NeSI 2018 Annual Review - looking back on a productive year
We are very pleased to share with you NeSI’s Annual Review for 2018. Looking back, this year has been focused on consolidation and strengthening of partnerships while developing NeSI alongside New Zealand’s evolving eResearch ecosystem.
Our achievements to date, and to come, are made possible through the national collaboration within NeSI of our partners the University of Auckland, NIWA, University of Otago, Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, and the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment.
This year we're offering a digital version of our annual review. Click here to dive into NeSI's 2018 Annual Review online. If you prefer a printed version, let us know and we will mail you a copy.
Key highlights from the 2018 year included:
Working in partnership with global HPC and Artificial Intelligence leader Cray, to create the most advanced, creative and high-performance computing and data platform ever seen for science in New Zealand.
Increasing usage of NeSI by 20.5% compared to the previous year, and broadening overall uptake through nine new subscription contracts.
Maintaining consistently high user satisfaction ratings, with 87% of projects surveyed responding positively that their work received significant benefits from using NeSI.
Consulting with researchers on their future needs, reviewing the performance of our training strategy, and undertaking an international benchmark study to inform NeSI’s strategic plans.
Welcoming six new team members to augment our leadership and expertise in computational platforms and solutions for science, improve our engagement with research communities, and enhance our technical support for domains such as genomics and engineering.
Growing digital research skills and building capability in New Zealand’s research communities through 31 events delivered at 13 different locations across the country, including eResearch NZ 2018 in partnership with REANNZ, co-hosting the 2018 Science Coding Conference with Scion and Science New Zealand, and multiple training workshops as part of our partnership with the global skills training programme, The Carpentries.
Embedding NeSI computational science experts into 10 research project teams, enabling a lift in researchers’ productivity, efficiency and skills in using research computing tools and resources.
Re-establishing and refining NeSI’s data transfer platform, and working with research communities, institutions and REANNZ to improve end-to-end performance for data-intensive science workflows
Launching a new partnership with Genomics Aotearoa to deliver advanced capabilities and enhanced tools for genomics research in New Zealand.
Empowering New Zealand researchers to develop new solutions for supporting Maori health, understand environmental processes on a microbial level, power global climate simulations, push the boundaries of machine learning applications, control invasive predators, and tackle other large or highly complicated problems.
As always, we welcome your thoughts on this Annual Review and any feedback you may have for ways we can improve our infrastructure, services, and partnerships — email us anytime at support@nesi.org.nz.
We look forward to continuing to collaborate with you in 2019, and our thanks for your support.
