Introduction to ACENET and High Performance Computing (HPC)

Join today
  • Instructor: Meghan Landry
  • Level: Beginner
  • Duration: 1.5 hours
  • Helpers: TBD
  • Date:  September 16, 2025 | 10:00 - 11:30 am (Atlantic)
  • Prerequisite: None
Empty space, drag to resize
COURSE DESCRIPTION

What is High Performance Computing (HPC) and what can it do for me? How can ACENET help? Used by researchers across many disciplines to tackle analyses too large or complex for a desktop, or to achieve improved efficiency over a desktop, this session takes participants through the preliminary stages of learning about high performance computing (HPC) and computing clusters, and how to get started with this type of computing. It then reviews software packages available for applications, data analysis, software development and compiling code. Finally, participants will be introduced to the concept of parallel computing to achieve much faster results in analysis. This session is designed for those with no prior experience in HPC, and are looking for an introduction and overview.

This session will be delivered online.

To get the most from ACENET basics, please register for a Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance) account. To register contact your supervising professor, ask for their CCRI, then visit https://ccdb.alliancecan.ca/account_application. If your professor is not registered with the Alliance, please have them register, then follow up with you. In addition to an Alliance account, you will want a computer with Windows, MacOS X, or a Unix-based operating system (not a ChromeBook), and a stable internet connection. A registered account is not mandatory, just recommended to get the most out of our lessons. You can attend the first session to see how ACENET can assist in accelerating your computational research before you decide to obtain an account, if you wish.

SETUP REQUIREMENTS
  • None

Meet your teaching team

Meghan Landry

Instructor 

Humanities & Social Sciences Research Specialist
Meghan Landry is the Humanities & Social Sciences (HSS) Research Specialist with ACENET, and one of the Alliance HSS National Team Leads. She possesses an MLIS from McGill University and a BA in English Literature from UPEI. She joined ACENET from St. Francis Xavier University where she was the Scholarly Communications Librarian. Meghan specializes in working with sensitive data, digital humanities, and research data management. She is still based at StFX University, but serves all of Atlantic Canada and is active in national and regional humanities & social sciences initiatives.

Sarah Clarke

Host

Digital Training Specialist
MSc Computational Chemistry, Dalhousie University

Sarah, based in Nova Scotia, joined ACENET in 2023. She has a range of teaching experience and held regular teaching assistant positions. Passionate about scientific literacy, Sarah has developed teaching materials and taught programming and robotics to youth in St. John's. She has also led professional development workshops for teachers, focusing on digital skills. For her MSc in Computational Chemistry research, she focused on interfacing crystal structure prediction methods.