Exploring the Landscape of Midwest Research Computing and Data Consortium

This is a series where we’re diving into the world of the Midwest Research Computing and Data Consortium, exploring its members, the challenges, and future prospects. We had the opportunity to speak with Brock Palen, Director of Advanced Research Computing at the University of Michigan, who shared his insights on the field. Edited excerpts below:

Brock Palen

About ARC:

Advanced Research Computing (ARC) at the University of Michigan is a comprehensive research computing organization that caters to the entire university, including the Academic Medical Center and other traditional university departments. ARC has evolved from a high-performance computing center with some storage to a hub that fulfills the needs of various disciplines requiring big data and big computational needs. The Center has grown exponentially, doubling in size every year by hardware count. The shift in research computing has been towards the adoption of different disciplines, with greater focus, lately, on using or creating machine learning models for various applications, right from tracking movement on a playground to simulating social networks to analyzing self-driving vehicle data.

Work and challenges:

The work at ARC is not without its challenges. As the center has grown and the scope of research has broadened, the need for secure data storage and management has become paramount. With the introduction of sensitive data like medical records, ARC has had to ramp up its security measures while maintaining its open, academic ethos. For one project, a client highlighted the need for physical space around machines to prevent EMF interference, adding another layer of complexity to the Center’s operations.

Sustainable data growth and management is a significant focus area for ARC. The challenge lies in the increasing requirements to retain data for reproducibility and further work, and the desire to work with larger volumes of data. Given the cost per unit capacity of data storage has not declined at the same rate as the need for data storage has increased, ARC’s approach is working on making data more visible and increasing the value of the data they are storing. They are also working on identifying data that can be archived or deleted, involving researchers directly in their own data stewardship.

The Center handles sensitive data, including CUI/CMC, which comes with its own technical requirements such as file access logging and regular virus scanning of all data. These controls can create performance reductions, which is a challenge for high-performance computing and ARC is working on figuring out how to meet these requirements without compromising performance. Dealing with new security as well as privacy requirements due to the sensitive nature of some data, such as medical records, is a growing challenge to which institutions continuously need to adapt. The key tenet remains a commitment to understanding the work’s potential impact on society and ensuring that academic research is not used to harm people.

 

About Brock:

Brock Palen’s journey in the field of research computing and HPC started as a Nuclear Engineering and National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI) student. Brock states that most of the workforce in this field is made as a function of their circumstance of where they work and learning on the job – and he’s no exception but at ARC they’re trying to change that. His academic background did not noticeably influenced his career path as a Nuclear Engineer, but it led him to become an expert in managing Linux computers using automation and scaling applications across thousands of GPUs. For those interested in pursuing a career in research computing and HPC, Brock advises learning Linux, command line, basic bash scripting, and a high-power scripting language like Python. He also emphasizes the importance of good communication skills, being a good listener, understanding the big picture, and the ability to work as part of a team as crucial skills in this field.