News and Announcements

Ontario government, Compute Ontario and Digital Research Alliance of Canada announce funding for Ontario’s high-performance computing centres

OCTOBER 15, 2024 Today the Ontario government, in partnership with Compute Ontario, confirmed its investment of $47.4 million to upgrade advanced research computing infrastructure at two of Canada’s national host sites, the University of Waterloo and the University of Toronto. In a joint event in Waterloo, the Digital Research Alliance of Canada also announced the award of $26.2 million to the University of Toronto and 21.8 million to the University of Waterloo. This total investment of approximately $95 million will refresh:

• Graham, a high-performance computing and cloud storage system operated by SHARCNET, a consortium of 19 universities and colleges, and hosted by the University of Waterloo

• Niagara, a large parallel HPC cluster, and its associated storage infrastructure, operated by SciNet and hosted at the University of Toronto

Call for Proposals - Training Materials

As part of its mandate to support Ontario researchers using digital research infrastructure (DRI), Compute Ontario invites proposals to develop (not deliver) asynchronous (self-paced) training materials to build skills/knowledge in Advanced Research Computing (ARC), Research Software (RS) and/or Research Data Management (RDM), applicable to a range of domains or disciplines, with a project completion date of March 31, 2025. We intend to disburse available funds to up to 6 projects of varying size and scope, reimbursing for eligible expenses up to a maximum of $75,000.

Anila Dumont

CO Welcomes New Board Members

August 29, 2024

Compute Ontario is delighted to announce the addition of three new Directors to our Board. Anila Dumont, Andrea England and Jennifer MacLean bring a deep understanding of the ecosystem surrounding technology-enabled research and innovation in Ontario. Their exceptional skills will be invaluable as we continue working to strengthen the Digital Resource Infrastructure (DRI) ecosystem through collaboration and partnership:

Anila Dumont is a senior lawyer with specialized legal and regulatory expertise advising in digital initiatives and innovation including artificial intelligence and data privacy and governance. She holds a Juris Doctor from Osgoode Hall Law School, a Master’s degree in Public Policy & Governance and an Honours Bachelor of Science from the University of Toronto.

Andrea England, Vice-Provost, Research at Sheridan College, provides leadership to Generator at Sheridan, overseeing research, innovation and entrepreneurship across Sheridan’s three campuses. Andrea holds a Master of Arts (Book History) from the University of Toronto. 

Jennifer MacLean is a Canadian innovation thought leader. She holds a PhD in medical biophysics from Western University and brings deep experience in fostering impactful and collaborative partnerships across industry, academia and community, currently as Partnerships Lead for Unilever’s Horizon3 AI Lab.

In addition to Anila, Andrea and Jennifer, our Board includes a strong mix of academic and industry leaders working in the research, innovation and collaboration space. We are grateful, as always, for the expertise and support of our Board and warmly welcome Anila, Andrea and Jennifer to the table.

New DRI Training Resources Available

 August 21, 2024

 The DRI community has created a series of new open educational resources to support researchers, students and those in research support roles. These courses offer a range of learning opportunities in the areas of research software (RS) stewardship, research data management (RDM) and artificial intelligence:

 Advanced Research Computing for Computational Fluid Dynamics (ARC4CFD) is an introductory course created by the University of Waterloo and intended for researchers with basic knowledge of fluid dynamics/computational fluid dynamics. 

Conestoga College led an inter-college team in creating Research Data Management in the College and Small Institution Context: four education modules which introduce intermediate RDM concepts to researchers and College/University staff who work in research support roles. These materials are available in English and French for institutions to use or repurpose.

 The Data Repository Primer and Data Repository Navigator, developed by Toronto Metropolitan University, are designed to help researchers in all contexts to understand best practices in RDM and data deposit, and to select an appropriate data repository for their research.

 University of Ottawa Heart Institute has created a set of 4 Data Management Plan templates for specific biomedical research designs (trials, reviews, preclinical research, genomics data) and a draft consent template that can be used by researchers to set their data up for open or restricted access sharing.

 The Machine Learning Tutorial Series, put together by a team from University of Ottawa, includes four modules designed to provide a structured learning experience, combining theoretical explanations with hands-on exercises to reinforce understanding, using real datasets from open resources. Additional modules are forthcoming.

 McMaster University has released Stewarding Research Software from Proposal to Deposit and Publication to help researchers and students understand FAIR principles, develop a software management plan, choose technical/coding strategies to enhance reproducibility and build a computing site using Minima.

 Compute Ontario is pleased to have contributed funding toward these projects, as part of our mandate to ensure researchers and students have access to training in the core skills required for successful digitally enabled research.