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Tutorial addresses migrating from the desktop

As the number and size of available datasets continue to grow across all areas of biology, so do the computational resources required to analyze such datasets. The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) will host a tutorial May 9-11, 2011, to introduce the skills, strategies and techniques to jump from desktop computing to high performance computing (HPC) environments.

The workshop will begin with the basics such as outlining the key differences between desktop computing and HPC, how to identify and access appropriate HPC resources, and choosing problems well-suited to the HPC environment. Visualization tools will also be introduced, as will topics in data management and best practices in development. Case studies, which are expected to include projects focused on sequence evolution, systems biology, and species distribution modeling, will provide concrete examples of how the shift from desktop to HPC computing can be achieved.

The tutorial, "Migration from the Desktop: HPC Application of R and Other Codes for Biological Research" will be held at NIMBioS on the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), campus and will include lectures, case-studies, hands-on labs and small group discussions. The tutorial is co-sponsored by NIMBioS and the University of Tennessee's Center for Remote Data Analysis and Visualization (RDAV). Tutorial leaders are Eric Carr (HPC Specialist, NIMBioS); Michael Gilchrist (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UTK); Jian Huang (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, RDAV, UTK); and Amy Szczepanski (RDAV).

The tutorial is geared toward biologists, including students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty, whose research has grown beyond what desktop computers can handle and require HPC to progress further.

NIMBioS Tutorials involve 30-40 participants. For more information about the tutorial, visit http://www.nimbios.org/tutorials/TT_hpc

The National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) brings together researchers from around the world to collaborate across disciplinary boundaries to investigate solutions to basic and applied problems in the life sciences. NIMBioS is sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture with additional support from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

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