Cluster Computing for Social Scientists with R

Want to learn how to work with a supercomputer? And how to translate your R workflow from a graphical user interface (GUI) on your desktop to a scripting/automated workflow for a supercomputer?

What will you learn?

In this course, you will learn the basics of supercomputing. The day starts with an introduction to supercomputer architecture, including a hands-on session focused on running jobs on a supercomputer.

The second half of the programme focuses on translating your R workflow from a GUI (Rstudio) workflow on your desktop to a scripting/batch environment on the supercomputer. Topics covered here include: efficient programming, parallel computing, and using the SLURM job manager to send your job/analysis to the supercomputer.

In this course you will:

• Do practical exercises to learn how to effectively use the national supercomputer Snellius and how to complete your tasks with minimal effort in the shortest possible time.
• Experience how to achieve high performance with R by using the supercomputing facilities at SURF

Prerequisites:

• Basic knowledge of Linux (Unix shell) is useful
• Basic knowledge of R is useful

You must have:

A personal laptop with an up-to-date browser and a terminal emulator (Putty is perfectly fine for users of the OSSC/CBS RA environment). Using the operating systems Linux and macOS is preferred but not mandatory. For Windows users, we recommend downloading MobaXterm (portable version) as a terminal emulator. If you are limited in your choice, Putty also works.

The language of instruction is English.