Spring Digital Research Infrastructure Connect
13 minutes
Program
Spring Digital Research Infrastructure Connect #
The theme of the conference “Towards Integrated Solutions for Digital Research” was born out of a desire to craft a program that keeps collaboration at its core and offers content that highlights innovative approaches and solutions to breaking down silos and promoting synergy. Ultimately, our hope is that DRI Connect will contribute to a shared vision that leverages the full potential of digital research infrastructure (DRI) in Canada.
DRI Connect Dinner and ACENET Celebration #
We look forward to hosting DRI Connect guests for a celebratory dinner on May 27, 2024!
Program #
You may view the program or subscribe to it with Google Calendar.
Day 0 - Preconference #
Sunday, May 26 (click to expand)
↓
- 9:30 PM
"No Host" Gathering
- Everyone welcome
- Folks responsible for own food and drink
This casual get-together awaits you upon your arrival in Halifax and offers the opportunity to meet fellow attendees, catch up with people you haven’t seen for a while, and see colleagues in real life that you’ve only seen in small squares on a screen!
Day 1-2 - Conference #
Monday, May 27 (click to expand)
(60 min.)
Registration & Breakfast
(30 min.)
Welcome Remarks
George Ross (CEO, Digital Research Alliance of Canada)
With a career spanning over 37 years, George Ross has worked across numerous sectors including consulting, public service, international development, technology, research and more. George was also instrumental in establishing the organizational structure and building what is now the Alliance. Join George as he welcomes everyone to DRI Connect 2024 and shares some thoughts on the future of the Alliance.
(60 min.)
Updates from Alliance RDM Network of Experts
Moderator Lee Wilson, Director Research Data Management, Digital Research Alliance of Canada
Through a series of lightning talks, the Alliance Network of Experts will present on both current and future work. Time will be reserved for questions and open discussion.
(30 min.)
Break
(45 min.)
Future Vision of DRI
Felipe Pérez-Jvostov, Senior Analyst (Community Engagement & Planning) Digital Research Alliance of Canada
The Alliance is in the midst of submitting its vision for the future of DRI to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) as part of its 5-year mandate renewal. This vision is data-centric, recognizing that data is not merely a byproduct of research but a national asset, and its value must be maximized for knowledge creation as well as economic and social impact. While challenging, this is an exciting opportunity for Canada to be a leader in the knowledge economy and leverage its expansive history of research excellence.
(45 min.)
Stream 1: Intro to High Performance Computing (HPC), Clusters, and Scheduling
Nathan Wielenga, Senior Middleware Developer, Digital Research Alliance of Canada
Kamil Marcinkowski, University of Alberta
This brief, interactive overview is intended for techies new to HPC and non-techies confused by all the jargon.
(45 min.)
Stream 2: At the Intersection of RDM and Generative AI
Alisa Rod, Research Data Management Specialist, McGill University
Sandy Hervieux, Head Librarian (Nahum Gelber Law Library), McGill University
Can AI tools be used to write Data Management Plans, summarize funder requirements, or suggest file naming conventions and folder structures? Join Alisa and Sandy as they explore this topic, including how AI tools can be used to write conference abstracts, assist with data analysis, create data description documentation, and summarize metadata.
(45 min.)
Stream 3: Seeking Balance within Canada’s Largest Research Cloud Environment
Jeff Albert, Manager and Architect of ARC Infrastructure, University of Victoria
Veronica Augustin, Research Project Manager, University of Victoria
How does a highly effective ARC team balance the complexities of that environment against the priorities of operations and periodic major refreshes? Join Jeff and Veronica to find out more.
(60 min.)
Lunch
(30 min.)
Keynote
Dr. John Archibald, Archibald Laboratory for Genome Biology at Dalhousie University
Molecular biologist Dr. John Archibald is a world leader in the study of how microorganisms interact and exchange genes in nature. Dal’s newest Arthur B. McDonald Chair of Research Excellence, has more than 170 publications that have been cited over 10,000 times, an extraordinary accomplishment for a scholar 20 years into his career. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Director of the Institute for Comparative Genomics, and the author of two popular science books published by Oxford University Press.
John will share the perspective of a researcher, including the challenges and opportunities at the interface of computers and biology.
(60 min.)
Updates from ARC National Teams
Moderator Patrick Mann, Director Operations, Digital Research Alliance of Canada
Through a series of lightning talks, National Teams will present on the progress of the last year and plans for the year ahead.
(30 min.)
Break
(90 min.)
Five Researchers Walk Into a Bar
Join us for an engaging, interactive session where we explore the realities of our researchers as they navigate across the DRI landscape. We’ll begin with a vignette: fictitious, archetypical researchers come together to discuss how they use the tools and the “pain points” they experience. Then we’ll work together in smaller groups to discuss researchers’ challenges (both in-person and online). Our hope? That we come out of this collaborative session with a better collective understanding of each pillar (RDM, ARC, RS and cybersecurity) and that this serves as the foundation to build a culture that can deliver integrated solutions for digital research.
(60 min.)
No Programming
↓
- 9:30 PM
DRI Social Connect
- Everyone welcome, registration needed
- Food provided
Join us at Gahan House for a dinner reception to celebrate ACENET’s 20th Anniversary. Enjoy an evening of delicious food, great company, and special musical guests.
Tuesday, May 28 (click to expand)
(60 min.)
Breakfast
(15 min.)
Introducing CQORC: Calcul Québec's One Ring Coordinator
Maxime Boissonneault, Calcul Québec
Charles Coulombe, Calcul Québec
What do you do when faced with the logistical hassle of running lots of training events? Automate! CQORC is a collection of tools that automates everything from creating EventBrite and Zoom events, to links to surveys and new Slack channels.
(15 min.)
The National Training Coordination Council
Ramses Van zon, Chair, National Training Coordination Council
Learn all about the newly formed National Training Coordination Council, including its purpose, goals and where we stand nationally in training.
(15 min.)
The Search for ACENET's Training Portal
Grace Fishbein, Training Coordinator, ACENET
Grace shares the lessons learned from a multi-year search for ACENET’s training portal. From determining needs to landing on the project they now have, with some detours along the way.
(45 min.)
Panel: Training across DRI
Moderator: Catherine Di Vita, Training Coordinator, Digital Research Alliance of Canada
Panelists:
Marie-Hélène Burle, Research Solutions Specialist at Simon Fraser University
Nick Rochlin, RDM Specialist with University of British Columbia Advanced Research Computing
Ryan McRonald, Arbutus Cybersecurity Analyst at the University of Victoria
Grace Fishbein, Training Coordinator, ACENET
Join Marie-Hélène, Nick, Ryan, and Grace as they discuss collaborative strategies and operational synergies in DRI training. Together, they will uncover shared challenges, identify opportunities, and explore the possibility of a unified approach to training.
(30 min.)
Break
(30 min.)
Stream 1: Six Years Later, is the Castle Still Magic?
Félix-Antoine Fortin, Director of Software Development, Calcul Québec
During TECC 2018, Félix-Antoine presented the idea of using the cloud to create a Slurm cluster with Terraform. Join Félix-Antoine as he shares the evolution of Magic Castle over the past 6 years, its current state and the road ahead. Everyone will benefit from attending: from people who have no idea what Magic Castle is to experts.
(15 min.)
Stream 1: Magic Castle Speed: the Canary in the Mine
Étienne Dubeau, Calcul Québec
Like a canary in a coal mine, Magic Castle users have been alerting cloud administrators of potential performance issues. A small group of developers came up with a solution — Project Magic Castle Speed — designed to detect qualitative performance issues on the community cloud before they get reported by users.
(45 min.)
Stream 1: Magic Castle: A Journey into Non-Traditional Use Cases
Maxime Boissonneault, Calcul Québec
Join Maxime as he describes how the Research Support National Team (RSNT) dealt with advanced use cases, including how they used Magic Castle to replace a build node with a full-fledged cluster in the cloud (with Slurm, MFA and JupyterHub).
(45 min.)
Stream 2: Security Operations Data Collection
Darcy Hodgson, Senior Systems Analyst (Cybersecurity) and Zolboo Erdenebaatar, Cybersecurity Data Analyst Digital Research Alliance of Canada
Join Darcy and Zolboo as they discuss how we get data from endpoints to the opensearch clusters, and most importantly, what we do with the data from there. With a focus on security operations architecture and data flows, this talk will also include information about the work being done to find threats using machine learning.
(45 min.)
Stream 2: Network Observability at 100 Gb/s
Ryan McRonald, University of Victoria (Arbutus site)
Why monitor network traffic? Why is monitoring difficult at 100 Gb/s? How do we capture network data? What do we do with all that data? What is next for network observability? Join Ryan for all the answers to these questions and more.
(15 min.)
Stream 3: Overview of the World Data System
Reyna Jenkyns, Associate Director, World Data System
Join Reyna as she provides a brief overview of World Data System (WDS), data repository certifications and attributes. WDS is an affiliate member of the International Science Council and is hosted by Ocean Networks Canada at the University of Victoria.
(30 min.)
Stream 3: Persistent IDentifiers (PIDs) - What are they and why do they matter?
John Aspler, Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN)
As digital research infrastructure matures in Canada, PIDs have become an increasingly important component. Join John as he explains how PIDs can enable software systems to effectively exchange information, making them more interoperable. John will also unpack how PIDs hold the promise of significant cost and time savings for scholars and institutions, and at the same time, require significant investment and uptake.
(45 min.)
Stream 3: Supporting Research with Data Management Plans & DMP Assistant!
James Doiron, Research Data Management Strategies Director, University of Alberta Library Co-chair,
Alliance Data Management Planning Expert Group (DMPEG)
Luc Letarte, CIPP-C, CC, Sensitive Research Specialist, Advanced Research Computing,
University of British Columbia
This session will provide participants with information, guidance, and resources for supporting research through the development and implementation of data management plans (DMPs). Topics covered include the importance and benefits of DMPs, how they intersect with and support cybersecurity, and evolving requirements relating to the Tri-Agency research data management (RDM) policy. Specific focus will be given to the Digital Research Alliance of Canada DMP Assistant platform that is hosted nationally at the University of Alberta Library, along with a new DMP template developed by the Alliance’s DMP Expert Group (DMPEG). This new template is targeted specifically to support researchers in meeting DMP requirements at the funding opportunity application stage. Additional information relating to an accompanying assessment rubric that is currently in development will be shared. Time will be reserved for questions and discussion.
(60 min.)
Lunch
(30 min.)
Keynote: Entering a New, Data-Driven Era for Precision Cosmology: Is Machine Learning Going to Transform Our Understanding of the Universe?
Dr. Laurence Perreault Levasseur
Canada Research Chair in Computational Cosmology and Artificial Intelligence
Laurence Perreault Levasseur is an assistant professor at the University of Montréal and an Associate Member of Mila, where she conducts research in the development and application of machine learning methods to cosmology. She is also a Visiting Scholar at the Flatiron Institute in New York City. Prior to that, she was a Flatiron research fellow at the Center for Computational Astrophysics in the Flatiron Institute and a KIPAC postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. Laurence completed her PhD degree at the University of Cambridge, where she worked on applications of open effective field theory methods to the formalism of inflation. She received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from McGill University.
(15 min.)
Stream 1: Horizon EU Funds
Jonathan England, OpenAIRE
Horizon EU funds are now available to Canadians. What does this mean for data infrastructures to support funding requirements for awardees, and what types of funds are there for us to receive funds for our work?
(45 min.)
Stream 1: Documentation Best Practices
Kaitlin Newson and Meghan Landry, ACENET
Join Kaitlin and Meghan as they cover best practices, writing for novice and non-technical users, formatting, and accessibility. They’ll draw from Alliance docs examples and provide a session with general appeal to anyone interested in improving their technical writing skills: in Alliance docs, RDM platforms, software, & cybersecurity.
(15 min.)
Stream 2: Update on the UseGalaxy Canada Project
Carol Gauthier, Université de Sherbrooke
Join Carol for a brief update on UseGalaxy Canada (usegalaxy.ca): the platform, its status and usage, and the roadmap ahead.
(30 min.)
Stream 2: Hitchhiker’s Guide to Research Software
Félix-Antoine Fortin, Director of Software Development, Calcul Québec
Come explore the universe of research software with Félix-Antoine! You’ll learn about the range of people building software (from researchers building their own data analytics pipelines to software engineers building main systems), discover best practices in the community, and realize that yes indeed, the answer to everything is 42.
(15 min.)
Stream 2: All for One, and One for All
Lucas Nogueira, AI & Machine Learning Analyst, Calcul Québec and McGill University
In this short, engaging talk Lucas describes how Calcul Québec provides additional self-serve options, education on efficient coding, and HPC cluster-specific documentation for users of their services for AI modelling. The result? Everyone’s use and management of the services improves.
(30 min.)
Stream 3: Domain Specific Sub-clouds within the Alliance Cloud
JJ Kavelaars and John Ouellette, National Research Council of Canada
CANFAR provides a domain specific cloud within the Alliance cloud infrastructure. What other domain specific clouds are operating within the Alliance? What common processes are they using? Do these clouds burst and share capacity? Join JJ and John as they explore these questions and more.
(30 min.)
Stream 3: Transition from OpenPBS to Slurm … Comparison of the Schedulers
Roman Baranowski, University of British Columbia
Join Roman as he details the process of transitioning from OpenPBS to Slurm and offers a comparative view of the two schedulers.
(30 min.)
Break
(30 min.)
Proposed Digital Research Infrastructure Operational Organization Model
Brock Kahanyshyn, VP, Operations and Security, Digital Research Alliance of Canada
What’s next? And how do we get there? Join Brock as he outlines the roadmap for DRI operations.
(30 min.)
Approaches to Sensitive Data across the DRI Landscape
Victoria Smith, Data Governance & Ethics Lead, Digital Research Alliance of Canada
Let’s explore challenges in supporting research involving sensitive data, and then let’s explore potential solutions grounded in bringing DRI pillars together.
(30 min.)
Closing Remarks
Mark Leggott, Director National & International Relations, Digital Research Alliance of Canada
Mark has over 30 years of experience in the higher education sector, as well as experience in the private and non-profit sectors. He has long been involved in a range of international initiatives, including those promoting the adoption of open science and open source as a way to stimulate discovery and innovation.
Prior to assuming his position at the Alliance, Mark was Executive Director of Research Data Canada, a role which facilitated the adoption of best practices by stakeholders in Canada’s research data management community, and provided an intersection with the international RDM community. He was also previously the Manager of CANARIE’s RDM Program, University Librarian at the University of PEI, and President of Discovery Garden Inc.