Midwest: July 2026: Day 3: PEARC26

Midwest

July 2026: Day 3: PEARC26

UCLA is hiring.

Food was... uh... edible.

Understanding the challenges of researchers trying to use HPC.

Both facilitator and user have work to do.

How to improve HPC user onboarding.

How to make documentation more effective.

Consider how you support your users in a way that builds independence.

Make it safe to ask questions.

Discussing campus dual-mount tiered storage systems: Georgia Tech CEDAR.

Separate networks for performance reasons.

Multi-protocol support.

Access management.

3 petabytes used today since 2023 deployment.

Key lessons.

Spent way too much time in this room.

Inside the exhibit hall. They love domes here.

Board game table.

University of Utah's secure research computing enviroments.

Google reception at the Hyatt.

Pork chop slider was not bad.

Hyatt's house whiskeys. Only tried the whiskey at left, it was terrible, zero nose or flavor aside from burn.

PEARC26 reception at Mill City Museum.

10 years of PEARC cupcakes.

PEARC26 reception at Mill City Museum.

Menu at Sushi Train.

Not bad.

Big labels.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

Yep, peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Sashimi.

Yes, this is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Bread is squished before it's put together.

Inside. Bunch more seating to left and some more to right as well.

Sessions and papers and vendor visits and whatnot all day at PEARC26, plus more vendor receptions as well as the official PEARC26 reception at Mill City Museum in the evening. Several quite good ones, especially on the challenges of helping researchers use HPC, particularly focused on not just helping them but understanding how to help them resolve their issues on their own in the future, and how to enable that with your own documentation, support approaches, and attitudes.

Georgia Tech had a great one on their campus-wide data storage, CEDAR, which is much like University of Michigan Turbo, and the steps needed to make it work as both end-user mountable storage as well as with HPC, and both the implementation, performance, and security considerations in doing so. Somewhere in there was University of Utah's approaches to secure research computing environments; they have multiple ones accommodating different levels of security, which might seem excessive, but given the cost of compliance it sounded like this was the most cost-effective, even accounting for the additional management headaches.

Google's reception was at the Hyatt, with a pretty tasty pork chop slider, soggy french fries, and an absolutely terrible Hyatt house brand whiskey. The official PEARC26 reception right after, at Mill City Museum, was much better, although the food offerings, aside from drinks and 10 years of PEARC themed cupcakes, were quickly picked over.

Ended up at a local conveyor belt sushi place after, Sushi Train, to get some actual calories. They have different color plates to indicate different pricing, and honestly I was both pleased and surprised to see sashimi on the conveyor belt, even if it was on the pricey side for conveyor belt sushi. I was a bit more surprised by the attempt to... uhhhhhh... address Midwestern palates (?!?!) with the presence of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, excuse me, "peanut butter and jelly rolls" on the conveyor as well. Naturally I had to try one for science-- flattened bread and PB&J, it was exactly as ordinary as expected. Overall quality of the sushi was exactly as forgettable as expected, which is probably a good thing.