Computing Systems Seminar

Interview seminar for ILRI Computing Systems Analyst position.

1. Designing research-computing systems that respond to the varying needs of ILRI researchers Alan Orth ILRI, Kenya December 5, 2013
2. Research-computing platform Must be research agnostic and flexible to cater to ILRI’s diverse disciplines
3. Diverse disciplines Genetics Statistics Geoinformatics Molecular Biology Immunology Breeding Ag Economics Value Chains Bioinformatics Social Science Epidemiology Computer Science
4. Varying needs Sequence data Genome assembly Geospatial data Databases ILRI films Phenotypic data System monitoring Mobile data collection Metagenomics pipelines Web servers
5. Wide scope Cows Zoonosis National partners Sheep Women Markets Baseline surveys Increasing productivity Value chains Cassava
6. Support ILRI scientists and collaborators wherever they may be
7. Primary characteristics Computational capacity should be high and fast Data should be accessible and safe
8. Provide a strong foundation for... Cutting-edge science supported by a state- of-the-art infrastructure. Building a community of practice by teaching good habits and helping scientists use the tools. Breaking down silos and promoting collaboration via openness and sharing.
9. Standing on shoulders of giants
10. Embrace “open” Open-source software Open-access science
11. Building “next-gen” research computing Four years at ILRI ✓ Three iterations of HPC ✓ Create homogenous cluster environment ✓
12. Alan at ILRI (2010 - 2013)