D3.1.5: HPC Training Portal

This document describes the implementation of an HPC Training Portal, which will be a central location on the Internet for the dissemination of high-quality HPC training materials and information. The idea for such a portal arose first from the results of a survey of training requirements during the PRACE preparatory phase, which concluded that PRACE should immediately begin to investigate the introduction of a centralised European repository for training material and HPC knowledge dissemination. According to the requirements of the user community, the HPC Training Portal encompasses the following elements: static training material, including video, audio and slides; interactive (or “self-learning”) training material, where progress can be monitored via tests or quizzes; discussion forums for peer-to-peer discussion and problem solving; a blog, contributed to by multiple authors from PRACE sites; regular news items on the state of the art in HPC technology; and an up-to-date events calendar, which lists seminars, workshops and other events relating to HPC and computational science in Europe. Users will have the ability to log in to the portal to rate and/or comment on training materials and news items. These features, in conjunction with the discussion forums, will provide a dynamic framework to increase the knowledge dissemination and social interaction amongst PRACE users, and between PRACE staff and users. The training section of the current PRACE web site does not provide for such interactions. The portal framework is implemented using open source web technologies (TYPO3 and WordPress) and is extensible such that that additional functionality can be added, as and when required. All partner sites are expected to provide material to be hosted on the portal, as well as contribute to forum discussions, add news items and blog postings, and so on. We present some recommendations for the establishment of processes to ensure the long-term sustainability of the portal