Meetups
- Hacky Hour UQ
- Virtual HPC User Support
- UQ R Users Group (UQRUG) meetings
- Tips for Using Zoom for Meetups and Training
Hacky Hour UQ
Hacky Hour for 2023 recommenced on Tuesday, 14 February.
RCC supports Hacky Hour UQ, which was held on UQ’s St Lucia Campus before the COVID-19 pandemic and is currently being held online. Hacky Hour is a weekly meetup, held Tuesdays, 3pm–4pm (AEST), for UQ researchers to ask research-related technical issues to do with:
- high performance computing
- cloud computing
- virtual machines
- data storage
- data security
- data cleanup
- automated workflows
- data pipelines
- virtual desktops
- Python
- R
- Linux
- Software and Data Carpentry
- bioinformatics.
Experts from RCC and QCIF will attend Hacky Hour to answer your questions, and researchers can also help each other. All UQ researchers are welcome to attend.
When: Hacky Hour UQ occurs each Tuesday, 3pm–4pm (AEST). Occasionally, it is cancelled if no RCC and QCIF experts are available that day.
Where: Due to the ongoing COVID-19 situation, Hacky Hour will be held via Zoom video conference until further notice. For Zoom meeting details please email rcc-support@uq.edu.au.
When it's deemed safe to do so, Hacky Hour UQ will return to being held at Café Nano (outside), near AIBN, on the St Lucia Campus (view map).
Any questions? Email rcc-support@uq.edu.au.
UQ vHPC (Virtual HPC User Support)
Change of day and time for 2023!
The first vHPC meetup for 2023 will be on Thursday, 23 February. We'll see you then!
Thursdays, 9:30am–10:30am (AEST) via Zoom: 535-415-695; https://uqz.zoom.us/j/535415695
As a result of the evolving COVID-19 virus situation, RCC started offering, from March 2020, a virtual HPC (vHPC) help session as an adjoint to our usual Hacky Hour sessions.
At vHPC, we will focus primarily on HPC access, usage and workflows with a smattering of the other topics that makes Hacky Hour the success that it is.
Please note vHPC doesn't have the wide scope of expertise that is available at the Hacky Hour UQ meetups, which also includes coding and bioinformatics experts.
UQ R Users Group (UQRUG) meetings
The R statistical programming language is very popular amongst research computing users at UQ.
A user group for those working with R was launched at UQ in January 2020.
The UQ R User Group seeks to bring this community together to share ideas and provide a collaborative, problem-solving space for new and experienced users.
The group meets on the last Wednesday of each month from 12pm–2pm (AEST).
The meetings are currently being held online.
Check the UQRUG webpage and the UQ Library Digital Researcher Lab resources page for more information.
This initiative is supported by the UQ Library and the R-Ladies Brisbane Chapter.
Tips for using Zoom for Meetups and Training
A critical component of any video conference is the audio. To avoid problems for all participants, please ensure that you:
- use a headset (earbuds, or something more substantial), or an echo-cancelling speaker/microphone device, and that you
- ensure that Zoom is configured to use that audio device for both microphone and speaker functions,
- if you are in a noisy environment keep your microphone muted except when you speak. Zoom has a hot key combination for mute/unmute.
Whether working from home, or at work:
- be conscious of visual distractions in the background (e.g., colleagues, family members or pets walking past)
- try to avoid having strong lighting behind you, which makes you a silhouette (e.g., overhead lights, unshaded windows)
- often the glow from your laptop screen or monitor is sufficient front illumination
- if your network bandwidth is constrained, consider stopping your video and featuring a still photo instead.