Presented by Simon Hettrick at the e-Infrastructure Academic User Community Forum, this talk provides a number of recommendations for improving the provision of training for e-Infrastructure.

1. Provision of support and
training for e-Infrastructure
users and potential users
Simon Hettrick E-Infrastructure Academic User
s.hettrick@software.ac.uk Community Forum, Software
15 April 2013 Sustainability
www.software.ac.uk Institute

2. Contributors
• Claire Devereux, NES, SeIUCCR, EGI
• David Henty, EPCC, PRACE
• Ian Bush, NAG
• Joy Davidson, DCC
• Mike Jackson, Software Sustainability Institute
• David Fergusson, eScience and EGEE
• Dave Cable, Hartree Centre
• All slides provided under
Software
Sustainability
www.software.ac.uk Institute

3. Increase the use of
e-Infrastructure
• More users
• More diverse users
• More expert users
Software
Sustainability
www.software.ac.uk Institute

4. The Venn of training
Programming Numerical
Cloud
languages algorithms
Between the
Software Scientific Managing
laptop and
engineering computing research data
supercomputer
Introduction to
Beyond the GUI programming HPC
concepts
Software
Sustainability
www.software.ac.uk Institute

5. #1
Understand what training resources are
already available
• Survey current training resources
• Link resources to provide a route from
amateur to expert
• Identify gaps in provision
Software
Sustainability
www.software.ac.uk Institute

6. #2
Share information about training resources
• Provide a resource that links training
courses and material
• Must be easy to add training
• A curated resource is more valuable than
a non-curated one
Software
Sustainability
www.software.ac.uk Institute

7. #3
Provide incentives to produce good training
materials and share them
• The incentive depends on who produces
the materials
• Good materials gain more users
• Provide access to technical writers
Software
Sustainability
www.software.ac.uk Institute

8. #4
Improve communication between training
providers
• A workshop for e-Infrastructure training
providers
• A regular updates to maintain interest
• Plus mailing list, etc.
Software
Sustainability
www.software.ac.uk Institute

9. #5
Include the research software engineers in
training planning
• Research software engineers have
successfully trained themselves
• The Software Sustainability Institute is
working to understand this role and its
contribution
Software
Sustainability
www.software.ac.uk Institute

10. What’s next?
• Grow community of trainers
• Survey training resources
• Organise a workshop
• Prepare a report and disseminate
Software
Sustainability
www.software.ac.uk Institute

11. “Everyone thinks that training
is expensive, but the cost of
not having it is higher”
- Dave Fergusson
Software
Sustainability
www.software.ac.uk Institute

12. Recommendations
1. Understand what training resources are
already available
2. Share information about training
3. Provide incentives to produce good training
materials and share them
4. Improve communication between training
providers
5. Include the research software engineers in
training planning
Software
Sustainability
www.software.ac.uk Institute