[TOC] # HPCC Meeting, December 4, 2025 The HPC Carpentry Steering Committee hosts meetings on the first and third Thursday of each month, with two time slots intended to provide adequate coverage for our global constituency. These two meeting times provide the least-painful coverage for the six non-polar continents. Folks in Antarctica and aboard a space station are invited to join whichever is most convenient. * [13:00 CET][earlier] &mdash; on [Zoom Room 2][zoom_room], better for Africa, Asia, and Europe Meeting ID: 824 315 0376, Passcode: 202020 * [17:00 EST][evening] &mdash; on [Zoom Room 2][zoom_room], better for the Americas and Oceania Meeting ID: 824 315 0376, Passcode: 202020 A Google calendar has been set up to capture these events, available [online][gcal] and for [download][ical] for your calendar app. <!-- Info & Callback links --> [zoom_room]: https://carpentries.zoom.us/my/carpentriesroom2?pwd=WmVCOUlPUm1laFk5SUp1UWg5cjhEUT09 [earlier]: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20251204T13&p1=187&msg=HPC+Meeting+1 [evening]: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20251204T17&p1=250&msg=HPC+Meeting+2 [last-meeting]: https://codimd.carpentries.org/LsGodDvQTbKKQ-t-pATkbw --- Here is a [Checklist of HPC Carpentry's Lesson Program Incubation Tasks][hpc-lpi-list]. Here is a link to the [narrative document][hpc-incubation-review] Here is a link to the [prevoius meeting][last-meeting] Here is a link to the [survey feedback thread](https://carpentries.slack.com/archives/CEXAZR52T/p1758195122906639) Here is a link to the [deRSE26 BoF proposal](https://codimd.carpentries.org/CsgpW0-zQriy_6k39JJPCQ) Here is a link to the [deRSE26 skill-up proposal](https://codimd.carpentries.org/d9ciO4ePSkSDLpe1J-ZgyQ) --- ## Agenda 1. Incubation Package Review 2. Workbench Next Steps 3. Workshops: Anybody have one upcoming? [Put it on the website!](https://www.hpc-carpentry.org/upcoming-workshops/) 4. Conferences and Outreach 5. Other Issues In Flight We can/should reach out to the various fork maintainers again now that we have a solution instead of a problem, and see if that improves the responses. ### Incubation Review Process We have the survey results (distributed to steering committee and adjacent folks) and we have a draft of a package, and we have a December 10 deadline to get it to the curriculum folks. This slot is for feedback and progress on the package, which (as of Dec. 2 as I write this) still has some place-holders for impact narratives, and should probably be checked against the checklist items for coverage. See the links above for some of this -- the package itself is not public, but many regular attendees should have access, and are encouraged to be liberal with it in order to improve the quality of the result. ### Workbench Next Steps Now that we have a Workbench version of HPC Intro, we should probably reach out to the various fork maintainers again now that we have a solution instead of a problem, and see if that improves the responsees. Also the task of localizing it for the CTCMS is still on Andrew's to-do list. ### Workshops Jannetta has a bunch of them under her belt and coming up! ### Conferences and Outreach Broadly speaking, we should probably have a conversation about the goals of the outreach efforts. These certainly include raising awareness of our efforts in the broader community, but also, what is our "ask" of the community? Do we want new instructors? People to ask us to do workshops? Sites or people to do workshops without us? #### Actual Conferences The deRSE26 items have been submitted, see the relevant Codi docs for the [BoF](https://codimd.carpentries.org/CsgpW0-zQriy_6k39JJPCQ) and [Skill-up](https://codimd.carpentries.org/d9ciO4ePSkSDLpe1J-ZgyQ). Note that we have implicitly defined the instructor on-boarding curriculum through this process! (Many thanks to Marc-André for taking the lead on this!) Andrew is also now expected to attend SC25, but not give a presentation. It's still not obvious that SC is the right conference, although it's been useful in the past, and also there is limited bandwidth for proposal preparation. It has also been suggested more than once that we should be talking to practicing scientists in additon to computer people. Bioinformatics and materials folks seems like good targets, does anyone have any suggestions? ### Other Issues In Flight #### The Website (Unchanged from Jan. 2025) (!!) Consensus about the website from the [July 4 meeting](https://codimd.carpentries.org/VMqdWq7ISNiZVMQWE9OSWA) (!!) was that the website needs attention, but that we'll want to align with the revised Carpentries styling once that settles down, Possibly a draft design or a review of the desired content might still be appropriate -- this is our "front door", and will be a natural focus of attention as we do more outreach. Items from AT: - Some open issues that should be addressed -> [clarify core curriculum](https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/hpc-carpentry.github.io/issues/79), [clarify lesson maintainers](https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/hpc-carpentry.github.io/issues/78) - I agree with [#79](https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/hpc-carpentry.github.io/issues/79) that the lessons page is very difficult to parse. Clarifying the core HPC Carpentry curriculum (and the status of its lessons) would help. I'd recommend mirroring the structure of SWC (https://software-carpentry.org/lessons/) - Are there designated website owners/maintainers responsible for updating/approving MRs? Could make this clear on the website e.g. on https://www.hpc-carpentry.org/maintainers/ -> list lesson maintainers & website maintainers - It's not clear who is in charge of the group (the [governance site](https://www.hpc-carpentry.org/governance/) just links to a GH issue) -> a list of steering committee members and any affiliated orgs would be useful here. - There are a number of issues which look stale, these should be triaged and either closed/assigned - There is a stale MR ([steering committee charter](https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/hpc-carpentry.github.io/pull/73)) which might need attention ## 13:00 CET Session([VTC][zoom_room]) ### Attendees - Andrew Reid (he/him), NIST - Alan O'Cais (he/him), freelancer - Jannetta Steyn (she/her), Newcastle University, UK - Juhi Gupta (she/her), University of Liverpool, UK - Carol Booth (she/her), Newcastle University, UK - Trevor Keller (they/them), unaffiliated, OH USA - Annajiat Alim Rasel, Learning Lab and BRAC University, Bangladesh ### Incubation Review - Dec. 10 is the hard deadline. The package will not be reviewed until January, so keep working right up to the deadline if needed. - __*The review process will include a meeting for full discussion with our Steering Committee.*__ There will be a dialogue, not just a thumbs-up/down. #### The Survey - 120 responses, several from high-level "execs" - Parsing tealeaves, it appears we have a kernel of 17 actively engaged Instructors/Contributors - Clear need to refactor READMEs, Setup blurbs, and Workshop homepages to sell our curriculum more better and goodly. Folks seem to think the lessons won't capture their personal cluster quirks. Introductory conversation about the survey results, and the high frequency of the requests for customization -- maybe people are not really grasping the model, the value is in the exercises and pacing and interactivity, not so much in the content. Can we adjust our communications to emphasize this? Andrew: "HPC Carpentry isn't something you have, it's something you *do*!" #### Details to Add Alan: Has added some material about the BioNT workshops, thinks the package looks good otherwise. Conversation about the overall through-line: Time for potential contributors is a risk factor, Alan was able to do the BioNT thing because he was funded -- this brings up the maybe-unaddressed bullet point about whether the governance team is paid for their time to do this. The answer is "sometimes" -- Alan was paid to do HPC Carpentry-adjacent lesson development, some others are paid to be trainers and chose HPC Carpentry as the vehicle, and some (like Andrew & Trevor previously) have HPC Carpentry activities in their job descriptions, and their institution has not objected. (Brief aside about the two-page limit not being too hard, but we want to be respectful of the program committee's time and resources.) (Aside: newcomer Juhi Gupta asks if we've connected with "Women in HPC", we have not -- we should definitely reach out to them?) There's also a group of northern universities in the UK, [N8](https://n8cir.org.uk/), which we could also reach out to. Maybe list these organizations on our web page? Jannetta did an HPC Carpentry presentation at RSECon in September, based on stuff that Andrew did, and Greg Wilson -- broad introduction and status. Also, MiniHPC and HPC Carpentry benefit each other, the HPC Carpentry provides basic material, and the MiniHPC makes it tangible, and is another solution to the access problem. The package content is high-level. Maybe provide a checklist document that says where we think we've met the various items? Re-review meeting, 8am ET Calendar invite pending. ### Workbench Next Steps 1. Document how and when to use snippets vs. "config" variables 2. Environment variables! ### Workshops Jannetta got funding for a [workshop](https://indico.researchcomputing.ncl.ac.uk/event/1/) for a MiniHPC hackathon, this will take place in April 2026, funded by SSI, looking for a bit more funding from maybe the RSE world. Alan mentioned that the UK is part of EuroHPC, might be an opportunity there. --- ## 17:00 EST Session ([VTC][zoom_room]) ### Attendees - Andrew Reid (he/him), NIST - Joseph Creech, GW - Trevor Keller - Wirawan Purwanto ### Incubation Review Process Reprised the morning conversation. Survey data is broadly positive. Shared the documents with Joseph Creech, and also forwarded the invitation to the Monday 8am call. ### Workbench Next Steps ### Workshops ### Conferences and Outreach The next CASC meeting is at GMU, March 26, we can do HPC Carpentry. It's a leadership-level meeting. Pitch it at directors. --- <!-- Administrata --> [gcal]: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/?cid=bWp0ZWh0ZmEycmVjZGZtNmZjdGUwMWVhdGNAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ [ical]: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/mjtehtfa2recdfm6fcte01eatc%40group.calendar.google.com/public/basic.ics [minutes]: https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/coordination/tree/main/minutes [website]: https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/hpc-carpentry.github.io [hpc-cluster]: https://cluster.hpc-carpentry.org <!--HPC Carpentry Repositories--> [coordination]: https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/coordination [proposals]: https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/coordination/labels/proposal [hpc-chapel]: https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/hpc-chapel [hpc-intro]: https://github.com/carpentries-incubator/hpc-intro [hpc-parallel]: https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/hpc-parallel-novice [hpc-python]: https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/hpc-python [hpc-shell]: https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/hpc-shell [hpc-workflows]: https://github.com/carpentries-incubator/hpc-workflows [hpc-lpi-list]: https://codimd.carpentries.org/NXxvX-z4RZ6BAuX-aSAhiQ <!--Useful Codi docs--> [hpc-incubation-review]: https://codimd.carpentries.org/XvCH1nvcQt-lAmjB9Kqo7A <!--HPC Carpentry Issues--> [coordination-issues]: https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/coordination/issues [hpc-chapel-issues]: https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/hpc-chapel/issues [hpc-intro-issues]: https://github.com/carpentries-incubator/hpc-intro/issues [hpc-parallel-issues]: https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/hpc-parallel-novice/issues [hpc-python-issues]: https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/hpc-python/issues [hpc-shell-issues]: https://github.com/hpc-carpentry/hpc-shell/issues [hpc-workflows-issues]: https://github.com/carpentries-incubator/hpc-workflows/issues <!--Other--> [genomics-workshop]: https://datacarpentry.org/genomics-workshop/ [nextflow-lesson]: https://carpentries-incubator.github.io/workflows-nextflow/ <!--Carpentries References--> [conduct]: https://docs.carpentries.org/topic_folders/policies/code-of-conduct.html [invite]: https://swc-slack-invite.herokuapp.com/ [ldh]: https://docs.carpentries.org/topic_folders/governance/lesson-program-policy.html#lesson-programs [license]: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ [slack]: https://swcarpentry.slack.com :::info __Use of this service is restricted to members of The Carpentries community__. 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