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Tinaroo aids research into supercapacitors: a potential better energy source for electric vehicles than batteries
With initially few high performance computing resources at hand, University of Queensland PhD candidate Ryan Burt was fully expecting to have to delay his thesis by a year.
However, luckily for Mr Burt, UQ’s Research Computing Centre introduced new high performance computer (HPC) Tinaroo in May this year, solely for UQ researchers’ use.
Mr Burt, from the Department of Chemical Engineering, became an early adopter of Tinaroo, using it with a “well-established method and code” to complete his production simulations, which require a large amount of computation — he expects to use about four million CPU (central processing unit) hours this year alone.
Tinaroo’s introduction not only alleviated Mr Burt’s previous problem of insufficient computing resources, it enabled him to “produce results much faster than before.” Which is good news for not only him, but also the nascent electric vehicle industry as Mr Burt’s research is on supercapacitors, a faster charging and discharging alternative or complement to batteries.
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Simulation snapshot of a supercapacitor; the green molecules represent a solvent, blue and purple molecules represent positive and negative ions, and the electrode is represented in silver and gold. |
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Try the new Tinaroo GUI desktop
RCC is calling for early adopters to try an alternate login for high performance computer Tinaroo that provides a GUI (graphical user interface) desktop.
The new service will provide basic desktop tools such as GUI editors to help users prepare their HPC jobs.
The desktop login can be accessed from any Web browser without the need for special software, so is useful for those using Windows workstations, tablets or when travelling.
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RCC shortlisted for R&D award
 RCC is a finalist in this year’s “Oscars of Invention” for a software debugging tool it created.
The R&D 100 Awards honour the latest and best innovations internationally and identify the top technology products of the past year. Since 1963, the R&D 100 Awards have identified revolutionary technologies introduced to the market.
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Have your say on the future of Australia's research infrastructure
The Australian public has until 9 September 2016 to have their say on the future direction of the federal government’s research infrastructure priorities.
Australia’s Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel, opened the call for submissions on 20 July 2016 with the release of the National Research Infrastructure Capability Issues Paper.
The issues paper is a key step in the development of the 2016 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap, which will guide future government investment. The Roadmap is due to be released by the end of the year.
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Galaxy Queensland introduces new user policy to meet growing demand
 The Queensland branch of Galaxy, a web-based platform for computational biomedical research, has a new user policy to meet increasing demand.
Galaxy-qld’s new policy was implemented on 4 August 2016 to balance the workload so all users get fair access to the processing pipeline.
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Researchers seek to solve the complex puzzle of Chardonnay
 QCIF recently published a case study featuring the Australian Wine Research Institute's use of QRIScloud and the Genomics Virtual Laboratory, which is operated by RCC.
AWRI is using the advanced computing tools in its investigation of the genetic make-up of the Chardonnay grape, a collaborative research project with Canada's BC Genome Sciences Centre at the University of British Columbia.
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COMSOL Multiphysics: One-day intensive training course
Sha ne Underwood from Technic, the seller and supporter of COMSOL software in Australia and New Zealand, will visit Brisbane on 30 September 2016 to run a full-day technical training course in COMSOL Multiphysics.
The course is designed for new and would be users of the software.
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Cihan joins SGI as a System Support Engineer
 RCC eResearch Analyst and Geocomputing Specialist Cihan Altinay (pictured) joined SGI as a System Support Engineer on Monday, 15 August.
In his new Brisbane-based role, CIhan will provide technical support to research institutions across Queensland, including UQ, for SGI-provided high-performance computing and storage systems.
He will also assist in the installation and configuration of new systems across Australia.
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RCC's 'Dr Nick' co-authors mouse kidney cell paper
 RCC/QCIF eResearch Analyst Dr Nick Hamilton (pictured) has co-authored a paper on mouse kidney cells that was published recently in the journal Developmental Biology.
The paper, ‘Cap mesenchyme cell swarming during kidney development is influenced by attraction, repulsion, and adhesion to the ureteric tip’, is a collaboration between The University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Biology, where Dr Hamilton is based, and the University of Melbourne.
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 An early-stage mouse kidney during development with colours marking distinct cell types and structures (image courtesy of Little Group).
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Attended a Software Carpentry workshop? Please provide feedback for research
If you have ever attended a Software Carpentry workshop, please provide your feedback here (it should take just 5–10 minutes).
RCC/QCIF eResearch Analyst Team Leader Belinda Weaver is surveying workshop attendees for her UQ Master of Philosophy research on 'Investigating the efficacy and usefulness of Software Carpentry training for researchers'.
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View Dr Genevieve Bell's RCC seminar video on YouTube
An audience packed out both video-connected seminar rooms at RCC and Monash University on Friday, 5 August 2016 to hear anthropologist and Intel Senior Fellow Dr Genevieve Bell speak on her topic of: The Internet of Beings: Or, what are the animals telling us?
Dr Bell discussed what has resulted from animal tracking and what lessons can be learnt from this for humans when looking at The Internet of Things.
View the video of the seminar on RCC's YouTube channel.
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“Software in research: under-appreciated and under-rewarded”
 The Assistant Director for Scientific Software and Applications at America's National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) will give a keynote speech at this year’s eResearch Australasia conference about the challenges for research software.
On Tuesday, 11 October, Daniel S. Katz (pictured), in his talk titled “Software in Research: Under-appreciated and Under-rewarded”, will discuss the current state of research software and some potential solutions to “recognising that developing software can be a creative research process.”
Another keynoter at the conference will be Nobel Prize winner and 1997 Australian of the Year Prof. Peter Doherty, who will discuss the importance of evidence-based research and effective science communication.
The program for the conference, being held 10–14 October in Melbourne, was announced in early August. Early-bird registration closes 7 September.
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September Tech Talk to focus on Big Data-related analysis tools
Date: Friday, 2 September
Time: 3–4pm AEST
Brisbane venue: Room 505A, level 5, Axon Building (47), UQ St Lucia Campus (or join remotely)
Register
Next month's Tech Talk will focus on big data-related analysis tools, with speakers Dr Massimo Lamanna (pictured) from CERN, Dr Stuart Minchin from Geoscience Australia and Dr Anthony Truskinger from QUT.
The monthly Tech Talk is an initative of ANDS, Nectar, QCIF, Intersect, VICNode, eRSA and Pawsey. It is for anyone who wants to know more about the technical aspects of data and NCRIS facilities.
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Call for volunteers for ResBaz 2017
The University of Queensland’s St Lucia Campus will host next year’s Brisbane Research Bazaar (ResBaz), 7–9 February, and its organisers are calling for  volunteers.
Volunteers are required to help organise ResBaz 2017 and run events, suggest activities, run stalls on the 'festival' day, do lightning talks and more. Register your interest by filling out this form.
ResBaz 2017 planner Belinda Weaver of RCC said: "After the great success of ResBaz 2016 at QUT, we want to make ResBaz 2017 an even more sensational event for researchers."
ResBaz is a worldwide festival promoting the digital literacy emerging at the centre of modern research.
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RCC events in pictures...
Sparse data talk opens 2016 RCC seminar series
Dr Shonali Krishnaswamy, Director and Senior Scientist at Singapore's Institute for Infocomm Research, did the honours on 29 July of launching the 2016 RCC/MURPA seminar series
. Dr Krishnaswamy discussed three real-world case studies which demonstrated the opportunities for drawing rich insights from “not so” rich data.
Dreaming of electric sheep
Dr Genevieve Bell talked about wi-fi connected sheep in Wales as part of her RCC/MURPA seminar on Friday, 5 August about The Internet of Living Beings.
Galaxy workshop
RCC's Dr Igor Makunin (pictured standing) led a workshop for new Galaxy users on Wednesday, 17 August. He covered differential gene expression analysis using nextGen sequencing data and Galaxy workflow. Please email Dr Makunin if you are interested in future Galaxy workshops: i.makunin@uq.edu.au.
IT-related research problems solved over coffee
Hacky Hour occurs at UQ each Tuesday, 3–4pm, at a cafe on the St Lucia Campus. The Hour on Tuesday, 26 July at Nano Cafe, involved questions about high performance computer Euramoo and issues within bioinformatics.
All photos by Dr Nick Hamilton, RCC/QCIF/IMB
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