Tutorial I of The “Scale-Up” HPC & AI Tutorial Series: HPC Access & Your First Job

This is the first of a five-part tutorial series called Scaled-Up. More information on the tutorial series can be found at https://scales.umbc.edu/training/. 

Are you new to UMBC's high-performance computing (HPC) resources, or have an account but aren't sure what to do with it yet? This tutorial will walk you through the essentials of getting started on the cluster and running your first job.

We will introduce what UMBC's chip HPC cluster is and when you should use it instead of your laptop, then show you how to log in to the cluster using SSH and/or the terminal and set up your environment. You will learn basic Linux commands for navigating the file system and managing files, as well as how the job scheduler works, including submitting batch jobs, checking their status, and viewing output. Using a step‑by‑step example, we will write and submit a simple job script together so you can see the full workflow end-to-end.

This tutorial is aimed at beginners; no prior HPC experience is required, and it is especially useful for students and researchers who expect to run computationally intensive tasks such as simulations, machine learning training, or data processing over the semester. Following the "flipped-classroom" active learning style. Before coming to the lab, participants will complete a self‑paced Blackboard module that introduces HPC access, basic Linux commands, and the workflow for submitting a first job, including short hands‑on activities (called "DoIT Yourself Activities"). During the in‑person lab session, we will focus on questions, troubleshooting, and practicing examples so that you can further your understanding and strengthen the workflow. 

By the end of the session, you should be comfortable logging in to UMBC's chip system, following the standard steps for running jobs, and interpreting basic job outputs and errors.

These events are hybrid, but there is limited support for online participants. For those attending in-person: Be sure to bring your laptop!

Note that it's important to RSVP by Monday, 2/23/2026, so that we can provision accounts on the chip HPC and make Blackboard content available to you.

Remember that it's important that each participant review the available content before the event to make the best use of the synchronous classroom session (this event). We'll send a reminder to those that have RSVPed a day or so before the event!