lauren.prox@duke.edu
lp203@duke.edu
Duke University
Timezone: Eastern l U.S.
PhD Student, Environment | Air Quality and Global Health
https://healthpolicyresearch-scholars.org/scholars/lauren-prox/
...
Please describe your experience with supercomputing
I use supercomputers often
Are you familiar with the U.S. National Science Foundation's ACCESS program?
Yes, I've used ACCESS in my research
...
How should we address you?
Lauren
Please describe your experience using advanced research computing?
I use ACCESS to run models and conduct data analyses for my doctoral research fairly regularly
If you've used ACCESS, what allocation level did you start with?
Explore
What have you used or hope to use the ACCESS website to do?
I've used the R coding and Machine Learning capabilities.
Remind us what your role is, as it applies to working with ACCESS:
Grad Student
What is your research domain?
Environmental Science
What courses do you teach?
No answer
What is advanced research computing is your resource particularly well suited for?
No answer
Who are your stakeholders?
No answer
What one thing do you appreciate most about the program?
It is affordable (free!) and accessible and I like the different trainings offered.
What one thing would you change about the program?
I would probably make it easier to use some of the interactive features in Rstudio
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Interview guide:
60-90 minute interview. Each task will take approximately 5-10 minutes.
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Task 5: Can you find what resources are running PyTorch?
Interview notes here
She would not look for PyTorch. Asked Lauren to find out information about R Studio (since that is the software she uses). She knew to go to support and found software then used search to find R Studio.
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Task 6: Can you find a resource that runs ACCESS On-Demand?
Interview notes here
Lauren did not know what this was. She thought it meant access to online learning videos. Started in training.
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Task 7: Can you find an Affinity Group for FABRIC users?
Interview notes here
Lauren did know what Affinity groups were. She belongs to ACES and R Studio.
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Task 8: Where can you go for training to use ANVIL?
Interview notes here
Knows about training.
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Task 9: Can you find how to get started with ACCESS MATCH services to help you with your research project?
Interview notes here
Lauren does not know what ACCESS MATCH services means. Went to Support…
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Task 10: If you want to get involved and volunteer with the ACCESS community where would you go?
Interview notes here
Searched for “volunteer”, found the GET INVOLVED news article, skimmed that and ended up at Match with the search results. Did not find a clear place to volunteer.
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Task 11: Please review this page and suggest any additions or deletions.
https://access-ci.org/get-started/for-graduate-students/
Interview notes here
Right at the top of the page “U.S-based graduate students” – wondered if you are eligible if you are not a U.S. citizen. Then scrolled down and saw eligibility. Thought this would be a good page to share with fellow grad students.
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lauren.prox@duke.edu
lp203@duke.edu
Duke University
Timezone: Eastern l U.S.
PhD Student, Environment | Air Quality and Global Health
https://healthpolicyresearch-scholars.org/scholars/lauren-prox/
Interview was conducted on Monday 1/27 2-3 pm
Via sign up form:
Please describe your experience with supercomputing
I use supercomputers often
Are you familiar with the U.S. National Science Foundation's ACCESS program?
Yes, I've used ACCESS in my research
Via pre-survey:
How should we address you?
Lauren
Please describe your experience using advanced research computing?
I use ACCESS to run models and conduct data analyses for my doctoral research fairly regularly
If you've used ACCESS, what allocation level did you start with?
Explore
What have you used or hope to use the ACCESS website to do?
I've used the R coding and Machine Learning capabilities.
Remind us what your role is, as it applies to working with ACCESS:
Grad Student
What is your research domain?
Environmental Science
What courses do you teach?
No answer
What is advanced research computing is your resource particularly well suited for?
No answer
Who are your stakeholders?
No answer
What one thing do you appreciate most about the program?
It is affordable (free!) and accessible and I like the different trainings offered.
What one thing would you change about the program?
I would probably make it easier to use some of the interactive features in Rstudio
RECORDING: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1t_N8CXooEh0OEJGP0YbgEquemCfay6LK
Interview guide:
60-90 minute interview. Each task will take approximately 5-10 minutes.
Login, introductions, set up screen share, record
Interview notes here:
When I asked Lauren to go to the ACCESS home page she started here: http://allocations.access-ci.org
Lauren first heard about ACCESS at the AAG Annual Meeting conference:
https://www.aag.org/events/aag2024/
She attended an ACCESS workshop at the conference. Her allocation is with Texas A&M ACES. It was set up by her instructor, the PI on the project. She did see some home page information during the workshop.Task 1: Where can you find information about citing ACCESS in your publications?
Interview notes here
Went to search in Support. Noted AI chat bot was new. Found a link about citations within the search results that led to the Support page about citations.https://support.access-ci.org/announcements/remember-cite-access-your-research-papers
Earlier this year she did need to know how cite ACCESS. It took her awhile to look for it so she used the GET HELP button. She was pleased with how quickly they got back to her. It was Texas A&M that gave her the information about citations.Task 2: Where do you go to find Systems Status?
Interview notes here
Did not know what Systems Status meant or how to find it. She starts in Resources and ACES and finds “wait time”. That might be helpful info.
For her current ACCESS project, she did receive an email from Texas A&M that said her system would be down for a few days. She is a member of the Texas A&M ACES affinity group so probably received notification that way.Task 3: Where can you go to open a help ticket?
Interview notes here
Started at Support and then found the GET HELP button.
For her current ACCESS project she may have sent her citation inquiry through the HELP button.Task 4: Where can you find XDMod? Do you know how to use this tool?
Interview notes here
Lauren was not familiar with the term XDMod. She started to explore Events & Training then Allocations, but was unsuccessful.
Pointed Lauren to “Get Started For Researchers” – might be better to use terms like performance or metrics. She hasn’t paid attention to the “numbers” for her allocation.
Questions she might have about metrics or project performance – Projected time her job would take to run? How efficient is my code running? How much memory do I have left?
At Duke she had trouble knowing how long a job would take. She does not “run jobs” on ACCESS. Lauren mainly uses R Studio that runs on Texas A&M ACES – she is coding in real-time and her visualizations are popping up in real time.
Normally at Duke she sends her machine learning models to the Duke compute cluster – writes a script and then it runs on the cluster. That computer is very slow. ACES is very fast! She uses ACCESS as a “second computer”.
Lauren signs into XDMod to see her Allocation. Never has been there. And pleased to see how much geoscience is being done on ACCESS (not all computer science).Task 5: Can you find what resources are running PyTorch?
Interview notes here
She would not look for PyTorch. Asked Lauren to find out information about R Studio (since that is the software she uses). She knew to go to support and found software then used search to find R Studio.Task 6: Can you find a resource that runs ACCESS On-Demand?
Interview notes here
Lauren did not know what this was. She thought it meant access to online learning videos. Started in training.Task 7: Can you find an Affinity Group for FABRIC users?
Interview notes here
Lauren did know what Affinity groups were. She belongs to ACES and R Studio.Task 8: Where can you go for training to use ANVIL?
Interview notes here
Knows about training.Task 9: Can you find how to get started with ACCESS MATCH services to help you with your research project?
Interview notes here
Lauren does not know what ACCESS MATCH services means. Went to Support…Task 10: If you want to get involved and volunteer with the ACCESS community where would you go?
Interview notes here
Searched for “volunteer”, found the GET INVOLVED news article, skimmed that and ended up at Match with the search results. Did not find a clear place to volunteer.Task 11: Please review this page and suggest any additions or deletions.
https://access-ci.org/get-started/for-graduate-students/
Interview notes here
Lauren never saw the “For Graduate Students” landing page.
Right at the top of the page “U.S-based graduate students” – most of the lab she works in has folks from different countries. Do you have to be a U.S. citizen? Make language clearer. Finds eligibility and sees that her lab mates can use this resource.
Good overview – especially good for students who don’t have access to computing at their institution.
I would encourage them to use the HELP TICKET and TRAININGS. Intros to Python and Jupiter Notebook were helpful.
Getting a login was easy.
Approachable page, no jargon. ACCESS XDMOD is a bit daunting.Task 12: Are you planning to use ACCESS resources again?
Interview notes here
Yes, Lauren is in-process to get a new allocation. This time it will be for her and not as part of a group project. Currently is part of an Explore allocation project along with her instructors and fellow grad students. Did find the comparison between Explore and Discover. Understands she would use Discover if she needs more computing power.
Credits throw her. Doesn’t understand and hasn’t used credits. She just looks at the timeframe when she can use ACES. She starts a session and gets 4-8 hrs. Then starts another session the next day. She logs in directly to the ACES Portal to start a session.
She is not exchanging any credits. Her PIs manage credits. She is accessing Texas A&M onDemand.
She will be mindful of credits when she does her own Allocation. “And will have to go through the process to read about credits.”
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS:
Find information about the cost to use ACCESS.
Knew that it was free. Right on the home page.
Where can you find information specifically targeted for you – ie. as a researcher, graduate student, educator, etc. Do you see yourself on the website?
Goes to home page.She was pleased to see that the website was geared to non-computer science – e.g. seeing a picture of human cells not numbers on the home page was a hint and makes ACCESS seem less daunting. Ends up in the News area and sees science stories that are not just computer science – sees the breadth of the work.
How would you select an ACCESS resource?
Her resource was picked for her. But now she wants to continue to use ACCESS. She knows there are allocation types. She would want to use ACCESS EXPLORE. Knows she needs a letter from her instructor.
Any unfamiliar terms?
She thinks of Allocations as “reserving” computer space. If she doesn’t know a term she would go back to the home page, then support, then knowledge base, then documentation, cheat sheets. …or type the term in search.
General comments:
ACCESS websites are helpful, such a great resource, approachable, esp. for non-computer science, user-friendly, ticket response quick sometimes that doesn’t happen, no one gets back to you.Wrap up, thank you