SSCC Training The SSCC’s fall training schedule is now available. We’d like to particularly draw the attention of new graduate students to the “Introduction to…” and “Data Wrangling in…” workshops in Stata, R, and Python, as these workshops are designed for you! You should take an “Introduction to…” workshop if you: Will be taking a quantitative methods class that uses statistical software you haven’t used before Don’t feel like you really understand the statistical software you use Plan to take an SSCC “Data Wrangling in…” workshop (unless you’re very confident you don’t need it) You should take a “Data Wrangling in…” workshop if you plan to do quantitative research and you have never taken a class that spent a significant amount of time on preparing real-world data for analysis. For example, you should be able to do the following quickly and easily using reproducible code: Given a categorical “education” variable with a large number of very specific categories, combine them into a small number of broader categories Given a data set of individuals grouped into households, calculate the household incomes and create an indicator variable for “this household has children” Given a data set of individuals and a data set …
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SSCC News May 2023
Summer Training Schedule The SSCC’s summer training schedule is still available and the fall training schedule will be posted soon. As always it will include data wrangling classes in R, Stata, and Python and our regular workshop on regression diagnostics. Summer is a great time to fill in any gaps in your skillset, and data wrangling and regression diagnostics are two topics our statistical consultants see a lot. It’s also a great time to learn to use the Slurm cluster! Monthly Downtimes for Various SSCC Services Starting in June, our shared NVivo project server and our remote desktop gateway (for remotely connecting to your office computer without VPN) will be rebooted monthly during the usual SSCC downtime, which is 6-8 am on the Wednesday after the 3rd Tuesday of the month. All of the services impacted by the monthly downtime are: Winstat Linstat WinSilo LinSilo NVivo project server Remote desktop gateway Slurm nodes are exempt from this list and are taken down for maintenance when not in use. SSCC Account Renewal The Social Science Computing Cooperative carries out an annual account exercise to keep our account list up to date. To renew your account, you should have received an email with …
SSCC Annual Account Renewal
The Social Science Computing Cooperative carries out an annual account exercise to keep our account list up to date. To renew your account, you should receive an email with a customized link that you will use to renew your account. Accounts that are not renewed will be closed on June 1, 2023. If you have graduated or otherwise left UW-Madison, do not renew your account. The renewal process is slightly different this year: you no longer need to sign in to renew your account. However, to update any information about it, you will need to sign in and be on VPN, Winstat, or a computer on the wired network in the Sewell Social Sciences Building. You may want to do that before starting the renewal process. The account renewal process has two purposes: First, to identify accounts that are no longer needed. Second, to identify the sponsors of each account (i.e., who pays for it). You’ll have the opportunity to update which of our member agencies you are affiliated with. You’ll also indicate how much of your SSCC computing is associated with each agency. This is one of several inputs that determines each agency’s fair share of the Cooperative’s budget. …
SSCC News March 2023
Slurm Update Usage of the SSCC Slurm cluster is growing rapidly: Slurm did more computing in February than Linstat ever has in a single month. But there’s still plenty of room for SSCC researchers to think bigger. Slurm users should not hesitate to put unused capacity to work. If your job will run faster with 128 cores, use 128 cores. If your job can use 20 servers, use 20 servers. If you aren’t using Slurm yet, think about how more computing power could enhance your research. Whether that means running models faster, converting tasks that run sequentially into tasks that all run at the same time, using bigger data sets, running bigger simulations, or something else entirely, we’ll be happy to help you see what Slurm can do for you. Just sign up for a workshop on running big jobs in general or Slurm in particular, set up an appointment with one of the SSCC’s statistical consultants, or read the new Guide to Research Computing at the SSCC. To make submitting jobs to Slurm even easier, we’ve created a Slurm Assistant to help. Just fill out a simple web form describing your job, and it will craft the ssubmit (Slurm …
SSCC News January 2023
SSCC Slurm Cluster Expansion The new servers purchased through the SSCC’s Research Core Revitalization Program grant have been added to the Slurm cluster. The Slurm cluster now has: Over 5000 total cores Servers with 128 cores Servers with 1024GB of memory Servers with powerful A100 GPUs Our Slurm cluster has become the place to run big research computing jobs. If you’re still running big jobs on Linstat, it’s time to start submitting them to Slurm instead (it’s easy to do). Linstat will focus on interactive work going forward. We are committed to making large-scale computing as accessible and easy to use as possible. Our Guide to Research Computing at the SSCC is a great tool to guide you in using Slurm. Our Statistical Consultants are also happy to answer questions and help you navigate using the new servers. Winter Tech Update The SSCC will be undergoing our annual winter tech update from 9am-5pm on Saturday January 7th. All SSCC services will be unavailable during that time. Any ongoing projects or work should be saved to prevent any data loss. Please contact the SSCC Help Desk with any questions or concerns. Some of the new features included in the winter tech update are: Various SSCC …
SSCC Slurm Cluster
The SSCC’s Slurm cluster has become the place to run big research computing jobs. If you’re still running big jobs on Linstat, it’s time to start submitting them to Slurm instead (it’s easy to do). Linstat will focus on interactive work going forward. We are committed to making large-scale computing as accessible and easy to use as possible. The SSCC’s computing Guide to Research Computing at the SSCC is a great tool to guide you in using Slurm. The SSCC’s Statistical Consultants are also happy to answer questions and help you navigate using the new servers.
SSCC News November 2022
Spring Training The SSCC’s spring training schedule is now available. The core Data Wrangling in R, Stata, or Python workshops will be taught in mid-January, between semesters, and online so you can take them even if you’re not back in Madison yet. Other highlights include: Regression Review with R Introduction to Web Scraping with R Data Visualization in R Stata Workshop: Dates Stata Workshop: Presentable Bar Graphs Multiple workshops on using the SSCC’s computing resources for big jobs, especially Slurm Workshops are free, but registration is required. See the training schedule for details and to register. Staff Changes at the SSCC Mitchell Karam has left the SSCC, and we wish him well in his future endeavors. Zach Heise will be taking over Mitchell’s duties as our primary administrator for Winstat. We are pleased to welcome Rebecca (Reba) Schmidt as the SSCC’s newest Windows System Administrator. Reba is originally from Northcentral Wisconsin but has been in the Madison area for over six years. She has two cats, Luna and Mako, and a dog named Dandelion. In her spare time, she likes to play board games, tabletop RPGs, and video games, read, and enjoy the outdoors. She is a casual space fan, houseplant enthusiast, and an all-around nerd. Linstat Monthly …
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SSCC Monitor Display
SSCC News August 2022
Major Expansion of SSCC’s Computing Resources We are thrilled to announce that the SSCC will soon be able to more than triple the amount of computing power available to SSCC researchers, thanks to a Research Core Revitalization Program grant from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education and additional funding from the Department of Economics and the Wisconsin School of Business. We’ll also be adding powerful GPU servers. The new servers will be made available in the SSCC’s Slurm cluster, where they can be used most efficiently, and may be available as soon as this year’s holiday season (barring supply chain issues). We encourage all SSCC researchers to ask themselves “What new things can I do because of this new computing power?” We are committed to making large-scale computing as accessible and easy to use as possible. That includes installing easy to use tools like RStudio Server and JupyterLab, teaching multiple workshops on how to use the SSCC’s computing resources, and creating a new Guide to Research Computing at the SSCC. The SSCC’s Statistical Consultants will be happy to answer questions and help you navigate using the new servers. Please don’t let the idea of using Linux servers …