February 2013 Newsletter
This month’s newsletter includes news from around the research sector, a call for access, upcoming events & more. To view the newsletter in its original form, follow this link.
Call for Access to our HPC facilties
4-15 March 2013, Research Allocation Class
NeSI’s High-Performance Computing (HPC) facilities are available to researchers across the country. Access is provided under regular calls, the next one will begin on Monday 4 March. The call will focus on proposals within research allocation class, which is suitable for researchers who understand their HPC needs.
New to NeSI or HPC?
For researchers who are new to HPC, NeSI recommends applying under the Proposal Development Allocation Class. Proposals under this class are welcome at all times and are suitable for evaluating your software on our systems.
“Nothing but 100 percent positive experiences from start to finish”
Melting gallium nanoclusters to model their intriguing properties is the work of a Victoria University of Wellington science researcher, Krista Grace Steenbergen. Nanoclusters are tiny clusters of particles that behave as a single unit. Oddly, nanoclusters of gallium comprising only tens of atoms melt at a temperature of more than double that of their larger counterparts. Read more.
NeSI introduces a national support channel
We now have a single place to contact us or request support, NeSI Support. Contact us via email support@nesi.org.nz or the website https://docs.nesi.org.nz/home for support with all of NeSI’s facilities and services.
All NeSI staff across New Zealand contribute to resolving requests via NeSI Support, ensuring timely and well informed responses. NeSI support also provides the ability to track the status of any requests through the website.
For those already using existing facility specific contact points, changes are minimal. You can continue to email the addresses that you currently know.
Upcoming Event: eResearch NZ 2013
The dates for eResearch NZ 2013 are confirmed. This interdisciplinary conference aims to facilitate connections between researchers and eScience practitioners, to share practice, and establish shared views of the priorities for eScience in New Zealand.
eResearch NZ 2013 will be hosted by the University of Canterbury in Christchurch during 2 - 4 July 2013. A Call for Participation opens soon. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!
Event Report: Open Research
Open Research focused on accelerating discovery by increasing openness in the research sector. Run on 6 - 8 February 2013 in Auckland, Open Research included a conference and a SciBarCamp along with a final day spent summing up in the form of a declaration.
Each of the talks from Accelerating Discovery were recorded. Video processing is underway and should be available in time for the next NeSI newsletter. A declaration created on the event’s third day is also nearing publication.
The event has also spurred the creation a community of researchers from Australia and New Zealand. The website for that activity is: sites.google.com/site/nzauopenresearch.
Science as a Service and Summer of eResearch!
NeSI supported two events at Victoria University of Wellington during the week of 18 February.
The first was a talk from leading computer scientist Ian Foster, who presented on resolving data transfer challenges for the research sector. Supported in collaboration with REANNZ, Ian's talk has been recorded, and we’ll make an announcement once the session is online.
The second was be a day-long event of presentations and unconference sessions to finish Summer of eResearch 2012/2013. Each of the summer students presented their work, and the group as a whole reflected on the last three years of Summer of eResearch. The day’s programme and webcast recordings (soon) are available on eresearch.org.nz. Summer of eResearch is a summer scholarship programme supported by NeSI and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Science + Innovation Group. Several projects spanning the country are being worked on, with regular updates at eresearch.org.nz.
Student’s success makes the news
Bachelor of Software and Information Technology graduate Alan Wang was a Summer of eResearch participant in 2011/2012. That work to digitise roughly 250,000 entomology specimens allows both researchers and biosecurity agencies to access the collection very efficiently. Read more on stuff.co.nz.
Careers at NeSI
Systems Engineers at NIWA
Full-time Systems Engineers are being sought in Wellington. To learn more about the role, visit the NIWA website. Applications close when the vacancies are filled.
Executive Assistant/Team Administrator at NeSI's head office
A capable and energetic administrator is needed full-time in NeSI's Auckland-based head office. Have fun in a challenging environment supporting leading edge science in New Zealand. More details are on The University of Auckland's website. Closes 3 March 2013.
Event Report: AMN-6
Last week, many New Zealand chemists, materials scientists and other nanomaterials researchers were introduced to NeSI at our stand at AMN-6. There was a lot of interest from the community about NeSI’s services and the first application for HPC access has already been received. We’re looking forward to working with a number of new researchers.
Video Conferencing from your desktop
via the SeeVogh Research Network - available for all New Zealand researchers
REANNZ and NeSI are jointly supporting a renewed video conferencing option for the New Zealand research sector - SeeVogh (a recent update to the EVO system). Members of the New Zealand research sector can create an account at research.seevogh.com and can book and join rooms in the "New Zealand Research and Education" community. To learn more about this service, please consult the SeeVogh documentation or email support@nesi.org.nz.
Finding like-minded researchers
NeSI maintains a list of projects running on our facilities, covering a broad range of research disciplines: nesi.org.nz/projects. If you are interested in what is happening in your area of research that requires HPC, take a look at the list of projects. We’re also happy to discuss any questions you might have so do get in touch.
