September 2016 national eResearch newsletter

Welcome to the September 2016 national eResearch newsletter!

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AeRO Welcome
In just a few weeks the annual eResearch Australasia conference will be on again, this time at the Pullman Hotel in Melbourne.  AeRO will have a large and active presence there, with its own booth and many of its Members, together with some presentations and workshops throughout the week.  We look forward to catching up with everyone there, discussing AeRO’s new structure, growing membership and some interesting project opportunities.  It’s an exciting time with the National Research Infrastructure Roadmap being developed for release before the end of this year, and some changes looming for the eResearch sector.

It’s also a great time to look over the conference itself and how best to shape it for the future.  There is a session on this on the Wednesday.  We strongly encourage everyone with ideas or suggestions to join us there.

See you in Melbourne!

Dr Markus Buchhorn, AeRO CEO

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The eResearch Australasia Conference 10 – 14 October 2016
This annual conference will be held this year at the Pullman Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia.

Early Bird Registrations are available until Friday 16 September, 2016 (HURRY!).  There will be no further extensions after this date.  Students (must provide evidence of full time status – see website for more information) are also able to register at an Early Bird rate.

Poster submissions are now being accepted, closing on 25 September.  Posters will remain on display throughout the conference, and a dedicated Poster Session will take place on the evening of Tuesday 11 October.

Our featured speakers include Professor Peter Doherty, 1996 winner of the Nobel Medicine Prize, and Leonie Walsh, Victoria’s inaugural Lead Scientist.

More information about the conference can be found at https://conference.eresearch.edu.au/

Or contact the conference organisers at Conference Design
eresearch@conferencedesign.com.au   www.conferencedesign.com.au  phone +61 3 6231 2999

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October Tech Talk: Software Defined Networking & Cloud
October’s Monthly Tech Talk will take place on Friday 7 October (3-5pm AEST) on the topic of “Software Defined Networking and Cloud”.

This event is for anyone who wants to know more about tech aspects of data and NCRIS facilities.  Monthly Tech Talks are live linked meetings taking place in various locations around Australia with expert speakers on the topic, followed by networking.  They are organised by ANDS, NeCTAR, QCIF, Intersect, VICNode, eRSA and Pawsey.

More information and register at https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/october-tech-talk-software-defined-networkingcloud-tickets-27531322928

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Science Gateways (Virtual Laboratories) Workshop, 10 October
A Science Gateway is a community-developed set of tools, applications, and data collections that are integrated through a tailored web-based environment.

This workshop offers all members (technical and non-technical) of the Science Gateways community a venue for knowledge exchange and skills development.

The interactive workshop features presentations and activities from several international members from New Zealand, the United States and Canada, as well as local offerings.  The workshop is a pre-conference event (10th October) at eResearch Australasia, and registration is through their site at https://conference.eresearch.edu.au/.  For more information visit:  https://nectar.org.au/workshop-science-gateways/

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Join ReDBox’s Community Meeting at eResearch Australasia 2016
QCIF will host its popular ReDBox community meeting at this year’s eResearch Australasia conference in Melbourne.

The lunchtime get-together will be held during the conference on Wednesday, 12 October in State Room 1 and 2 at the Pullman Melbourne Albert Park hotel.

Bring your lunch and learn all about research data management planning with ReDBox, the tool’s 1.9 release features including ORCID support and RIF/CS 1.6, and contribute to the plans for ReDBox version 2.0.

For more information contact QCIF’s Gavin Kennedy: gavin.kennedy@qcif.edu.au.

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Free Childcare at HealthHack 2016
Free childcare will be available at all HealthHack sites this year, including Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Perth.

The data hack weekend across 14–16 October is dedicated to solving important healthcare and medical research problems.

Participation in HealthHack is free, whether you bring a research problem to the table as a researcher, or donate your skills as a software developer, user experience (UX) designer, data analyst or visualiser.

Free food and drink is also provided to participants. More information: http://healthhack.com.au/

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eRSA’s Innovation Symposium:  Disruption
eRSA invites you to attend the “Innovation Symposium: Disruption” as a part of our partnership with Open State, to be held in Adelaide on 25-Oct-16.  This Symposium will tackle concepts like big data, data analytics, digital disruption, and platform strategies with presenters from Dell, Amazon, Data to Decision CRC, and eRSA.

This Symposium brings together thought leaders in innovation and data analytics.  This event is a must for those working in industry, government, defence, research, libraries and technology.
Register here https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/innovation-symposium-disruption-tickets-26871028971

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NCMAS 2017 call for applications
The National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme (NCMAS) is currently calling for applications for high-performance computer access in 2017.

NCMAS information and application forms are available online (https://ncmas.nci.org.au/). Applications close 5pm AEDT, Friday, 14 October 2016.

NCMAS is the premier competitive program for provision of HPC resources for scientific research in Australia.  Approximately 203 million CPU-hours are available on four national facilities in NCMAS 2017:
•            Raijin (NCI)
•            Magnus (Pawsey Supercomputing Centre)
•            MASSIVE (Monash)
•            FlashLite (UQ/RCC).

For questions or assistance with your NCMAS application, please contact the NCMAS secretariat: ncmas@nci.org.au.

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Seeking Input on an Open Data Policy for Queensland
The Queensland Government has partnered with the Open Data Institute Queensland (ODIQ) to seek feedback from the local community to help shape a new Open Data Policy for the state.

Community input will help develop a policy that makes Open Data more transparent, accessible, and of a higher quality, with improved standards, management practices and efficiency.

You can provide your feedback online;  or researchers, academics and students can join an interactive workshop specifically for them on Thursday, 6 October, 1:30–5pm, in Spring Hill: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/open-data-open-conversations-deep-dive-with-research-academia-and-students-tickets-27458751866

The consultation period closes on Friday, 7 October.  More information: http://queensland.theodi.org/2016/09/02/open-data-open-conversations/

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UQ/Monash Women-in-Technology Seminar Videos on YouTube
Videos from this year’s University of Queensland and Monash University women-in-technology seminar series are available to watch on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOcd49t3Hxem27KV1SjjpgA).

The recorded seminars include Dr Genevieve Bell on “The Internet of Living Beings”;  Dr Michela Taufer on I/O challenges and opportunities at the exascale;  Dr Sandra Gesing and Prof. Ewa Deelman on scientific workflows;  Dr Rommie Amaro on multi-scale dynamics;  and Prof. Maxine D. Brown on data visualisation technologies.

UQ’s Research Computing Centre and MURPA (Monash Undergraduate Research Projects Abroad) co-host a seminar series in the second semester each year.  The seminars are held weekly on Friday mornings, 9am–10am AEST.  This year’s series began on Friday, 29 July and will end on Friday, 4 November.

See the RCC/MURPA Seminar Series webpage for further information and to view the 2016 seminar schedule: https://rcc.uq.edu.au/rccmurpa-seminars

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Enabling Data Flow between HASS and GLAMs
A half-day Workshop will be held at the eResearch Australasia Conference on Friday, 14-Oct-16 to explore and explain tools to support the research workflow and data runs between humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS) in universities and the data and expertise that lie inside the public sector in GLAMs (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums.

In an Australian context, researchers operating within HASS in universities need access to data and expertise (data curation, digitisation, digital preservation, citizen engagement, and knowledge exchange) that lie inside and outside of the research sector, in particular inside the public sector in GLAMs.  There are close working relationships between collection and research support professionals in institutions in both sectors, and the research workflow and data runs across these institutional boundaries.

Further information is available at https://eresearchau.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/aarnet_dataflow_workshop2016.pdf

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Workshop on ScienceDMZ at eResearch Australasia
AARNet will be running a full-day Workshop on Monday, 10-Oct-16 at the eResearch Australasia Conference in Melbourne.  This Workshop will explain how ScienceDMZ can help data-intensive research and drive data-intensive research outcomes.  It will also give attendees an overview of the Science DMZ architecture, and different implementation models.  There will also be a hands-on component of high-bandwidth network monitoring, to help detect network traffic bottlenecks and identify application areas for ScienceDMZ;  this will include tools that can be used to actively monitor and trouble-shoot the ScienceDMZ environment.

As a bonus, all attendees will leave the workshop with a fully functioning 1Gbps perfSONAR mini traffic monitoring server.

For further information visit:  https://eresearchau.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/eresau2016_paper_92_science_dmz.pdf

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Law and Courts in an Online World: 8-9 Nov 2016
This conference brings the legal sector together to explore the ways in which disruptive change and emerging business models are reshaping law and legal institutions, and how we can improve access to justice for all via technology.

International keynote speakers include: Jim McMillan (USA), Judge Dory Reiling (Amsterdam), Shannon Salter (Vancouver), Colin Rule (Silicon Valley), Chew Seng Kok, Chairman, ZICOlaw (Singapore).  Other speakers include: David Bartlett, Future Industries Fund Ministerial Advisory Council;  Dr George Beaton, Beaton Capital;  Professor Peter Cashman, Professor of Law;  Jon Faine, ABC Radio Presenter;  The Hon. Marcia Neave AO, Royal Commission into Family Violence in Victoria;  and Dr Lisa Webley, Professor of Empirical Legal Studies, Westminster Law School.

The Chief Justices of Rwanda and Singapore may also attend as part of our Out of Africa/Out of Asia session.

Further details on the conference website at https://lawandcourtsinanonlineworld.wordpress.com/?mc_cid=dd96d2de7f&mc_eid=1aaa238337.

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AARNet and Southern Cross Cable Network Boost Trans-Pacific Research Network to 100G
Australia’s Academic and Research Network (AARNet) and Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN), announced on 25-Aug-16 the completion of the 100 Gigabit per second (Gbps) upgrade to the Southern Cross Trans-Pacific Optical Research Testbed (SXTransPORT) dual submarine optical fibre links connecting Sydney to North America.

The upgrade boosts bandwidth on both SXTransPORT links from 40 Gbps to 100 Gbps to accommodate the year-on-year growth of research and education traffic over the AARNet network.  This traffic growth is driven by data-intensive science.

More information at:  http://news.aarnet.edu.au/aarnet-and-southern-cross-cable-network-boost-trans-pacific-research-network-to-100g/

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Space Junk Tracking Backed by Supercomputer Power
RMIT researchers are using the NCI supercomputer in a major space, atmosphere and satellite navigation research centre.  The Satellite Positioning for Atmosphere, Climate and Environment (SPACE) Research Centre uses high performance computing to work through large quantities of data from satellites and ground observation stations.

The centre focuses on a variety of atmosphere-based projects, including using radio waves from satellites to accurately describe the structure of the atmosphere.  These real-time findings have already provided a 10-hour improvement in predictability and reliability for Bureau of Meteorology weather forecasts.

Another project at the SPACE Research Centre concerns monitoring space junk.  Professor Kefei Zhang, Director of the SPACE Research Centre, says “Everything nowadays relies on space technologies.  The impact of space junk is that it can disable all that functionality such as the internet, weather forecasting and disaster monitoring.”

For the full story, visit http://nci.org.au/research/space-junk-tracking-backed-supercomputer-power/

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eResearch-NZ Conference Call for Papers
New Zealand’s annual eResearch Conference will be held at Rydges Hotel in Queenstown from 20-22 February 2017.

We welcome submissions for lightning talks, presentations, posters, and workshops of work underway or complete within the last year.  See http://www.eresearchnzconference.org.nz/submissions/

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Australia now ‘Biosharing’ Thanks to New Agreement Struck by EMBL-ABR
Australian life science researchers are now able access and contribute materials to the international Biosharing portal, thanks to an agreement between Biosharing and EMBL-ABR made last month in the UK.  Biosharing is a web-based, searchable portal of three interlinked registries, containing both in-house and crowd-sourced, manually curated descriptions of standards, databases and data policies, combined with views, collections and recommendations across all three registries.

Australian bioinformatics is growing in capacity and influence and Australian bioinformaticians can leverage Biosharing not only to see what is already available, but also to highlight their databases and standards to an international audience and link them into the Biosharing ecosystem, providing context and increased visibility for those resources.

Submissions will initially be handled through the EMBL-ABR Hub.  Please email contact@embl-abr.org.au or click here to learn more: https://www.embl-abr.org.au/bio-sharing-news/.

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BCCVL Receives Award
The Biodiversity and Climate Change Virtual Lab (BCCVL) was awarded the Spatial Industries Business Association (SIBA) Technical Excellence award for Queensland earlier this month in Brisbane (see http://www.bccvl.org.au/spatial-excellence-award-for-bccvl/).  The awards recognize outstanding achievements for both individuals and organisations engaged in spatial information across Australia.  This award focuses specifically on excellence in applying existing technology and overcoming significant technical challenges to implement spatial solutions of an exceptional high standard.

The BCCVL (http://www.bccvl.org.au/) is recognised for its integration of existing modelling tools and datasets with high performance computers and major data storage facilities that enable efficient investigation of biological systems.  It offers a new way of working with large spatial data and complex spatial models with a user-friendly interface.

BCCVL will represent Queensland in the Technical Excellence category of the Asia Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards, which will be held during the national Locate Conference in April 2017.

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Minister for Science Speech
In his inaugural speech as Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, The Hon Greg Hunt MP spoke to the National Research and Innovation Alliance on 8-Aug-16.  He focussed on Science, including references to the government’s commitment to science, research and innovation, expecting it to exceed $10B this year.  He also spoke of the commitment of $2.3 billion over the next ten years to supporting research infrastructure, and said that he will be engaging deeply in the consultations that Australia’s Chief Scientist has begun on Australia’s future research infrastructure priorities.  He also spoke about the 2016 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap being developed that will set the forward vision of Australia’s capability needs.

See his full speech at http://minister.industry.gov.au/ministers/hunt/speeches/address-national-research-and-innovation-alliance

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Note: This Newsletter is based on contributions provided by members of the eResearch community, and also draws on the many news articles and newsletters published across our sector. The Newsletter will be published monthly, on about the 16th of each month. Please send any contributions (no more than 150 words, plus a link) or pointers to any other relevant articles or newsletters to editor@aero.edu.au. Archives of these Newsletters are held at http://aero.edu.au/newsletters/.
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