Connecting with leaders in HPC and AI across the Asia Pacific region
From 19-22 February 2024, NeSI team members attended the SuperComputing Asia 2024 conference, held for the first time in Australia.
This was a wonderful opportunity to learn from peer experiences across the Asia Pacific region as well as share insights from our collaborations within Aotearoa New Zealand. The event was a convergence of minds and a melting pot of ideas where the forefront of high performance computing was explored and celebrated. Over the four days, the conference hosted 50+ exhibitors, 100 presentations, and 1,000 attendees.
Surrounded by the brightest research innovations in the field, each session delved into the latest advancements in high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and data analytics. There were abundant networking opportunities that fostered collaborations and ignited innovation.
Ideas and inspiration for training in AI and machine learning
Among the myriad of engaging sessions throughout the week, there were several exciting discussions on working towards a future where training in AI and machine learning can lead the way.
NeSI team members got an opportunity to facilitate Birds-of-a-Feather discussion around advances in Machine Learning training and the demand around this.
The discussion marked a significant milestone in our journey to foster AI literacy and expertise within the Trans-Tasman community. The event was designed to cater to a wide spectrum of learners – from those taking their first steps in AI to seasoned practitioners looking to deepen their expertise.
The interactions fostered a sense of community and opened up avenues for collaboration and innovation as well.
Building on that engagement, the NeSI training team, particularly those focused on Machine Learning training, is committed to collaborating with institutions across the country to develop a comprehensive learning pathway. If you're interested in collaborating or have any questions about our session, we encourage you to get in touch with us at training@nesi.org.nz.
Sharing experience from Aotearoa New Zealand
NeSI team members contributed to the conference programme across a range of streams during the week.
- DevOps in NeSI's Flexible HPC and Research Developer Cloud
Thomas Berger, Product Manager, and Jun Huh, Product Manager - Innovation
In 2023, NeSI launched its Research Developer Cloud to help Research Software Engineers (RSE) and DevOps users to deploy complex and challenging solutions that enable science. This talk covered the use cases and learnings from our early access tenants. Services were built together with emphasis on good DevOps practices and collaboration. Examples include building a data repository, a secure research environment with indigenous governance, and a scalable training environment, among others. NeSI is building shared knowledge through creating reusable blueprints and repeatable patterns in order to develop solutions that are sustainable, reproducible, and enable collaboration.
View the slides here
- A Machine Learning training platform via the NeSI Research Developer Cloud
Matt Bixley, Researcher Support Specialist
Co-authoured with other NeSI team members: Maxime Rio, Data Science Engineer, Chris Scott, Research Software Engineer, and Kahu Anderson, Research DevOps Support Engineer
Training in an HPC environment can present some upfront challenges and barriers to access. It’s not always user friendly, a level of skills and technology maybe required, passwords, 2FA, versioning, OS for the users and from the infrastructure and delivery side the need to manage and support that. NeSI's Research Developer Cloud is being utilized to deliver scalable, researcher, instructor and support friendly training environments. Removing some of the barriers, making it easier to adapt, modify and engage with target audiences.
View the slides here
- Empowering collaboration: Scaling up with the Carpentries community
Nisha Ghatak, Research Communities Advisor
Co-authoured with Liz Stokes (ARDC) and Mark Crowe (QCIF)
This BoF highlighted the evolution of Carpentries workshops into a cornerstone of open research methods, pedagogy, and community development. Evaluating community efforts is paramount for building capacity in data and computational skills, supported by soft skills in community development. Therefore, this BoF examined how the Carpentries strategy benefits both New Zealand and Australian research communities while fostering an collaborative environment. As a follow-up effort, the BoF also aims to review community development efforts, seek recommendations, and reflect on evaluative practices to strengthen the Trans-Tasman Carpentries community.
View the slides here
More information
For more information on SCAsia 2024, visit the conference website.
SCAsia will be returning to Singapore next year, from 10-13 March 2025.
