Greetings to all members of the Campus Research Computing Consortium (CaRCC) People Network!
Mark your calendars for these upcoming People Network Calls. For handy calendar entries, please try the CaRCC Events Calendar. We’d also like to highlight other calls from our RCD Ecosystem partners and collaborators, as these events touch many, if not all, in our community.
And save the date for the CaRCC/People Network End-of-Year Party at 1pm ET on December 9. This virtual party will include breakout rooms with games, ways to get involved with CaRCC activities, and a forum for providing input to the People Network.
And heads-up for those wishing to contribute or get more involved: Emerging Centers has a call out for Steering Committee members!
If you’re not on our mailing lists, please fill out our Join the People Network form and join our Slack channels.
Thank you!
CaRCC People Network Calls:
Data-Facing Track (first Tuesdays)
The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data: What data is still missing? Presented by A.J. Million (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, University of Michigan)
Tuesday, November 2, 1p ET/ 12p CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT
Over the life course, police kill approximately 1 in 1,000 black men. Racial inequality perpetuates health disparities in the U.S. which has internationally high levels of gun violence. Black people are twice as likely to die by firearm than members of the general population, and other racial and demographic groups experience high injury and mortality rates. In 2018, 75% of homicides involved firearms, but most firearm-related deaths came from suicide.
Gun control is a political topic. What is not political, however, is the realization that guns are lethal tools that shape public health. Unfortunately, the U.S. currently lacks a national infrastructure to study public health and firearms issues in a consistent way. Federal law prohibits the creation of a national gun registry. Congress only recently clarified the Dickey Amendment to allow government agencies to sponsor firearms-related research. To simultaneously save lives and protect gun owner rights, researchers need better data.
In this presentation, A.J. will describe the U.S. firearms data infrastructure. A.J. will also discuss a report published by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, which identifies problems with this infrastructure and makes recommendations to improve it. A.J. presents these recommended changes and then concludes by returning to the topic of policing and race from his professional position as Director of the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data at the University of Michigan.
Researcher-Facing Track (second Thursdays)
Supporting GPU Computing, presented by Martin Cuma, University of Utah and Asher Antao, Clemson University
Thurs, November 11, 1p ET/ 12p CT/ 11a MT/ 10a PT
Graphics Processor Units (GPUs) are a growing research tool used across many campuses, but questions remain on how best to support and train users. In this panel we will provide a brief introduction to GPUs followed by a discussion of GPU support from two institutions, Clemson University, and the University of Utah. Clemson has a long history of large GPU deployment for research while Utah represents a segment with more informal service development. The panelists will cover the challenges associated with GPU adoption, application support and training. This discussion welcomes input from the CaRCC community, please join us so we can learn from your experiences as well.
Emerging Centers Track (third Wednesdays)
No Call This month due to SC21 Conflict – Steering Committee kickoff meeting
The Emerging Centers track will not have a monthly call in November since our community members may be attending SC21. We will use this time to meet with our new Emerging Centers Steering Committee. We are looking for individuals who could meet monthly to help Jane and Rich identify topics, coordinate with speakers, and expand our reach to more institutions.
If you are interested in helping out and adding this national community service to your CV/resume, please contact us at combsje@uc.edu, Rich.Knepper@cornell.edu or ec-coordinators@carcc.org
Systems-Facing Track (third Thursdays)
No Call Due to SC21
Additional community opportunities (in no particular order):
Nov 4, 1p ET / 12p CT / 11a MT / 10a PT, (4th Thursdays of even months)
EDUCAUSE Research Computing and Data Community Group
…will be having its RCD Town Hall Discussion. For more information, please see the EDUCAUSE Town Hall announcement.
November 11th, 2pm ET (2nd Thursdays)
US Research Software Engineers Monthly Community Call.
Please see https://us-rse.org/calendar/ for more information.
CaRCC Calls and Zoom:
Please contact the event organizer for Zoom details.
CaRCC and the People Network:
Interested members of the People Network need not subscribe to a particular track to participate in calls. Additional details for track members, including notes documents and any pre-call activities, will be distributed ahead of the call via the email lists and other communication channels within each track.
The CaRCC (Campus Research Computing Consortium) People Network, aims “to foster, build and grow an inclusive community (termed the ‘People Network’) for campus CI, research computing and data professionals.” If you have received this email NOT via CaRCC’s People Network, and you would like to join the People Network, which includes Researcher-facing, Data-facing, Systems-facing, Emerging-Centers, and other tracks, please fill in our mailing list request form and join us on Slack!