Research & Cloud Computing (RCC) Services is excited to offer a series of training events this Fall! We have reworked our flagship “Introduction to HPC” workshop, and we will also offer two new workshops on Google Cloud and Agentic AI for researchers. Below is the brief information about these workshops. More information is published on our Wiki page: 

https://wiki.hpc.odu.edu/en/Training/2026-Fall

Introduction to HPC (hands-on workshop series)

Thursdays, September 24 to October 8
12:30 to 2:00 p.m.

The “Intro to HPC” workshop provides a basic primer of Wahab, ODU’s primary HPC environment. This workshop is designed for researchers and students who are new to HPC or those looking for a refresher. This year, we’ve spread our long workshop into three sessions for a more manageable pace and a better learning experience:

  • Session 1 (9/24): Introduction of ODU Research & Cloud Computing Services; introduction to the ODU HPC environment; connecting to the cluster.
  • Session 2 (10/1): Using the job scheduler; software & applications on HPC.
  • Session 3 (10/8): Data storage & data transfer on HPC; responsible use of HPC resources.

Google Cloud for Research (hands-on workshop)

Thursday, October 29
12:30 to 2:00 p.m.

This workshop introduces the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) environment with a focus on the tools and services most relevant to research projects — no prior cloud experience required. Topics include: GCP fundamentals; AI & machine learning on GCP; high-performance computing on GCP.

From Question to Cluster: Agentic AI for Research Computing (hands-on workshop series)

Thursdays, November 5 and November 12
12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

What does it look like to use AI agents as part of an actual research workflow? In this workshop, we’ll use an agent to help refine an open-ended research question, design and implement an experiment, and prepare jobs to launch on an HPC cluster in quest for the answer. The session will use a visual GPU-based example to demonstrate the full research loop, including Slurm execution, result interpretation, experimental refinement, scaling, and performance analysis. The researcher remains responsible for the scientific decisions and conclusions.

Note: This workshop has two 1-hour sessions spread over two Thursdays.

Registration

To register for one or more of these workshops, please fill out this form: https://forms.odu.edu/view.php?id=2266297 . You are free to pick and choose the sessions you plan to attend.

Important Notes

  • All events are hands-on workshops. Participants are expected to perform the hands-on activities and exercises on their own computers (Mac, Windows or Linux laptop/desktop with an up-to-date browser). Chromebooks may work, but we do not recommend tablets since we have not thoroughly tested our web-based HPC interface with these devices.
  • All workshops are scheduled during Thursday activity hours to allow the most people to attend. Workshops will be recorded and made available to the ODU community shortly thereafter.

Happy computing - and we look forward to seeing you in our workshops this semester!