October 2024

The ACCESS Advance is a monthly newsletter produced by the U.S. National Science Foundation's ACCESS (Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support) program. It contains science stories enabled by ACCESS, program news and opportunities for users.

In this Issue

STEP Extension Offered to RPs
Applause to Our Published Authors
ACCESS at Tapia Conference
Vote in HPCWire Readers' Choice Awards
Anvil's Newest Resource Now Online

Opportunities

Events and Trainings

Community Announcements

Science Stories

enabled by ACCESS

Using Models to Predict Electron Binding Energies and Vibrational Spectra

Researchers from Tennessee Technological University used Bridges-2 at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to simulate polyaromatic hydrocarbons to predict radical anions and better understand the interstellar medium.

Read the full story here

Using Supercomputers to Better Understand Boreal Forest Changes

A research team at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks uses Stampede3 at the Texas Advanced Computing Center to study insect pests that are proliferating as the climate warms and threatening the health of aspen trees.

Read the full story here

Enhancing Hurricane Forecasts

A University of Houston study used Bridges-2 at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to improve predictions of hurricane intensity and associated rainfall, potentially revolutionizing how we prepare for and respond to these powerful events.

Read the full story here

What's New?

Operations Offers STEP Extension to Resource Providers

ACCESS Operations now offers Resource Providers (RPs) an extension to the successful Student Training and Engagement Program (STEP). This opportunity allows RPs to collaborate with the existing STEP program and participate as student supervisors in a similar fashion to the ACCESS Operations cybersecurity, networking and operational services teams.

All interested RPs will be required to submit project proposals for a summer-long project, participate in the admission review process, supervise a participating STEP student in alignment with the expectations of STEP, provide $10,000 to support student travel, stipends and housing, commit to funding travel and participation of RP staff for STEP training event(s) and commit staff to participate in any needed mentor training.

In return, ACCESS STEP will continue to advertise and operate STEP in accordance with its plans and general practices. ACCESS STEP will include RPs in the student selection process, provide student placement within the cohort including partial funding of the student and incorporate committed RP staff in any needed training or events.

If you have questions or would like to discuss this opportunity, please contact ACCESS STEP at step@access-ci.org.

Learn more about STEP

Cheers and Applause For Our Published Authors!

Congratulations to the many published authors in our community! This month alone, ACCESS researchers reported 40 publications ranging across 23 fields of science. This prolific publication rate demonstrates the admirable drive and conviction of ACCESS researchers.

Published works also benefit the ACCESS community, since they lead to greater visibility and recognition for the ACCESS project as a whole. Keep in mind when preparing your work for publication that papers, presentations and other published works are required to acknowledge the ACCESS ecosystem and must name the resource used as well.

Not sure how to acknowledge ACCESS? Whether you’re composing your bibliography or works cited pages, or adding an ACCESS credit line to your website, you can find the correct citation format in the Acknowledging ACCESS section of our website.

How to Acknowledge ACCESS

ACCESS Exhibits at Tapia 2024

The ACCESS crew spent time in September at the annual Tapia Conference, celebrating diversity in computing. This year's conference was held in San Diego; pictured are ACCESS team members (l-r) Cindy Wong (ACO), Kim Mann-Bruch (ACO), Lavanya Podila (ACO) and Stephen Deems (Allocations). If you'll be at a conference representing ACCESS, you can request branded materials including a tablecloth and floor- and tabletop-pull-up banners. You can also request swag and print materials.

Request Branded Materials

Request Swag and Print Materials

Vote in the HPCWire Readers' Choice Awards

ACCESS has been nominated in four categories for these annual awards: Workforce Diversity & Inclusion Leadership Award; Outstanding Leadership in HPC; Best Use of HPC in Life Sciences; and Best Use of HPC in Energy. Polls are open through October 4 – be sure to get your vote in!

HPCWire Readers' Choice Awards

Spotlight

Anvil’s Newest Resource Now Online

The Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC) at Purdue University recently announced another new application researchers can utilize for their work, AnvilGPT.

As you might expect, AnvilGPT is RCAC’s open-source large language model (LLM) service that is hosted entirely on-premises (on-prem). With an on-prem resource, researchers can do their work without having to share their data with third parties. This allows researchers with grant-funded work that requires tight control of their data to use an LLM in their research.

“AnvilGPT is great in that it is all hosted on our servers and utilizes the new GPUs being added through recent supplemental funding from the NSF,” says Sarah Rodenbeck, a lead research data scientist at RCAC and product lead of AnvilGPT. “Nothing is going to be used for further training of models or shared between groups, so researchers can be more comfortable uploading documents that may contain proprietary content or have restrictions on use.”

As with all the resources provided through the ACCESS program, getting an allocation to use AnvilGPT is free for the researcher.