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Psych Learning and HPC Teaching
Jun. 25th, 2022 10:23 amReceived marks for my first unit for the Grad Dip in Applied Psychology, "Psychology and Society" and, courtesy of a decent grade in the exam and a very good grade on the final interview essay, my overall mark has been pushed to something pretty acceptable by my standards. I also realised that I needed to complete the university's compulsory Academic Integrity Course (a good idea, and should be part of all universities in my opinion), so last night I finished powering my way and finished everything for that as well. Not one to give my brain a rest simply because it is a trimester break, I've also made a solid start on the next unit, "Changes Across the Lifespan", which is DevoPsych under another name. Overall, this puts me at around 40% of completion for the entire degree with an expected completion date in February 2023. So, gentle readers, if you wonder "How has it come to be that Lev is completing a seventh degree?", this is the method; incrementally, piecemeal, and with consistent dedication, not through a flashy cleverness that ultimately deceives itself as genius, and eschews education as a result. To paraphrase Carlyle, it is a tragedy that anyone with the capacity for knowledge dies ignorant (which was revived, in modern form, "The mind is a terrible thing to waste").
On the other side of the lectern, I've spent much of the past three days delivering supercomputing workshops, as is my regular monthly cycle (go on, make a pun about that). Apart from the usual trajectory from an introduction Linux, HPC job submission, advanced Linux, shell scripting, and scripting in HPC jobs, I also ran a more irregular workshop on transitioning from Spartan to Australia's peak supercomputer, Gadi, housed at the Australian National University. After two years on the top 500 list, it is still ranked 57 in the world and for researchers scaling up from a Tier-1 system like Spartan to a Tier-0 system, learning the differences in administration, access, architecture, modules, and job submission, etc, is absolutely essential. So many of our contemporary inventions and discoveries are utterly dependent on the power of supercomputers beyond the trivial and unnecessary uses of computational power and time. This is in part what worries me; having reached a level of economic development beyond necessities, so many often seem determined to waste their life on trivialities and distractions. Are we really so lacking in a sense of meaningful purpose?
On the other side of the lectern, I've spent much of the past three days delivering supercomputing workshops, as is my regular monthly cycle (go on, make a pun about that). Apart from the usual trajectory from an introduction Linux, HPC job submission, advanced Linux, shell scripting, and scripting in HPC jobs, I also ran a more irregular workshop on transitioning from Spartan to Australia's peak supercomputer, Gadi, housed at the Australian National University. After two years on the top 500 list, it is still ranked 57 in the world and for researchers scaling up from a Tier-1 system like Spartan to a Tier-0 system, learning the differences in administration, access, architecture, modules, and job submission, etc, is absolutely essential. So many of our contemporary inventions and discoveries are utterly dependent on the power of supercomputers beyond the trivial and unnecessary uses of computational power and time. This is in part what worries me; having reached a level of economic development beyond necessities, so many often seem determined to waste their life on trivialities and distractions. Are we really so lacking in a sense of meaningful purpose?
