Education

What’s so super about supercomputing? A joint LITA and ACRL webinar

Supercomputing Graphic

What’s so super about supercomputing? A very basic introduction to high performance computing

Presenters: Jamene Brooks-Kieffer and Mark J. Laufersweiler
Tuesday February 28, 2017
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Central Time

Register Online, page arranged by session date (login required)

This 90 minute webinar provides a bare-bones introduction to high-performance computing, also known as HPC, supercomputing, and under many other monikers. This program is a unique attempt to connect the academic library to introductory information about HPC. Librarians who are learning about researchers’ data-intensive work should consider familiarizing themselves with the computing environment often used to conduct that work.

Academic librarians, particularly, face a landscape in which many of their users conduct part or all of their research using computation. Bibliometric analysis, quantitative statistical analysis, and geographic data visualizations are just a few examples of computationally-intensive work underway in humanities, social science, and science fields.

Covered topics will include:

  • Why librarians should care about HPC
  • HPC terminology and working environment
  • Examples of problems appropriate for HPC
  • HPC resources at institutions and nation-wide
  • Low-cost entry-level programs for learning distributed computing

The webinar slide set and a handout that includes a HPC glossary of basic HPC terminology as well as HPC resources will be made available.

Details here and Registration here

Webinar takeaways will include:

  • Attendees will learn the basic terminology of high performance computing.
  • Attendees will be introduced to the working environment commonly used for high performance computing.
  • Attendees will gain information on institutional and national high performance computing resources available to researchers.

Jamene Brooks-Kieffer brings a background in electronic resources to her work as Data Services Librarian at the University or Kansas. She regularly teaches on data management practices to audiences of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates. She has engaged library professionals in many in-person and virtual programs at venues including Electronic Resources & Libraries, Coalition for Networked Information, and a Great Plains Network / Greater Western Library Association webinar series.

Dr. Mark Laufersweiler has, since the Fall of 2013, served as the Research Data Specialist for the University of Oklahoma Libraries. He is currently assisting the educational mission of the Libraries by developing and offering workshops, seminars and short courses, helping to inform the university community on best practices for data management and data management planning. He is the university’s representative as a member of the Software Carpentry Foundation and is an active instructor as well. He is a strong advocate of open source software and open access to data.

Look here for current and past LITA continuing education offerings

Questions or Comments?

contact LITA at (312) 280-4268 or Mark Beatty, mbeatty@ala.org
contact ACRL at (312) 280-2522 or Margot Conahan, mconahan@ala.org

lita and acrl logos combined