or intermediate HPC users to use HPC, and will cover the topics in modules listed in the table below:
Week-long Bootcamp Schedule by day of the week:
Day of the Week | Topics/Modules |
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Monday |
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Tuesday |
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Wednesday |
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Thursday |
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Friday |
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Interested parties may sign up for either bootcamp here. Those who sign up are not required to attend all scheduled modules