Workshops & Live Training

COVID-19 UPDATE

Traditionally, PICSciE has held interactive and hands-on live workshops and mini-courses. Due to COVID-19, we at PICSciE have been adapting workshops to a remote format (when feasible) delivered over Zoom. Until further notice, all PICSciE training workshops will be virtual. While we will strive to preserve the quality and overall feel of our in-person workshops, the Zoom experience does present some challenges for delivering hands-on training compared to being live with your peers in a room, and expectations should be calibrated accordingly.

We appreciate your patience and understanding during this unusual period as we strive to continue providing computing training to the Princeton community. If you have comments or questions, please email Gabe Perez-Giz (gabe.perezgiz@princeton.edu), Research Software & Computing Training Specialist.

--The PICSciE Training Staff

Virtual Workshop Logistics

Please read the following information about virtual workshop logistics --- in particular the sections about technical prerequisites for hands-on workshops --- BEFORE registering.

Registration and Zoom links

As with in-person workshops, our virtual events still require registration at www.princeton.edu/training. Only individuals with active Princeton NetIDs may register for and attend our remote workshops. A Zoom link for the workshop goes out to registrants and some waitlisted users (see below) by email, usually 24-48 business hours before the start of a workshop.

If your plans change and you cannot attend, please cancel your registration at least 48 hours in advance! Sometimes significant technical and human resources need to be allocated to these workshops, and we need a reasonably accurate head count in order to do that so that these events can run smoothly.

If a workshop has limited enrollment, please do not register unless you can attend the full workshop and participate actively! You will be taking a slot from someone more ready to profit from the event. Don't worry -- we re-offer the same workshops periodically, and we make most workshop materials available for offline consumption.

Prerequisites and Advance Setup

All of our virtual workshops require that participants use a Zoom account associated with an active Princeton NetID. Some also require that participants either be on a Princeton network (hard-line or eduroam wifi) or behind a VPN. This guide describes overarching prerequisites and setup instructions for virtual workshops.

In addition, many of our workshops have hands-on components that require that additional technical requirements be set up before a workshop begins. Any knowledge prerequisites or technical prerequisites are listed in each workshop's description, both on its Events entry here on the Research Computing website and on the registration page.

Please read a workshop's prerequisites carefully! For instance, a workshop description may mention that you need an Adroit account with SSH access or the ability to run Jupyter notebook on your local computer. The aforementioned guide offers instructions for setting up all these requirements, and you should read the sections of the guide appropriate to your workshop and follow the instructions therein at least 72 hours in advance of your workshop.

As a general rule, we offer no troubleshooting for technical setup issues (e.g. hardware/software setups, connecting to the Adroit training cluster, etc) at the workshops themselves! Doing so over Zoom is challenging and interruptive, not to mention demanding on our human resources. Therefore, be aware that if you do not set up a workshop's technical prerequisites well in advance, you may not be able to participate fully in its hands-on activities.

Spring 2021 Virtual Workshops

The Princeton Institute for Computational Science & Engineering (PICSciE) and OIT's Research Computing, in collaboration with the University Library and Data & Statistical Services (DSS), is offering a series of instructor-led workshops on programming and commonly used research software tools.

Registration

Registration happens via the broader Princeton Training site and is now open. Note that an active Princeton NetID is required to register for and to attend our sessions, as well as to view Zoom recordings. If you are a Princeton affiliate without a NetID, or if you are affiliated with a partner institution (e.g. PPPL or IAS), please email rcinfo@princeton.edu to see whether we can accommodate you.

Topics and schedule of workshops

Poster with schedule of Spring 2021 workshops

The table below shows a complete listing of the Spring 2021 workshops in chronological order. Clicking on a workshop's title will take you to a course description and other event details for that workshop. Additional workshops may be added, so please check the schedule frequently.

Title	Needs advance setup?	Date(s)	Time(s)	Instructor
Intro to the Linux Command Line (2 parts -- attend both parts)	Yes	Tue Mar 02 Thu Mar 04	1:15 PM-4:15 PM 1:15 PM-4:15 PM	Gabe Perez-Giz
Intro to Data Analysis (using R)	Yes	Wed Mar 03	10:00 AM-12:00 PM	Oscar Torres-Reyna
Reproducible HPC Research with Containers: Docker and Singularity	Yes	Thu Mar 04	4:30 PM-6:00 PM	Jonathan Halverson
Intro to Data Analysis (using Python)	Yes	Wed Mar 10	10:00 AM-12:00 PM	Oscar Torres-Reyna
Getting Started with the Research Computing Clusters	Yes	Wed Mar 10	2:00 PM-5:00 PM	Carolina Roe-Raymond, Gabe Perez-Giz
Removing the Tedium from Your Research Workflow	Yes	Thu Mar 11	4:30 PM-6:30 PM	Jonathan Halverson
Intro to Version Control Using Git	Yes	Fri Mar 12	10:00 AM-4:00 PM	Gabe Perez-Giz
Level-Up Your MATLAB	Yes	Fri Mar 19	3:00 PM-5:00 PM	An-Ya Olson
A Primer on Amazon Web Services (AWS)	No	Thu Mar 25	4:30 PM-6:00 PM	Irene Kopaliani
Continuous Integration and Automated Software Testing with Git and Jenkins	No	Mon Mar 29	11:00 AM-12:00 PM	David Luet
Intro to FPGAs (by Intel)	No	Wed Mar 31	1:00 PM-3:30 PM	Intel staff
Managing Python with Conda on the HPC Clusters	Yes	Thu Apr 01	4:30 PM-6:00 PM	Gabe Perez-Giz
Intro to the Machine Learning Libraries	Yes	Thu Apr 08	4:30 PM-6:30 PM	Jonathan Halverson
AI for Science Bootcamp, by NVIDIA	No	Tues May 18 Wed May 19	9:00 AM-12:30PM 9:00 AM-12:30PM	NVIDIA staff

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

The Maps and Geospatial Information Center (MAGIC), associated with the Princeton University Library, offers a variety of instructor-led virtual workshops on using QGIS and ArcGIS Pro. Please see their roster here.

Prerequisites and Advance Setup

Many of our workshops have knowledge prerequisites and/or require advance setup of hardware or software. Please read the workshop descriptions carefully and make sure you have satisfied any requirements well in advance. A guide to help with advance setup for some workshops, along with a list of overarching requirements for Zoom workshops, can be found on our virtual workshop requirements page.

Please note that, because of the logistical challenges it entails, there will be no troubleshooting of setup issues during the virtual workshops!

Recordings and workshop materials

Workshop materials and recordings of many of the Zoom sessions are now available via the menu at left (visit "Archives of past workshops" ----> "Spring 2021 Workshop Materials"). Note that some instructors request that their sessions not be recorded.

Pre-recorded Virtual Workshops

PICSciE has also archived recordings and presentation materials on a broader range of topics related to research computing. Although not as useful as participating in a real-time instructor-led training, researchers and staff may find these materials useful as self-paced training, or as reference to peruse before or after attending a "live" virtual sessions.

Fall 2020 Workshops -- archives of our Fall 2020 Zoom workshops. Note that not all sessions were recorded.
Winter 2021 Bootcamp -- PICSciE, in conjunction with CSML, also offered an intensive two-week training on a range of beginning to advanced computing topics during January 2021. A catalogue of those sessions, including presentation materials and recordings (when available), can be found on the Winter 2021 Research Computing Bootcamp website.
Spring 2021 Workshops -- archives of our Spring 2021 Zoom workshops. Note that not all sessions were recorded.