General Interest Seminars

This is a page organizing/archiving general interest seminars (became a part of Compute Ontario Colloquia weekly series starting January 2023).

Round 1 (Starting May 2011)

Presenter	Topic(s)	Dates	Att
Sergey	Serial farming and Monte Carlo for SHARCNET	2011/05/18	15
David	Automating Tasks with bash	2011/06/08	8
HughM	Debugging at SHARCNET	2011/06/29	11
Isaac	Introduction to Linux	2011/07/20	9
Pawel	Linear Algebra on GPU	2011/09/21	6
Jemmy	MATLAB Parallel Computing Toolbox on SHARCNET	2011/10/12	7
Alex	Visualizing Data with Paraview	2011/11/02	9
Baolai	Managing your files effectively at SHARCNET with SVN	2011/11/23	6
Tyson	Introduction to Valgrind	2012/03/14	0
Nick	Optimizing Tools for Development and Execution of Programs	2012/04/04	14

Round 2 (Starting Sept. 2012)

Note: henceforth, there is expected to be a General Interest Seminar every month, on the third Wednesday at noon. Please be responsible about this and plan for your month.

Month	Presenter	Topic(s)	Date	Att
SEP	Pawel	Why Would I Use GPUs?	2012/09/26	12
OCT	Tyson	Introduction to Valgrind	2012/10/17	5
NOV	HughM	New User Seminar - Part 2	2012/11/21	15
DEC
JAN	Isaac	Shell scripting	2013/01/23	18
FEB	Jemmy	SHARCNET Software Support Updates	2013/02/27	7
MAY	Sergey	Quick-n-dirty ways to run your serial code faster, in parallel	2013/05/01	15
JUNE	David	Parallel programming patterns	2013/06/
JUL	Alex		2013/07/
AUG	Baolai		2013/08/
SEP	Nick		2013/09/

Round 3 (Starting Sept. 2013)

Month	Presenter	Topic(s)	Date	Att
NOV	Isaac	Introduction to Linux	2013/11/20	32
DEC	Pawel	Why Would I Use GPUs?	2013/12/18	22
JAN	Alex	Using parallel I/O in SHARCNET	2014/01/15	10
FEB	Sergey	Profiling MPI codes with Allinea's MAP	2014/02/19	10
MAR	Baolai	Managing your files effectively at SHARCNET with SVN	2014/03/19	8
APR	Tyson	My code doesn't crash -- why should I still use Valgrind?	2014/04/16	17
MAY	Jemmy	Running MATLAB in SHARCNET	2014/05/21	34
JUNE	Hugh	Debugging at SHARCNET	2014/06/18	20
JUL	James	Transitioning from Matlab to Octave	2014/07/16	?
AUG			2014/08/20

Round 4 (Starting Sept. 2014)

Note: with the new (biweekly) schedule, full time HPTC will have to give 2 seminars per year. Please make at least one of these two seminars a new one (the other one can be an old recycled one).

Presenter	Topic(s)	Date	Att	Reg
Paul	Advanced Message Passing in MPI: Using MPI Datatypes with Opaque C++ Types	2014/09/17	7	6
Ed	An Introduction to Java Threads	2014/10/01	9	8
Isaac	CUDA Basics and how to	2014/10/15	20	31
Fei	Is the Intel Xeon Phi right for me?	2014/10/29	11	15
Pawel	Linear Algebra on GPU	2014/11/12	11	8
Tyson	The SHARCNET Desktop	2014/11/26	17	8
Weiguan	Programming with VTK - a high-level visualization library	2014/12/10	18	14
James	SHARCNet file management	2015/01/07	15	9
Hugh	New User Seminar - Part 2	2015/01/21	10	17
Fei	Deep Learning on SHARCNET: From CPU to GPU cluster	2015/02/04	40	22
Sergey	Serial and parallel farming from A to Z	2015/02/18	30	23
Paul	The Relevance of OpenCL to HPC	2015/03/04	15+20 live	12
Ed	Programming, best practices	2015/03/18	23	17
Baolai	A brief look at numerical libraries: The tools you can use	2015/04/01	8	12
Jemmy	An Update on MATLAB at SHARCNET	2015/04/15	7	13
Pawel	High Performance Computing with Python	2015/04/29	39	29
Tyson	Exploring a new approach to package management	2015/05/14	6	3
	[[]]	2015/05/27	canceled
Mark	Get the most out of SharcNET	2015/06/10	25	23
Armin	Programming with Wt - A C++ library for developing stateful and highly interactive web applications	2015/06/24	7	5
Jemmy	Hybrid MPI and OpenMP Parallel Programming	2015/07/08	17	13
Sergey	Debugging and profiling of MPI programs [[]]	2015/07/22	15	9
Baolai	Parallel programming without MPI - Using coarrays in Fortran	2015/08/05	10	6
Isaac	Introduction to Parallel I/O	2015/08/19	18	16

Round 5 (Starting Sept. 2015)

Note: with the new (biweekly) schedule, full time HPTC will have to give 2 seminars per year. Please make at least one of these two seminars a new one (the other one can be an old recycled one).

Presenter	Topic(s)	Date	Att	Reg
Weiguang	Scientific Visualization with ParaView	2015/9/16	23	15
James	Profiling function vectorization in Matlab/Octave	2015/9/30	11	4
Fei	CUDA Profiling and Tuning	2015/10/14	18	12
Hugh	Fundamentals of working at the command line at SHARCNET	2015/10/28	35	16
Paul	Introduction to MPI - Part I	2015/11/11	20	25
Pawel	Introduction to MPI - Part II	2015/11/25	10	17
Ed	Parallel Design Patterns	2015/12/9	10	15
Armin	Automating Software Build Process using CMake	2016/1/6	16	12
Jemmy	Introduction to OpenMP Parallel Programming	2016/1/20	5	5
Tyson	UNIX shell expansion: proper use and advanced forms	2016/2/3	17	6
Baolai	Parallel and high performance computing with R	2016/2/17	24	21
Weiguang	Raphaël - a vector graphics library for web development	2016/3/2	6	5
Sergey	Debugging OpenMP programs	2016/3/16	1	3
Isaac	How to get started with OpenFOAM at SHARCNET	2016/3/30	14	7
James	Quick tips for getting the most out of SHARCNET	2016/4/13	17	13
Fei	Deep Learning on SHARCNET: Tools you can use	2016/4/27	38	23
Tyson	Git and SHARCNET	2016/5/11	14	10
Doug	Canceled	2016/5/25
Jose	Introduction to Apache Spark on SHARCNET	2016/6/8	15	9
Hugh	Canceled	2016/6/22
Ed	Canceled	2016/7/6
Jemmy	Hybrid MPI and OpenMP Parallel Programming	2016/7/20	7	10
Pawel	Introduction to MPI - Part III	2016/8/3	0	2
Paul	Introduction to Jupyter	2016/8/17	14	6
Armin	Automating Software Build Process using CMake	2016/9/14	6	8
Baolai	Introduction to The Unix Shell - Automating Your Work	2016/9/28	23	17
Mark	What Happened to My Job? Cluster Scheduling In Detail	2016/10/12	17	11
Isaac	Introduction To Python: simple practise of data analysis	2016/10/26	24	30
Sergey	Debugging CUDA programs	2016/11/9	3	1
Doug	Canceled	2016/11/23	0	0
Ed	Defensive Programming : Best Practices	2016/12/7	8	15

Round 6 (Starting January 2017)

Presenter	Topic(s)	Date	Att	Reg
Weiguang	Introduction to ParaView	2017/1/4	12	13
James	Navigating the research computing resource renewals coming in 2017	2017/1/18	11	10
Fei	Deep Learning on SHARCNET: Best Practices	2017/2/1	23	24
Tyson	Git and SHARCNET (part 2)	2017/2/15	5	13
Jose	Machine Learning with Spark at SHARCNET	2017/3/1	12	28
Pawel	High Performance Computing with Python	2017/3/15	27	37
Paul	CANCELED (speaker not ready)	2017/3/29
Baolai	Modern Fortran: Concurrency and Parallelism	2017/4/12	18	22
Armin	Automating Software Build Process using CMake – Part II	2017/4/26	2	1
Jemmy	OpenMP 4.x: New features and Protocols	2017/5/10	9	3
Isaac	How to compile/run OpenFOAM in SHARCNET	2017/5/24	10	7
Ed	CANCELED (one attendee)	2017/6/7	1	2
Sergey	What's new and exciting about Graham's GPUs	2017/6/21	27	17
Weiguang	Train models to recognize hand-written digits using Tensorflow	2017/7/5	24	23
James	How jobs are scheduled to run on Graham and Cedar	2017/7/19	55	34
Doug	Intel MPI Library Cluster Edition on Graham	2017/8/2	6	2
Tyson	Packaging with Nix	2017/8/16	6	4
Kamil	Partitions and scheduling, running jobs effectively on Graham and Cedar	2017/9/13	34	24
Fei	Training Neural Networks with hundreds of GPUs on Graham and Cedar	2017/9/20	46	36
Mohamed	Introduction to SHARCNET Cloud	2017/9/27	19	6
Pawel	Linear Algebra on GPU	2017/10/11	20	16
Jose	Machine Learning using Jupyter Notebooks on Graham	2017/10/25	36	34
Isaac	Introduction to LINUX/SHELL programming in SHARCNET	2017/11/8	31	33
Sergey	Serial farming on Graham	2017/11/22	22	17
Baolai	Introduction to Eclipse for debugging - Part I	2017/12/6	10	4
Doug	Intro to Intel Performance Tools	2018/1/17	8	8
Ed	Deploying a Full Stack Web Solution on the Cloud for Cluster Access	2018/1/31	22	12
Paul	Singularity	2018/2/14	13	9
Armin	Visual Studio Code - Your Next Coding Companion for Advanced Research Computing	2018/2/28	14	12
Mark	Using SSH for Good, not Evil	2018/3/14	17	16

Round 7 (Starting March 2018)

Presenter	Topic(s)	Date	Att	Reg
Jemmy	Using Computational Chemistry software effectively on Graham	2018/3/28	14	4
Pawel	Improving your Python programs with NumPy and SciPy	2018/4/11	24	22
James	All about job wait times in the Graham queue	2018/4/25	31	22
Tyson	Summer School preview	2018/5/9	18	14
Weiguang	CANCELED	2018/5/23	0
Jose	CANCELED	2018/6/6	0
Isaac	Fundamentals of working at the command line at Graham	2018/6/20	30	28
Sergey	Debugging on Graham with DDT	2018/7/4	6	7
Paul	Mixed Source C, C++, and Fortran Programs	2018/7/18	18	9
Ed	Introduction to MySQL on Graham	2018/8/1	15	14
Armin	Harnessing the Power of Heterogeneous Computing using Boost.Compute + OpenCL	2018/8/15	7	5
Baolai	Concurrent File I/O by Multiple Processes	2018/9/12	13	7
Doug	The Benefits of GLOST for Many Jobs	2018/9/26	9	9
James	Understand (and potentially reduce) job wait times by examining scheduler configuration, load in the queue and account usage	2018/10/10	23	18
Weiguang	Stock Prediction Using Recurrent Neural Network	2018/10/24	33	29
Jemmy	Using MATLAB effectively on Graham and Cedar	2018/11/7	33	-
Ed	MySQL Part 2: Relations and Joins	2018/11/21	5	-
Paul	Using Pseudorandom Number Sequences in C++	2018/12/5	7	-
Sergey	Code profiling on Graham	2018/12/19	26	-
Tyson	The Monad Understanding Hurdle	2019/1/16	9	-
Isaac	Best practices for newbies on Graham	2019/1/30	35	-
Mark	What Happened To My Job?	2019/2/13	15
Armin	Dipping into C++17 Parallel Algorithms with Intel's Parallel STL	2019/2/27	14
Doug	Exploring the Use of Application Software on Grahams Visualization Machine	2019/3/13	35
Pawel	Introduction to parallel programming with MPI and Python	2019/3/27	25	-
Baolai	Exploring Octave package dataframe	2019/4/10	2

Round 8 (Starting April 2019)

Presenter	Topic(s)	Date	Att
James	PRE and POST production on Graham	2019/4/24	12
Weiguang	Pull your own data into ParaView	2019/5/8	31
Jemmy	The New Development of OpenMP	2019/5/22	22
Ed	Julia - A first perspective	2019/6/5	45
Paul	Using C++'s Parallel Algorithms	2019/6/19	14
Sergey	CANCELED	2019/7/3	0
Tyson	The Monad Understanding Hurdle (Part 2)	2019/7/17	0
Isaac	Fundamentals of working at the command line at Graham	2019/7/31	54
Armin	Is It Possible to Use C++ Parallel Algorithms in a Distributed Memory Setup (i.e. MPI)?	2019/8/14	8
Doug	CANCELED	2019/9/11	0
Pawel	Using reduced numerical precision on Pascal, Volta and Turing GPUs	2019/9/25	6
Jinhui	Introduction to scalable computing with Dask in Python	2019/10/9	40
Doug	Leveraging Compiler Optimization Reports	2019/10/23	5
Weiguang	Using Multiple GPUs in Tensorflow	2019/11/6	18
Baolai	Julia: A second perspective	2019/11/20	5
Ed	Docker	2019/12/4	27
Jemmy	Introduction to HPC Programming Language Chapel: Base Language Overview	2019/12/18	10
Tyson	The Monad Understanding Hurdle (Part 3)	2020/1/15	2
Paul	Singularity 3.5	2020/1/29	27
Sergey	New User Seminar, Part II	2020/2/12	23
Isaac	How to Run AI programs in Graham	2020/2/26	44
Baolai	Julia: A third perspective - parallel computing explained	2020/3/11	18
Jinhui	Introduction to scalable computing with Dask in Python (Continued)	2020/3/25	15
Mark	Using SSHFS to make CC storage more accessible	2020/4/8	21
Pawel	Collaborative Groups in CUDA	2020/4/22	2
Doug	CANCELED	2020/5/6
Armin	CANCELED	2020/5/20

Round 9 (Starting July 2020)

Presenter	Topic(s)	Date	Att
Tyler	Cython: A First Look	2020/7/8	60
James	Visualizing job usage on the Compute Canada systems with the ViewClust Python package	2020/7/15	33
Armin	How to Use C++ Parallel Algorithms in a Distributed Memory Setup (i.e. MPI)	2020/7/29	15
Sergio	Bioinformatics in the terminal: Tips and tricks to make your life easier	2020/8/12	47
Doug	Options for Solving Jobs with Many Tasks	2020/9/9	13	30
Weiguang	Is my neural network too big to fit into GPU?	2020/9/23	59	93
Jemmy	Introduction to HPC Programming Language Chapel: Parallel Approaches	2020/10/7	7
Ed	Introduction to Git	2020/10/21	50
Baolai	Julia: Parallel computing revisited	2020/11/4	8
Tyson	NixOS: The second largest and the most up-to-date Linux distribution	2020/11/18	18
Paul	Practical Singularity	2020/12/2	28
Jinhui	Offload Analytics Workload in Python to GPUs with RAPIDS	2020/12/16	46
Pawel	Programming GPUs with Fortran	2021/1/13	25
Baolai	Computing in arbitrary precision	2021/1/27	13
Isaac	Using multiple GPUs for Machine Learning	2021/2/10	63
James	Generating interactive visualizations with Plotly on Graham	2021/2/24	47
Armin	Scalable Memory Allocation for Parallel Algorithms	2021/3/17	7
Sergio	FauxConda: ways to use Conda without conda	2021/3/24	27
Jemmy	An Update to ADF/AMS software on Graham	2021/4/7	14
Sergey	Debugging your code with DDT	2021/4/21	15
Tyler	Pandas Recipes for New Python Users	2021/5/5	53
Doug	DIY Local Program Installation	2021/5/19	15
Baolai	CANCELED	2021/6/2
Weiguang	Learning from competition	2021/6/16	103
Tyson	CANCELED	2021/6/30
Paul	Hybrid MPI	2021/7/14	41
Mark	Comparing CPU, GPU, memory, interconnect and filesystem performance across National systems	2021/7/28	22
Ed	Git Part 2 – Common Git Commands	2021/8/11	41
Baolai	Introduction to Eclipse Part 2 - Developing and debugging MPI code	2021/9/8	16
Pawel	ROCm: AMD's platform for GPU computing	2021/9/22	20
Sergey	META: running a large number of jobs conveniently	2021/10/6	74
Jinhui	Scaling Hyperparameter Tuning with Dask-ML on Clusters	2021/10/20	51
Isaac	Running machine learning example (MNIST) on multi-cores/nodes in Graham	2021/11/3	96
Tyson	The Layered Grammar of Graphics (gglot2/plotnine)	2021/11/17	59
Baolai	Introduction to Eclipse Part 3 - Debugging MPI code	2021/12/1	9

Round 10 (Starting December 2021)

Presenter	Topic(s)	Date	Att
James	Tips for identifying when job wait times can be reduced by job submission parameter changes	2021/12/15	68
Armin	Remote Development on Clusters with VSCode	2022/1/12	62
Sergio	From histograms to dashboards: An introduction to data visualization with Python	2022/1/26	116
Tyler	Conquering the Scheduler	2022/2/9	49
Jemmy	Gaussian16 and NBO7 on Graham and Cedar	2022/2/23	50
Doug	More Options for Solving Jobs with Many Tasks	2022/3/9	4
Weiguang	Using Tensorboard to debug and profile neural network models	2022/3/23	35
Paul	Apptainer	2022/4/6	39
Mark	10 ways to optimize your workflow	2022/4/20	39
Ed	Demystifying Web Portals	2022/5/4	29
Sergey	Profiling GPU codes with Nsight	2022/5/18	23
Pawel	Speeding up Python code with Numba	2022/6/1	58
Baolai	Realtime display with Gnuplot	2022/6/15	24
Isaac	Running PyTorch codes with multi-GPU/nodes on national systems	2022/6/29	54
Jinhui	Working with Jupyter on Clusters	2022/7/13	56
James	Visualizing job properties for wait time assessment	2022/7/27	31
Tyson	Debugging with ParaView	2022/8/10	20
Armin	Remote Development on Clusters with VSCode - Part II	2022/9/7	16
Tyler	Creating and Distributing Python Packages	2022/9/21	45
Weiguang	Transfer Learning with Tensorflow Hub	2022/10/5	26
Doug	Strategies For Managing Filesystem Quotas	2022/10/19	24
Paul	Profiling & Performance Tuning CPU Programs	2022/11/2	19
Sergey	Video Editing with KDEnLive	2022/11/16	21
Ed	Deploying a simple Express.js Web App	2022/11/30	12
Pawel	Which GPU should I use?	2022/12/14	24
Mark	Performance: current and upcoming systems	2023/1/11	31
Jeff Moon	How Research Data Management (RDM) Intersects with ARC and Why Should I Care?	2023/1/25	49
Baolai	An introduction to MPLAPACK, a multi-precision linear algebra library	2023/2/8	15
Jinhui	Accelerated DataFrame with Dask-cuDF on multiple GPUs	2023/2/22	16
Tyson	plotnine: R's Grammar of Graphics in Python	2023/3/8	29

Round 11 (Starting March 2023)

Presenter	Topic(s)	Date	Att
James	Before and after submitting Octave/Matlab jobs on the clusters	2023/3/22	10
Jemmy	Running MATLAB on Alliance's Clusters	2023/4/5	27
Armin	CUDA, ROCm, oneAPI – All for One or One for All?	2023/4/19	33
Tyler	Modern Approaches to Profiling in Python with Scalene	2023/5/3	29
Weiguang	Contrastive learning	2023/5/17	63
Paul	CANCELED	2023/5/31
Doug	CANCELED	2023/6/14
Sergey	CANCELED	2023/6/28
Ed	Leveraging the power of Linux on Windows with WSL	2023/7/12	40
Mark	DIY job monitoring, from cache misses to CO2 footprint	2023/7/26	16
Pawel	Automating scientific workflows with AiiDA	2023/8/9	33
Baolai	CANCELED	2023/8/23
Paul	CANCELED	2023/9/6
Tyson	Data Wrangling with Tidyverse	2023/9/20	27
James	Exploring job wait times on Alliance compute clusters: a holistic view	2023/10/4	27
Armin	p2rng – A C++ Parallel Random Number Generator Library for the Masses	2023/10/18	7
Tyler	Generalized End to End Python and Neuroscience Workflows on a Compute Cluster	2023/11/1	17
Weiguang	Squeeze more juice out of a single GPU in deep learning	2023/11/15	54
Collin	Skorch: Training PyTorch models with scikit-learn	2023/11/29	34
Doug	CANCELED	2023/12/13
Paul	False Sharing and Contention in Parallel Codes	2024/1/17	17
Jemmy	Introduction to GPU programming with OpenMP	2024/1/31	30
Ed	MySQL Part 3: Constraints and Joins	2024/2/14	11
Sergey	Debugging your code with DDT	2024/2/28	20
Mark	Make: obsolete or elegant?	2024/3/13	16
Jinhui	Accelerating Graph Analysis on GPUs	2024/3/27	25
Nastaran	Accelerating data analytics with RAPIDS cuDF	2024/4/10	17
Tyson	Data Wrangling with Tidyverse (part 2)	2024/4/24	4
Pawel	Compute Ontario Summer School 2024	2024/5/8	25

Round 12 (Starting July 2024)

Presenter	Topic(s)	Date	Att
James	Exploring Compute Usage from User Facing Portals on the National Clusters	2024/7/17	13
Armin	The Emergence of WebAssembly (Wasm) in Scientific Computing	2024/8/7	12
Tyler	Diagnosing Wasted Resources from User Facing Portals on the National Clusters	2024/8/14	21
Weiguang	Using machine learning to predict rare events	2024/8/28	51
Collin	Debugging and Optimization of PyTorch Models	2024/9/11	42
Paul	Multidimensional Arrays in C++	2024/9/25	13
Mark	Introspection for Jobs: in-job monitoring of performance	2024/10/9	18
Jemmy	Parallel Programming: MPI I/O Basics	2024/10/23	12
Ed	Git Part 3: Managing Workflows	2024/11/6	10
Sergey	Survival guide for the upcoming GPU upgrades (more total power, but fewer GPUs)	2024/11/20	30
Tyson	Data Wrangling with Tidyverse (part 3)	2024/12/4	6
Nast	Unlocking the Power of Comet: Streamlining Machine Learning Experimentation	2024/12/18	9
Jinhui	Canceled	2025/1/15
Pawel	Converting Python code with NumPy to run on the GPU	2025/1/29	30
Armin	High-Performance Data Science with Modern C++: Xeus-Cling and G3P	2025/2/12	9
Baolai	Reduction of errors, or the pursuit of correctness	2025/2/26	20
James	Preview of the "Job Scheduling and Monitoring" self-paced course	2025/3/12	4
Tyler	Revisiting Cython: Is it still effective?	2025/3/26	14
Collin	Too Big to Train: Large model training in PyTorch with Fully Sharded Data Parallel	2025/4/9	23
Jemmy	Parallel Programming: MPI I/O Advanced Features	2025/4/23
Weiguang	Checkpoints: why, when and how	2025/5/7
Mark		2025/5/21
Paul		2025/7/2
Ed		2025/7/16
Sergey		2025/7/30
Nast		2025/8/13
Tyson		2025/8/27
Pawel		2025/9/10
Jinhui		2025/9/24
Baolai		2025/10/8