Are you curious about high-performance computing but don’t know where to start? Do you have a project that could benefit from more power than your desktop or laptop? Well, good news!
We are excited to announce a series of three upcoming workshops this fall: "Introduction to Command Line", "Introduction to Slurm", and "Introduction to Pipeline Development". The first two will be held in October, and the series concludes with the pipeline workshop in November. These workshops are designed to build upon one another, but each can also be taken independently. These workshops will give you the tools for success in an HPC environment. All three workshops are FREE, IN-PERSON and hands-on. These events will take place at 206 Durham Center, 613 Morrill Rd, Ames, IA 50011.
In the first course “Introduction to Command Line”; which is designed for students with no command line experience, you will learn to:
- Understand Linux command-line fundamentals
- Understand the basic structure of an HPC environment
- Access HPC resources using Open OnDemand and VS Code
- Navigate the filesystem using absolute and relative paths
- View, create, move, copy, and manage files and directories
- Find files and search their contents
- Use permissions and environment variables
- Combine commands using redirects, pipes, and command chaining
In the second workshop “Introduction to Slurm” you will learn to:
- Understand clusters, schedulers, compute nodes, and Slurm jobs
- Request interactive resources and submit batch jobs
- Monitor, inspect, and troubleshoot jobs
- Request appropriate CPU, memory, and runtime resources
- Benchmark jobs and measure CPU and memory efficiency
- Use GNU Parallel and Slurm job arrays
- Scale workloads without overwhelming the scheduler
- Apply best practices for resource estimation and job efficiency
In the third workshop “Introduction to Pipeline Development” you will learn to:
- Convert commands into reusable Bash scripts
- Use variables, loops, paths, and naming conventions
- Organize inputs, outputs, scripts, and log files
- Build reproducible multi-step pipelines
- Add error handling and logging
- Parallelize independent tasks with GNU Parallel
- Integrate scripts and pipelines with Slurm
- Match pipeline concurrency to requested HPC resources
Who should attend?
These workshops are intended for students, researchers, and staff who are new to Linux and high-performance computing.
No previous Linux or HPC experience is required for Introduction to the Command Line. Participants attending the Slurm or Pipeline Development workshops independently should be comfortable with basic commands such as cd, ls, and navigating directories. Participants will be expected to bring a laptop. If a laptop is not available one can be borrowed from ISU using https://www.lib.iastate.edu/find-borrow-request/tech-lending/laptop-and-equipment-checkout
Workshop details:
Introduction to Command Line
- Date: October 6th, 2026
- Time: 1pm-5pm
- Location: 206 Durham Center
- Registration link: ISU HPC Workshop 1 - Command Line October 6th, 2026 – Fill out form
Introduction to Slurm
- Date: October 20th, 2026
- Time: 1pm-5pm
- Location: 206 Durham Center
- Registration link: ISU HPC Workshop 2 - Slurm October 20th, 2026 – Fill out form
Introduction to Pipeline Development
- Date: November 10th, 2026
- Time: 1pm-5pm
- Location: 206 Durham Center
- Registration link: ISU HPC Workshop 3 - Pipeline Developtment November 10th, 2026 – Fill out form
Space is limited so please register soon to secure a spot. If you register and events occur and you cannot attend please let us know so we can let in anyone who wants to join.
We look forward to seeing you at the event(s)!