An AI Bootcamp for Cyberinfrastructure Professionals

There is a critical need for a Cyberinfrastructure (CI) workforce with expertise in AI and the supporting CI technologies. This project is piloting a two-part AI bootcamp for CI professionals. 

 

Spring 2023  AI Bootcamp for CI Professionals – Common Foundation Track

Are researchers from new and interesting disciplines approaching you about their data analysis projects? Do you struggle to provide guidance to AI users?   Are you pulling your hair out trying to make sense of the complex software stacks required to support Machine Learning/Deep Learning (ML/DL)?  Are your users asking for more GPUs, more memory and more storage to support their DL training? Are you interested in expanding the amount of ML/DL work that is done on your systems?

If you answered yes to some of these questions, consider joining our AI Bootcamp for Cyberinfrastructure Professionals (CIP). You will gain expertise in AI and the supporting technologies while helping us shape a training program for the community of professionals supporting research computing and data analysis. The AI bootcamp will provide a common foundation in AI methods and technology for professionals in a wide range of roles supporting the research computing and data needs for an organization.  The bootcamp is being offered virtually, meeting for two 2-hour sessions each week, 8 sessions in February and March with optional python refresher sessions before the start of the bootcamp. AI topics will be taught by experts from the Computer Science and Engineering Department at The Ohio State University.  See our list of instructors and topics bellow. 

Dates:  Feb 14 – Mar 21 
Days & Times: Tues 3-5, Thurs 1-3

Instructors: Dhabaleswar K (DK) Panda, Hari Subramoni, Eric Fosler-Lussier, Raghu Machiraju, Rajiv Ramnath, Aamir Shafi, Jany Chan

Topics: 

  • Python Tools for Data Analysis
  • Science Case studies 
  • Typical Data Types (tables, images, time series, maps and text)
  • Fundamentals of Machine Learning
  • Bayesian Modeling
  • Neural Networks
  • Machine Learning and Deep Learning Frameworks
  • Practical ML workflows for text and image data
  • Parallel ML/DL Training Algorithms
  • Scaling out ML/DL Training
  • Common ML/DL Benchmarks and libraries
  • Distributed Data Science using Dask
  • Challenges in Exploiting HPC systems for DL, ML, and Data Science

Bootcamp sessions will involve a mix of lecture, discussion, and hands on activities and will be recorded. Computing resources will be provided by Ohio Supercomputer Center.  We are very interested in participation from professionals from a range of institutions with varying technical backgrounds and from communities that are both well represented and underrepresented in the CI workforce to help us to develop a program that is relevant, welcoming, and accessible to everyone in our community. There is no cost for the bootcamp. Fill out the following survey by Jan 31 to sign up: AI Bootcamp for CI Professionals - Spring 23  It should take 5-10 minutes (have your calendar handy, we ask about your availability for bootcamp sessions.)  We hope to be able to accept all interested participants but may have to limit participation. Don’t wait to sign up!

Visit this page again to check back on our plans for a follow on bootcamp in Summer 2023 specifically for Software and Data facing CI professionals. 

Contact us if you have any questions:

Karen Tomko, ktomko@osc.edu 

Summer of 2023 AI Bootcamp for CI Professionals – Software and Data Facing Track

In May and June of 2023 we held our 2nd Software and Data Facing Track Bootcamp building on the spring 2023 Core Foundation Track bootcamp. This bootcamp targeted CI professionals who focus on software stacks and data workflows. From our call for participation: If you maintain simulation and data analysis software on shared research computing systems or develop research software in collaboration with researchers, this bootcamp is for you.  But we welcome any of you who would like to learn more. We will provide a deeper dive on the subjects visited last spring by walking through the steps in a typical AI pipeline. For each step in the pipeline we will cover best practices and state-of-the-art software and tools, we’ll discuss common pitfalls and lessons learned. You asked for strategies on troubleshooting, so we’ll include some intentionally broken cases to debug during our exercises.  And, of course, we’ll cover scaling up at each step.

When: May 15 - June 16, Tu & Th with a break the week of May 29
Pre-requisite: AI Bootcamp for CI Professionals - Common Foundations Track, or by approval of Bootcamp team (contact us).

Links / News

About the Project

"An Artificial Intelligence Bootcamp for Cyberinfrastructure Professionals" is a pilot project funded by the NSF Cybertraining program (Award:  OAC-2118250)

Project PI: Karent Tomko, ktomko@osc.edu

Abreviated abstract: Researchers are increasingly using AI techniques in their scientific processes. This is leading to a critical need for a Cyberinfrastructure (CI) workforce that supports HPC systems with expertise in AI techniques and underlying technology. This project will pilot an AI bootcamp for CI professionals that is targeted based on the professional’s job requirements. After attending the bootcamp CI professionals will be better equipped to provide computing and data services to AI research users. This in turn will broaden adoption and effective use of advanced CI by researchers in a wide range of disciplines and will leave an impact on science and corresponding benefits to society from their successes. The training materials developed during this project will be openly shared with the CI community so that others can use and adapt the materials for similar training activities.

This project is novel in taking a holistic approach to addressing the AI expertise gap for CI professionals. We are developing an AI Bootcamp for CI professionals with the overarching goal of increasing the confidence and effectiveness of their support of AI researchers. We leverage the CI professionalization efforts of the Campus Research Computing Consortium (CaRCC) to organize our training modules and outcomes based on the four facings (Strategy/Policy facing, Researcher facing, Software/Data facing, and Systems facing).  For this pilot we are focused on developing a comprehensive training experience for Software/Data facing CI professionals. The AI Bootcamp will be offered virtually. A 6 week foundational session targeting all of the facings will be piloted in Spring 2022, followed by an additional 6 week session for Software/Data facing CI professionals in Fall 2022.  Our project team is comprised of CI professionals, experienced in training CI users and providing CI operations, and Computer Science faculty members, experienced in offering courses in Data Analytics, AI and High Performance AI with active AI-based research programs. Drawing on extensive experience and materials in hands-on experiential learning for AI, the team is putting together a comprehensive curriculum spanning foundational AI, software frameworks, and high performance computing for AI.

Learning Materials