Introduction to Rice's RANGE Cluster for AI

Recommended prerequisites:

You will have a better foundation for this workshop if you have attended these earlier workshops, from this semester or prior semesters:

or if you have basic familiarity with running a SLURM batch job on a high-performance computing cluster, as well as experience with basic file navigation and manipulation using Bash shell commands.

Overview:

AI models are everywhere, and it seems like everyone at Rice wants to create and/or utilize these models as part of their research! Rice has invested heavily to help you achieve those goals. This course will introduce Rice's new GPU-centric, high-performance computing cluster for AI/ML workloads: Rice's AI Network GPU Engine (RANGE).

Please note: This workshop covers RANGE, not RAPID. RAPID is also a cluster for running AI/ML workloads, but despite the similar name and purpose, it is a completely separate computing system. RANGE uses newer, larger GPUs, and has a much greater capacity to run large AI models across multiple GPUs.

This workshop will cover concepts needed to run and/or train resource intensive AI models on RANGE, including:

  • GPUs and related computing concepts for AI/ML models
  • Overview of RANGE architecture and capabilities
  • Requesting an allocation of GPU time on RANGE
  • Understanding job scheduling: partitions, wall times, and the SLURM scheduler
  • Storing and managing your data on RANGE
  • Managing software environments using modules (LMOD)
  • Managing and monitoring jobs
  • Demonstration of running a simple machine learning application

Contact information:

Please contact researchdata@rice.edu if you have questions about the Data@Rice workshop series.

Date/Time
-
Location
Fondren Library Basement B43A (Collaboration Space)
Registration Form
Academic Affiliation
Academic Role
For example, Fondren Calendar of Events, Email blast, Events@Rice, Fondren digital signage, word of mouth