ACCESS Staff Newsletter – February 2023

Inside ACCESS is a monthly newsletter produced for all ACCESS program staff. It contains program-wide announcements and updates from each of the program's service areas. Questions/comments? Email us at communications@access-ci.org.

Allocations Updates

The ACCESS Allocations team recently released an interactive map of allocations, exchanges and resource usage since the start of the ACCESS program in September 2022. Values in the map are displayed in ACCESS Credits, or ACCESS Credit equivalents for Maximize ACCESS requests and usage. Tour the Allocations map for a more in-depth view of where researchers are utilizing ACCESS resources.

The ACCESS Allocations team has also published the first version of their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) plan, which will guide innovative changes to the allocations and resource management process by putting DEI at center stage around a continuous improvement paradigm. The report outlines goals oriented toward areas of Outreach & Engagement, Training & Recruitment of reviewers, Content Review, Allocations Policies and Continuous Improvement.

Support Updates

The ACCESS Support team has been working on a weekly digest to provide you with the latest news, events and trainings. If you would like to ensure that you receive updates on all future ACCESS training events and other news, including exclusive content, please join the ACCESS Support Affinity Group. Have something you would like to broadcast in our weekly newsletter? Post your news or event on the ACCESS Support portal.

ACCESS Support would like to thank the community for the overwhelming response to our pilot CSSN Community Engagement Program (CCEP). The committee positions are filled, but we have more travel support for Knowledge Base contributions adding information resources or contributing on Ask.CI. We are happy to work with you 1:1 for questions about your submissions or visit your lab, staff meeting or faculty gathering to share this opportunity. Please email Alana Romanella for your presentation needs.

Care about a research topic or HPC tool, or do you just want to chat with the community? Join an Affinity Group to get updates about things you care about or request a new one! If you have an allocation, you will automatically become a member of Affinity Groups associated with your allocations.

Operations Updates

The Operations team has been busy preparing for the STEP program, including planning content and identifying instructors for the on-site immersive experience at Florida International University in May as well as the summer internship opportunity.

A survey to measure RP satisfaction with the integration process was recently sent out with results expected before the end of PY1.

The Networking & Data Transfer Services team completed the DNS setup and continues to make progress with the transition to CONECTnet.

The Cybersecurity team is working through a transition from Duo to Cirrus, with a full transition expected by September 2023. They are also beginning work on the ACCESS Identity and Access Management policy.

The Roadmaps working group is releasing a new and improved integrations roadmap for RPs.

Setup is underway for the new Jira Service Management ticketing system with deployment expected by the beginning of PY2.

Operations Support will have a new front page for the Operations portal ready for review soon, and they are also starting an AI Chatbot pilot.

Metrics Updates

ACCESS MMS has added two new staff members who will work as developers on XDMoD: Aaron Weeden, who previously worked at Shodor Education Foundation, and Andrew Stoltman, who joins us straight after finishing his degree at the University of Buffalo.

The Metrics team had a paper accepted, “Benchmarking High-End ARM Systems with Scientific Applications. Performance and Energy Efficiency“ for the 2023 Cray Users Group Conference in Helsinki.

ACO Updates

The ACO has begun working on PEARC, to be held in Portland, OR, this July. The team is discussing BoF submissions, potential meetings to leverage ACCESS staff's rare proximity to one another, exhibit materials and more.

The team is also initiating work with the External Advisory Board, spinning up a virtual Community Building & Engagement team, and formalizing Evaluation plans and reporting, working closely with our ACCESS Program Officer Tom Gulbransen.

Extended Community Announcements

Announcing Neocortex Spring 2023 Call for Proposals

The Neocortex team is pleased to announce the Neocortex Spring 2023 Call for Proposals. Neocortex is an NSF-funded supercomputer that features Cerebras accelerators and an HPE Superdome Flex server designed to radically speed up AI and HPC research. The mission of Neocortex is to characterize the strengths and limitations of these promising hardware technologies. Access to Neocortex is offered at no cost for research and education and at cost-recovery rates for other purposes. If you're interested in becoming a Neocortex user, PSC invites you to participate in this upcoming CFP and attend the upcoming informational webinar.

Submissions will be accepted via EasyChair from March 15 – April 12 (please check the CFP website for the submission link). New users are expected to gain access to the system starting in mid-May.

There are two options to learn more about the Neocortex Spring 2023 CFP:

Attend the Neocortex Spring 2023 Call for Proposals and System Overview webinar hosted by the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center via Zoom on Tuesday, Feb. 28, from 2-3 p.m. (ET). In this webinar, the team will provide a system and software overview and describe the logistics of the upcoming NeocortexSpring2023CFP (application process, acceptance criteria, sample applications, program expectations and timeline). Come prepared with questions. Please make sure to register in advance. After registering, you'll receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Visit the official Neocortex Spring 2023 CFP webpage.

If you have any questions, please email neocortex@psc.edu.

ACCESS is supported by the National Science Foundation.