MSI Users Bulletin – September 2018

The Users Bulletin provides a summary of new policies, procedures, and events of interest to MSI users. It is published quarterly.

To request technical assistance with your MSI account, please contact help@msi.umn.edu.

1. Annual Account Renewal Deadline, Dec 1: The deadline for annual MSI account renewals is December 1. PIs and Group Administrators will receive email notification when the renewal period is open, on or about November 1. Renewals are submitted using the MyMSI portal. Renewal by December 1 ensures continued MSI access through the following calendar year. Accounts that are not renewed will be locked in early January 2019.

2. Singularity at MSI: On August 1, 2018 MSI made Singularity available on Mesabi as a software module. This change was made in order to accommodate users whose workflows required containers and those who would like to develop container-based HPC workflows. MSI would like to solicit feedback on the current Singularity implementation at MSI. Does it open up a new workflow for you that was previously inaccessible? Are there barriers that are preventing you from using it? Please contact help@msi.umn.edu with any comments or concerns.

3. Fall Tutorials: The schedule of upcoming tutorials for the fall has been set. See the list on the MSI website.

Tutorials are also live-streamed on the MSI YouTube channel. Tutorials can also be viewed on the channel afterwards.

4. Travel Funding Opportunity: MSI is a member of the Midwest Big Data Hub (MBDH). Early-career researchers and graduate students at the University of Minnesota who are establishing long-term international research collaborations in the MBDH domain of Digital Agriculture are eligible to apply for foreign-travel funds for their projects. Early-career researchers are considered to be post-docs and pre-tenure tenure-track faculty. Awardees must also present a poster on the results of their project at a Digital Agriculture or Midwest Big Data Hub 2019 event. The travel awards are administered by the University of North Dakota and will provided as reimbursements after the travel event has been completed.

The reviewers are accepting proposals immediately and will continue to do so until all the available funds are allotted. Complete information about this opportunity and application instructions can be found on the announcement page.

5. U-Spatial Mapping Prize: MSI’s Research Computing partner, U-Spatial, has issued an invitation for all UMN students to participate in the 2019 U-Spatial Mapping Prize. This competition seeks to celebrate great design and cartography through maps of all kinds, static and interactive. These maps can be connected to any research happening at the University of Minnesota. The deadline for the 2019 competition is May 3, 2019.

6. Jobs at MSI: Jobs available at MSI are listed on our the Employment page of our website.

7. Useful Webpages: Looking for help with using MSI? One of these pages may have the information you need:

a. Services available at MSI

b. Getting Started (includes Quickstart Guides)

c. MSI Systems

d. Software at MSI

e. Help and Documentation

f. Staff Listing and Areas of Expertise

g. Upcoming Events and Tutorials

h. Proposal Support