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Euramoo users gain access to MATLAB

MATLAB logoResearchers can now use MATLAB on compute cluster Euramoo. All that’s needed is access to a licence from their home institution. UQ, Griffith, JCU and USQ have already made arrangements and QUT will follow soon

MATLAB is a multi-paradigm numerical computing program used in engineering, science and economics. 
 
QCIF has worked with members to enable access to their respective license servers so users correctly access the MATLAB features and components they are entitled to run.
 
In other MATLAB news, Griffith is hosting the Brisbane arm of the free MATLAB Academic Conference on 12 July. Speakers will cover topics such as using MATLAB for data analytics, machine learning, modelling simulation and distributed computing.
 
For questions on using MATLAB on Euramoo, please contact the QRIScloud Help Desk: support@qriscloud.org.au.
 

Hands-on AURIN workshops for Qld researchersAURIN logo

QCIF and AURIN will conduct masterclasses in mid-July at QUT, Griffith and UQ to help researchers and analysts become proficient in using AURIN’s urban planning platform. 
 
AURIN streamlines access to more than 1,600 data sets and 100 analytical tools useful for urban planning and research. The AURIN Workbench and portal provides online access to open source e-research tools to interrogate, model and visualise these data.
 
The AURIN workshops are free, but please register, and the dates and locations for each are:
  • State and local government, Wednesday, 13 July, 9am–12pm, QUT Gardens Point Campus. More info
  • QUT, Thursday, 14 July, 9am–12pm, QUT Gardens Point Campus. More info
  • Griffith, Thursday, 14 July, 2pm–5pm, Griffith Nathan Campus. More info
  • UQ, Friday, 15 July, 9am–12pm, St Lucia Campus. More info
A shorter AURIN workshop is being held on Wednesday, 13 July, as part of a joint Evaluation and Social Research symposium at QUT’s Kelvin Grove Campus titled ‘Getting more impact from BIG DATA for evaluation and research’.
 
Dr Jack Barton, AURIN’s Urban Data and eResearch Facilitator, will lead the workshops, with Gavin Kennedy, QCIF Outreach and Engineering Manager, assisting. 

QCIF is coordinating these workshops as AURIN’s representative in Queensland. Please contact QCIF’s Gavin Kennedy to learn more about the AURIN workshops: gavin.kennedy@qcif.edu.au.
 

New USQ high performance computer Fawkes is ready to fly

USQ’s new high performance computer, Fawkes, went live on 17 May, tripling the university’s HPC capacity.
 
USQ DVC (Research & Innovation) Professor Mark Harvey said, “This is a significant addition to USQ’s research infrastructure which was co-funded by a $200,000 contribution from QCIF.”

QCIF CEO Rob Cook said,“QCIF has been working closely with USQ to replace its obsolete and saturated compute cluster by investing in this new HPC specifically designed to meet the university's engineering, astronomy, agricultural and environmental research needs.”
 
Fawkes, an SGI system, features 580 cores across 29 nodes, including 24 standard compute, one GPU and four large memory nodes running Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). It is installed in a data centre on the university’s Toowoomba campus.
 
As a result of a naming competition, the HPC was dubbed Fawkes, the name of the phoenix in the Harry Potter novels and a nod to the phoenix in USQ’s logo.
 
For further information about Fawkes, read the in-depth ITnews story titled: ‘USQ prepares to launch new supercomputer’.
 
For queries about Fawkes, please contact HPC Admin at HPC.Admin@usq.edu.au or eResearch Services at eResearchServices@usq.edu.au.

USQ 2016 HPC Refresh Committee
USQ's 2016 HPC Refresh Committee (L to R): Dr Erin Rayment (Director, Office of Research Development); Scott Sorley (Executive Director, ICT Services), Dr Francis Gacenga (QCIF eResearch Analyst), David Mason (Client Support Co-ordinator); and Richard Young (HPC Systems Engineer). Not in picture: Jayish Lal (Manager, Enterprise Infrastructure), Russell Waldron (HPC Systems Engineer), and Toran Matherson (Manager, Networks). Photo by USQ Photography.
 

ITnews features the work of QCIF and QRIScloud

QCIF and QRIScloud were mentioned in two ITnews stories published in the last month.
 
Queensland research cloud boosts HPC arsenal’, published on 1 June, focused on QCIF and QRIScloud, particularly the addition of 1500 cores to QRIScloud, whilst also mentioning Queensland universities’ own HPC facilities.  
 
Inside the tech supporting the bleeding edge of neuroscience’, published on 30 May, showcased the Queensland Brain Institute’s resources and mentioned its potential use of QRIScloud. Jake Carroll, QBI’s Senior Information Technology Manager (Research), is quoted as saying: “As things develop we could move certain workloads that suit into the QRIScloud and use the services of the Research Computing Centre (RCC) as well to augment our capability.”
IT news article
 

Strong response to this year's QCIF user survey

surveyUsers of QCIF’s services and resources are almost three times more likely to recommend them to others this year compared to last year, according to results from QCIF’s 2016 user survey.
 
As with last year’s survey, users were asked to rate QCIF and QRIScloud on the likelihood they would recommend services to their colleagues and friends, and to provide feedback on their rating. We recorded a Net Promoter Score of 23.2 this year — a solid improvement over 2015’s score of 8.0. As the NPS system can involve negative scores, the more a score is above zero, the better.   
 
This year’s survey resulted in 95 responses (in contrast to 25 last year) from QRIScloud users and research leaders, with respondents largely positive about QRIScloud’s services, support, eResearch Analysts, and the research outcomes achieved. The quality of the feedback was excellent and helps us understand:
  • how we can continue to improve users’ experience with QRIScloud
  • what future services, features, and capabilities users are looking for us to deliver. 
On the continuous improvement front, the survey responses highlighted the following key themes for us to focus on:
  • improve clarity and promotion of services and how they are accessed and used seamlessly in conjunction with home institution services
  • improve customer communications
  • improve the ease of use to cater for all levels of users
  • minimise disruptions and outages to services
  • ensure there is available capacity. 
The service delivery team has begun working on a number of these themes and looks forward to continuing efforts to deliver improved services and user experiences with QRIScloud.

We would like to thank all those who took the time to respond to our survey. To deliver further feedback please contact Stephen Bird: stephen.bird@qcif.edu.au.
 
If you would like to participate in next year’s survey, please ensure you have registered for a QRIScloud account.
 

Nine badged as Queensland Digital Champions at inaugural roundtable event

Nine people from QCIF member universities received badges at the inaugural Advance Queensland Community Digital Champions (AQCDC) Roundtable at the State Library of Queensland on Monday, 6 June.
 
Associate Professor Trina Myers (JCU), Dr Ian McLeod (JCU), Dr Maggie Hardy (UQ) and Dr Eleanor Horton (USC) were named as new Community Digital Champions at the event.
 
Meanwhile, James Novak (Griffith), Professor Ian Atkinson and David Beitey from JCU’s eResearch Centre, and sole student Ally Lynch (UQ), received their badges for becoming Community Digital Champions in March this year, alongside Dr Jenny Ostini (USQ), an inaugural Community Digital Champion.
 
Leeanne Enoch, Queensland Minister for Innovation, Science and the Digital Economy, handed out the badges.
 
The Queensland Government’s AQCDC program looks for “outstanding individuals” who are helping to improve the state’s digital literacy and digital adoption.

Nominations for the next round of Community Digital Champions close in August this year. For more information, visit the GoDigitalQld website.
 
JCU Community Digital Champions 
JCU's Community Digital Champions, L-R: David Beitey, Dr Ian McLeod, Assoc. Prof. Trina Myers and Prof. Ian Atkinson. Photo by Kerry Russo (JCU). 
 

Software Carpentry extends across Queensland

Software Carpentry is extending its reach across Queensland with workshops at USQ and CQU for the first time, and plans for USC to be next.
 
The Software Carpentry Foundation, with trainers around the world, including more than a dozen in Queensland, aims to teach researchers the computing skills they need to get more done in less time and with less pain.
 
QCIF eResearch Analyst and new Software Carpentry trainer Jason Bell led CQU’s workshop on 31 May with 12 participants and with the help of UQ-based Software Carpentry trainer Paula Andrea Martinez.
 
Francis Gacenga, a QCIF eResearch Analyst and new Software Carpentry trainer, will host USQ’s first workshop in Toowoomba across 18–19 July, and has a full house already, with 40 participants registered. Software Carpentry trainers Belinda Weaver and Leah Roberts from QCIF and UQ respectively, will lead the workshop.
 
QCIF eResearch Analyst Team Leader Belinda Weaver is helping to steer Software Carpentry’s expansion across Queensland. She was elected to the Software Carpentry Foundation’s Steering Committee earlier this year and is keen to raise the profile of Software Carpentry both in Australia and around the world. She is currently working with Sunshine Coast University to see it host its first Software Carpentry workshop this year.
 
UQ and Griffith have already held several Software Carpentry workshops over the last year, with Griffith’s most recent one on 6–7 June at the Gold Coast. JCU in Townsville ran its first workshop last October.

The next workshop at UQ will be 11–12 July, a tie-in event with the Winter School in Mathematical & Computational Biology.
 
JCU’s next workshop, on 14–15 July, is about Library Carpentry and aimed at librarians and humanities researchers.

Please contact Belinda Weaver if you would like to get involved in Software Carpentry: b.weaver@uq.edu.au.

Instructors and attendees at CQU's first Software Carpentry workshop
QCIF eResearch Analyst Jason Bell (third from left) and instructor Paula Andrea Martinez (fifth from right) with attendees of CQU's first Software Carpentry workshop on Tuesday, 31 May.
 

QRIScloud gains a new Systems Engineer

Denis LujanskiDenis Lujanski (pictured) has joined UQ's Research Computing Centre as a QRIScloud Systems Engineer.
 
Denis will assist research support staff with operations, development and maintenance of QRIScloud and will assist researchers by providing end-user technical support.
 
Denis is a UQ Information Technology graduate with six years’ experience in the private sector. He has worked as Systems Administrator and IT Support at a control systems vendor, assisting control systems engineers with design and integration. His next role was as Cloud Engineer for a private cloud company where he was involved in data centre rack maintenance, system administration, IT support and client relationship management.

For QRIScloud issues, please contact support@qriscloud.org.au.
 

Did you know ReDBox does research data management planning?

ReDBox logoInterest in ReDBox’s research data management planning tool has spiked following its inclusion in an Australian National Data Service webinar on 21 April.

ReDBox is the QCIF-supported open source platform for managing and publishing research data collections. ReDBox’s RDMP tool provides forms and workflows that can be tailored for managing data management plans in-line with an institution's RDMP policies and procedures.
 
If potential users don't have a current ReDBox implementation, QCIF can host ReDBox for you with our ReDBox Lite service. If you would like to know more about ReDBox and ReDBox RDMP, please contact QCIF’s Gavin Kennedy: gavin.kennedy@qcif.edu.au.
 

AAF, QCIF and AURIN raise awareness at briefing to government and industry AAF logo

QCIF addressed an Australian Access Federation-led government and industry technology briefing co-developed between AAF, QCIF and the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network on Friday, 20 May.
 
The Brisbane-held briefing aimed to raise awareness of eResearch sector services and showcase the capabilities and value of AURIN and QCIF as AAF service providers.
 
The briefing included representatives from federal government, Queensland state government, local government, non-government organisations and industry.
 
The day resulted in a significant number of attendees seeking to progress to training workshops, product review discussions and use case development for progress to implementation. This should result in greater uptake and usage of AAF, QCIF and AURIN services.
  

QCIF to present QRIScloud at QUESTnet conference 

QCIF Data Specialist Dr Hoylen Sue will deliver a presentation on QRIScloud at this year’s QUESTnet conference on Wednesday, 6 July, 11am, on the Gold Coast.
 
QUESTnet, 5–8 July, is focused on information technology used in higher education, and its audience is largely technologists who work in this sector.
 
In his presentation, Dr Sue will discuss the challenges of creating a service delivery platform to support the operation of QRIScloud, and the solutions that were found. Read the full abstract.

QUESTnet logo

July's Tech Talk to focus on security in the cloud 

Date: Friday, 8 July
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 TProf. Richard Sinnottalk will focus on security in the cloud with Prof. Richard Sinnott (pictured), Director of eResearch at the University of Melbourne, Dr Chris Hines, a Senior HPC Consultant at Monash University, and David Blockow from Data to Decisions CRC (Cooperative Research Centre), lined up to speak.
 
The monthly Tech Talk is an initiative of ANDS, Nectar, QCIF, Intersect, VicNode, eRSA and Pawsey. Attendees meet in capital city hubs and connect nationwide via videoconferencing networks. The event is for anyone who wants to know more about NCRIS facilities and the technical aspects of research data.
 
For information and slides from past Tech Talks, please visit the ANDS website.
 

QCIF co-hosts Brisbane's Mozilla Science Lab Global Sprint

QCIF and RCC hosted this year’s Brisbane Mozilla Science Lab Global Sprint, a two-day hackathon for open source science held 2–3 June.
 
QCIF/RCC eResearch Analyst Team Leader Belinda Weaver co-ordinated further development of Library Carpentry material during the Sprint, roping in a global team of more than 20 people from South Africa, USA, the Netherlands, Canada and Australia, plus the project originators in the UK.
 
The original four-module lesson (covering Shell, regular expressions, Git, and OpenRefine) has now become seven, with a new SQL module and others for persistent identifiers and computational thinking. Draft learning objectives were created for most of the main lessons linked via: github.com/data-lessons/librarycarpentry.
 
Five modules were migrated to the new Data Carpentry lesson template, while library-based data sets were swapped in to make the lessons more relevant to librarians.
 
The lesson material constitutes a kind of ‘Data 101’ course, which can easily be repurposed for other communities and disciplines by the use of different data sets. QCIF hopes to take that concept further over the coming months. Read more via Belinda’s blog post.
.
Brisbane Mozilla Science Lab Global Sprint participants
L-R: Natasha Simons (ANDS), Clinton Roy (Bloomberg), Dr Nick Hamilton (QCIF/RCC), Belinda Weaver (QCIF/RCC) and Stephane Guillou (UQ). Photo by Dr Nick Hamilton (QCIF/RCC).
 

RCC's Fran Berman seminar video now on YouTubeFran Berman YouTube video

Missed out on seeing Professor Francine Berman, the US lead of the global Research Data Alliance, speak at UQ on Friday, 27 May, about building a sustainable ecosystem for data-driven research? Never fear, UQ’s Research Computing Centre has posted a recording of the seminar on YouTube.

More information about the seminar | Watch the video
 

QFAB@QCIF profile: Kathy Dallest

Kathy DallestKathy Dallest is a data scientist with QFAB@QCIF, the consulting branch of QCIF, and collaborates with the technical teams to make the national health and medical research data storage facility (www.med.data.edu.au) accessible to researchers and institutes.
 
With a clinical background in nursing and public health, Kathy has more than 20 years’ experience in health IT systems and analytics at an operational, managerial and national level, both in Australia and Scotland, with skill sets in:
  • clinical and health informatics
  • digital health systems design and implementation
  • health information management
  • health data analytics
  • research and data management
  • safety in health systems
  • policy development.
Kathy is currently a PhD candidate in the Centre of Research Excellence in Telehealth within the UQ School of Medicine. She is a professional member of the British Computer Society (since 1999), and member of the Joint ISO and IEC working group 7: 'Application of risk management to information technology networks incorporating medical devices'. Contact Kathy at: k.dallest@uq.edu.au.
 

QRIScloud is funded by the Australian Government, the Queensland State Government and the QCIF member universities. The Australian Government directs funds through the National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources (NeCTAR) Project (led by The University of Melbourne), and the Research Data Storage Infrastructure Project, completed in 2015, and the Research Data Services (RDS) Project (both data projects led by The University of Queensland) using the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) and Education Investment Fund (EIF). The Queensland Government directs funds through the Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation (DSITI) and its Co-investment Fund.

      
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      RDS logo 

 NCRIS logo
June 2016

 



Upcoming Events


* Each Tuesday, UQ Hacky Hour, St Lucia

* 4–8 July, 2016 Winter School in Mathematical & Computational Biology, UQ, Brisbane

* 5–8 July, QUESTnet 2016, Gold Coast

* 6 July, Genomics Virtual Lab training workshop, UQ, Brisbane

* 8 July, Tech Talk: Security in the Cloud, Brisbane and virtually

* 11–12 July, Software Carpentry with R workshop, UQ, Brisbane

* 12 July, MATLAB Academic Conference 2016, Griffith, Brisbane

* 13 July, Getting more impact from big data for evaluation and research, QUT, Brisbane

* 13 July, AURIN Masterclass for State & Local Govt, QUT, Brisbane

* 14 July, AURIN Masterclass for QUT, QUT, Brisbane

* 14 July, AURIN Masterclass for Griffith, Griffith, Brisbane

* 14–15 July, Library Carpentry workshop, JCU, Townsville

* 15 July, AURIN Masterclass for UQ, UQ, Brisbane

* 18–19 July, Software Carpentry at USQ, Toowoomba

* 10–14 October, eResearch Australasia 2016, Melbourne

 
HIC video

Featured video

Health Informatics Conference 2015: The QFAB team make an appearance in this video. Watch


Featured Article

1 June 2016—Queensland research cloud boosts HPC arsenal, ITnews

 
koala

Featured Collection

Ecosounds: QRIScloud is storing this repository of information and audio recording annotations for fauna that make human-audible sounds. More
 


Milestones and Metrics

QRIScloud now has more than 600 registered users.

Euramoo now has more than 180 registered users.

FlashLite now has more than 90 registered users.

QRIScloud is now storing 223 data collections, with more than 4 PB of data ingested.
 
Copyright © 2016 QRIScloud, All rights reserved.
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