NeSC Training Activities
Mike Mineter
mjm@nesc.ac.uk
NeSC UK Training Manager
Overview
NeSC training
Objectives
What we’ve done so far
Imminent UK training activities
Observations – some of what we’ve
learnt in the last 6 months
Plans
NeSC training mission
Enabling, facilitating and delivering
quality training
in the UK and Internationally
Dominant Training
requirements
For users
Orientation
Use of middleware
For operations /
sites
Installation
Resource centres
Networking
Grid infrastructure
Operations, Support and
training
Collaboration
Network infrastructure
linking resource centres
Training is vital!!
Technology is (generally) released from a
small number of people in one location
Goal: many users in many locations
Need to make this feasible and scalable
“Routine” training
Early trainers
developers
Repository
web-based
users
Objective: Gaining new and
effective users
NeSC training: The story so far
Quality events since NeSC opened
The NeSC training team was formed in
April 2004 to build on this tradition
Grown to five trainers
Supported by EU (EGEE), UK core e-Science
Programme, and Research Council grants
(PPARC)
Leader: Prof. Malcolm Atkinson
EU training manager: David Fergusson
UK training manager: Mike Mineter
Major activities since April
Initial emphasis was on EGEE
(also April start-up)
Leading and coordinating EGEE training
activity
Building collaboration across training
teams
Establishing relationships with technology
developers and operations teams
Delivering training in UK and Europe
Creating repository of training material
Attention also now turning to UK
NGS, GOSC and also OMII and JISC
Courses delivered
The training team has directly delivered:
5 training events in the UK
(35 trainees - advanced)
X
X
At NeSC and the University of Stafford
For JISC and EGEE
6 training events in Europe
(183 trainees – introductory/advanced)
X
X
At CERN, FZK Karlsruhe, CNB Madrid, Lithuania and Italy.
GGF Summer School
Also dissemination presentations to introduce
people to the concept of the grid
Training event types
Induction
EGEE and [Q1, 2005] NGS, OMII
Advanced users
WS, portals, …
Operations - Sites and Regional Ops. Centres
NeSC role: facilitation, to date…
LCG-2 / EGEE-0 installation
X
Rhys Newman, Oxford; Ruediger Burlich, Karlsruhe;
Flavia Donno, CERN
Web services deployment
X
Hong Ong (Univ. of Portsmouth) and Ariel Goyeneche (Univ. of Westminster)
Workshops
hosted Condor week, GOSC/NGS meeting
On demand:
GT3 for example
Future: Training trainers
Based on experience of training events
Training event types
Induction
EGEE and [soon] NGS, OMII
Advanced users
WS, portals, …
Operations - Sites and Regional Ops. Centres
NeSC role: facilitation, to date…
LCG-2 / EGEE-0 installation
X
Rhys Newman, Oxford; Ruediger Burlich, Karlsruhe;
Flavia Donno, CERN
Web services deployment
X
Hong Ong (Univ. of Portsmouth) and Ariel Goyeneche (Univ. of Westminster)
Workshops
hosted Condor week, GOSC/NGS
Future: Training trainers
Based on experience of training events
Imminent UK training activities
Two-day induction for NGS users
Dry-run: December 9-10th
Modules will be made available via NeSC
repository (1Q 2005)
Willing to contribute to training at the UK
eScience centres and other centres of
excellence
WSDL and UML for JISC e-Learning
Web Services
December 16-17th
WS-RF: February 2005
Proposed NGS Induction
What is grid computing
Concepts, world-wide, EU and UK
EGEE induction
Security, AAA
LCG-2 /EGEE-0 middleware
Practical with GENIUS / GILDA
Operations, (human) networking, middleware
activities (WS and gLite)
Overview of:
NGS
OGSA-DAI
Oracle service
SRB
NGS Portal
Overview
NeSC training
Objectives
What we’ve done so far
Imminent UK training activities
Observations – some of what we’ve
learnt in the last 6 months
Observations
Event goals must match reality so an event
is a point of departure for participants
Useability, reliability, sustainability…
are key goals of NGS and EGEE – but trainers need
to set expectations accurately whilst the
infrastructure is established.
Modes of training
Scope for group-work, more interactive
Modes of learning
Different people like to learn in different ways –
seen most intensely in practicals
Developers are recognising need to support
training
But scalability is an issue – hence trainer training
and repositories are vital!
Need for a training Grid
For EGEE, GILDA is hosted by Univ. of
Catania (led by Roberto Barbera)
For NGS…? May initially rely on the
production system
Also, installation courses
Massive requirements for hardware
20 people, LCG installation course =
ideally 100 PCs !
Feedback
We use forms to rate
Achievement of goals (stated in event
announcement)
Quality of each talk
…
Free text comments often most useful
Might also try multiple choice “exam”
Reinforce learning
Objective assessment of what is
communicated / remembered
Event statistics
Need KPIs
From participants
Numbers
Number of organisations, disciplines,
countries
Summary of feedback
But really need caution before comparing
assessments (whether between talks or
between events)
Involvement in research
projects
In order to maintain a high level of
technical awareness the members of
the training team are actively
involved in research projects linked to
NeSC
BRIDGES
EDINA and NERC Grid/GIS Working Group
Future plans for NeSC training
EGEE – tomorrow’s talk by David Fergusson
Education: contributing to the e-Science MSc at
Edinburgh University from next October
Installing a training grid for EGEE and NGS
Deliver widening spectrum of events
Repository:
Our material is available for re-use - but please with
attribution and with feedback and statistics of use, via
methods to be determined…!!
We include non-NeSC material too! – same conditions
would apply
More on this tomorrow!
This event is a sign of our commitment to cooperate
and collaborate in establishing training across the UK