Welcome to CSC Geocomputing course
In
this course we will learn the basics of geocomputing on a supercomputer
through a combination of lectures and hands-on activities. The main
focus of the course is Puhti supercomputer, were all hands-on exercises
will be done. The CSC services discussed in this course are
free-of-charge for academic research, education and training purposes
for Finnish higher education institutions and state research institutes
(subsidized by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland).
Most of the course content also applies to LUMI supercomputer, which is available for academic users and companies.
The course is meant both for academic researchers planning to use Puhti supercomputer and for data analysts from private companies planning to use LUMI.
Most of the course content also applies to LUMI supercomputer, which is available for academic users and companies.
The course is meant both for academic researchers planning to use Puhti supercomputer and for data analysts from private companies planning to use LUMI.
Topics of the course
After the course the participants should have the skills and
knowledge needed to start using CSC supercomputer Puhti for their
spatial analysis and spatial data processing tasks.
In detail, participants will learn:
- How to get account and access to Puhti (as part of the prerequisites).
- How to connect to a supercomputer, and where to store your data (Allas).
- How to use the modules and the batch job system.
- How to install own software to a supercomputer (Tykky).
- How to run your R or Python scripts or GDAL commands on one or several cores.
- How to use QGIS and other pre-installed GIS-software via the Puhti webinterface.
- How to get help.
Prerequisites:
To make this course as enjoyable as possible for you and to make sure you can get something out of it, we expect you to know about the following:
- General understanding of geoinformatics, vector and raster data, coordinate systems.
- General understanding of either Python, R or use of command line tools, e.g. GDAL, PDAL, ...
- Basic Unix commands (know how to use these commands in a terminal): cd, ls, mv, cp, rm, chmod, less, tail, echo, mkdir, pwd.
- Here are some resources to acquire these skills:
- UNIX tutorial for beginners (the first two topics are a good start, try also some editor)
- Basic Linux Commands 10 min tutorial video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFPly_nGBMg (sit back and watch)
- CSC Linux Cheat Sheet (one page summary of the most important Linux commands – handy to have near you during the course)
- Here are some resources to acquire these skills:
Practical information:
All hands-on activities of this course are carried out with CSC's supercomputer Puhti's webinterface, which you can access via your favorite web-browser. For this, you do not need any additional software installed on your own computer.
For using Puhti, a CSC account and project with Puhti service is needed.
All hands-on activities of this course are carried out with CSC's supercomputer Puhti's webinterface, which you can access via your favorite web-browser. For this, you do not need any additional software installed on your own computer.
For using Puhti, a CSC account and project with Puhti service is needed.
Materials:
All materials are publicly available : https://csc-training.github.io/geocomputing_course/
All materials are publicly available : https://csc-training.github.io/geocomputing_course/
The course materials have been developed by Kylli Ek, Johannes Hiekkasaari, Samantha Wittke and other colleagues from CSC.