“OSC staff have worked diligently to pull together contributions to this year’s PEARC conference,” said David Hudak, Ph.D., OSC executive director. “They will be presenting technical accomplishments achieved supporting Ohio’s research community, leading the next generation of research computing scientists through a tutorial and a student challenge, and updating the community on OSC’s Open OnDemand platform.”

The PEARC conference series, started in 2017, provides researchers and HPC experts a forum for “discussing challenges, opportunities, and solutions” in the research computing community, according to the PEARC website. Keynote and plenary speakers this year include Rick Stevens of Argonne National Laboratory, presenting “AI for Science;” Jim Kurose of the National Science Foundation presenting “NSF/CISE and advanced cyberinfrastructure: an update and a look at, and over, the horizon;” and Patricia A. Damkroger of Intel Corporation, presenting “Redefining Today’s HPC.”

PEARC offers workshops and tutorial sessions, paper and poster presentations, and panel and birds-of-a-feather sessions, as well as some events specifically earmarked for student participants. Technical tracks this year include Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence; Advanced Research Computing Software and Applications; Facilitation of Advanced Research Computing; and Workforce Development and Diversity.

In addition to attending various programs offered at the conference, OSC staff members will present several papers and posters, as well as lead tutorials, workshops, and birds-of-a-feather sessions:

• Kate Cahill, education and training specialist, will present the Student Modeling Challenge, designed to introduce students to the concepts and practice of computational modeling as a method for engaging in scientific analysis.
• Cahill will also present a half-day tutorial titled Introduction to Python for Scientific Computing, a quick immersion in the basics of the Python programming language and associated packages for scientific computing, including tools needed to participate in the Student Modeling Challenge.
• Cahill will facilitate a workshop: Second Workshop on Strategies for Enhancing HPC Education and Training (SEHET19).
• Eric Franz, web and interface application lead engineer; Alan Chalker, Ph.D., director of strategic programs;  Morgan Rodgers, web and interface application engineer; Trey Dockendorf, HPC systems engineer; Doug Johnson, chief systems architect; and David Hudak, Ph.D., executive director, will present OSC’s Open OnDemand Quarterly Meeting.
• Franz, Chalker, Rodgers, Dockendorf, Johnson, and Hudak will also facilitate the Open OnDemand User Group Meeting, a birds-of-a-feather session meant to be an open discussion to guide the future roadmap for Open OnDemand in the near term by getting feedback from the community on the prioritization of the various tasks planned for the next few years.
• Franz, Chalker, Rodgers, Dockendorf, Johnson, and Hudak will present the poster Scaling R Shiny Apps to Multiple Concurrent Users in a Secured HPC Environment Using Open OnDemand.
• Rodgers, Franz, Chalker, and Hudak will present the poster Data Commons to Support University-Wide Cross Discipline Research: The Translational Data Analytics Institute (TDAI) at the Ohio State University (OSU).
• Samuel Khuvis, scientific application engineer; Zhi-Qiang You, scientific application engineer; Heechang Na, scientific application engineer; Scott Brozell, client and tech support engineer; Franz, Dockendorf, Judith Gardiner, Ph.D., scientific applications senior engineer; and Karen Tomko, Ph.D., director of research software applications, will present their paper, A Continuous Integration-Based Framework for Software Management.