CCV offers a variety of tutorials to provide students with experience using Brown's HPC systems. CCV staff members provide students with an overview of the topic and guide them through a series of hands-on activities. Tutorials can range from the basics of using HPC systems to the use of specific applications on Brown's HPC systems. Examples of tutorial topics include:

• Introduction to Linux
• Introduction to Oscar
• The Fundamentals of High-Performance Computing
• Using MATLAB on Oscar
• Introduction to Statistical Analysis with R on Oscar

If you would like to request a tutorial for your class, please contact support@ccv.brown.edu.

Introduction

Brown's JupyterHub service provides a convenient, cloud-hosted way to serve Jupyter Notebooks for multiple users. Notebooks are launched within a pre-configured computing environment; users do not need to install any software packages. This set-up free environment is ideal for courses and workshops where instructors intend for students to begin coding with minimal obstacles. Jupyter’s flexibility allows instructors to pick the preferred language for a particular context, including Python, Julia, R and many more. Regardless of the language chosen, the Jupyter interface remains the same. To learn more about using Jupyter Notebooks for teaching and learning, please visit the guide.

On Brown's JupyterHub, each user is provided a persistent working directory and compute resource allocation. This means the environment you are provided is only accessible by yourself and OIT support staff.

Once connected to JupyterHub servers, users enter an isolated workspace to write and run code. There are no time limit restrictions or specified lockout times, so feel free to use your personal JupyterHub server as needed and adhere to CCV's Computing Policies.

If you are an instructor, CCV can provide access to JupyterHub for your class or workshop, and Digital Learning and Design (DLD) can assist with integrating computational assignments into curricula. The implementation is supported by Brown OIT; please follow the link below to request an instance for your class. OIT staff will respond to your request to begin the setup process. We ask that requests for JupyterHub be made at least two months in advance of expected course deployment.

Request a Hub Documentation

JupyterHub Vs Other Resources for Teaching

There are other environments that may be great alternatives for your teaching needs. Google Colaboratory provides a similar Jupyter-based notebook environment that is free to use, and depending on your needs may require no set up at all. It also provides free access to GPU and TPU programming, which can be great for deep learning courses. Other new and up-coming platforms such as repl.it are also great alternatives for teaching and learning programming. To date, JupyterHub provides few benefits over these platforms. We list here a few of the differentiating features between Google Colab and JupyterHub to help you decide which choice is right for your course:

• Colab supports Python 3.x as the backend.
• JupyterHub can be configured to support any language that has jupyter kernel support.
• With JupyterHub, you can pre-define the Docker container (and all the software) that is going to be running on the instances. Having a Docker container per class is a nice way to ensure reproducibility for students who may want to "take their compute environment with them" at the end of the semester.
• Colab comes bundled with most Python scientific software libraries, but you will have to re-install all non-standard libraries every time you connect to an instance.
• Colab runs a notebook interface, JupyterHub open Jupyter Notebooks, markdown files, PDFs, scripts and a terminal window.
• Colab integrates nicely with your Google Drive and supports real-time collaboration

CCV provides access to HPC resources for classes, workshops, demonstrations, and other instructional uses. In general, the system is available for most types of instructional use at Brown where HPC resources are required, and we will do what we can to provide the resources necessary to help teach your class. We do ask that you follow these guidelines to help us better support your class.

Account Requests and Software Needs

Requests for class accounts should be made in writing to support@ccv.brown.edu two weeks prior to the beginning of class, and should be made in bulk. Please provide the name and e-mail for the students, TAs and instructor as well as the course number. Requests for specific software should also be made two weeks before the start of the semester, and should be properly licensed, tested and verified to work by an instructor or TA.

Usage Expectations and System Utilization

Unless prior arrangements are made, student class accounts will have the same priority and access as free accounts on the CCV system. Access can be provided to specialized hardware or higher cores if needed provided it does not impact research use of the CCV systems. Be aware that usage of the CCV system is unpredictable, and high utilization of the system could impact a student's ability to finish assignments in a specific time period. We also encourage instructors to give an overview of the system and discuss computing policies before students use the system. CCV can provide resources (slides, documentation and in class workshops) to help prepare students to use HPC system. CCV staff are always available to meet directly with instructors and TAs to help prepare for classes and help setup specific software or environments for the class.

Support

It is expected that any class being taught using CCV resources will have its own TA. The TA should be the first line of support for any problems or questions the students may have regarding the use of the CCV system. CCV staff may not know specifics about how to use or run the programs the class is using, and can’t provide direct support to students for that software.

Class Guest Accounts

CCV will provide limited duration guests accounts that are custom tailored for the class use of the system. These accounts will have a username of “guest###”, and each account is associated with an individual student, instructor, or TA. Guest accounts are temporary and are only active for the duration of the class, and are deactivated at the conclusion of the semester/workshop. Account data is kept intact on our system for one semester after the conclusion of the class, and is then permanently deleted from the CCV system.

Request student accounts for a class