NCAR

 

Large allocations of WNA resources are considered on a semi-annual basis. The next deadline for submissions is January 12, 2024.

Note: Small allocations (1000,000 core-hours on Derecho) require only an abstract of the work to be conducted.  

Submission

Requesters must use the online Large Allocation Request Form available at https://uwyo.infoready4.com/ to submit their requests.

Request Summary Document

The Request Summary document should provide a self-contained description of your project and allocation request. The Request Summary may be no more than five (5) pages for Sections A–D below; Sections E–H should be included in the same document and are permitted an additional five pages. The five-page limit is mandatory for all requests, and it is strongly recommended that you follow the template below to assist the panel in locating required information within your request.

The WRAP evaluation criteria document provides further detail considerations used by the review panel in identifying meritorious requests.

A. Project Information

• Title of project
• Title of funded award (if different from title of project) supporting the computational experiments. Important: The award must explicitly support the computational experiments being proposed.
• Funding agency, and link to published award abstract.
• Award number. Please note if the award is pending. Allocations will not be made until the agency has awarded a grant for the research.
• Name of Project lead (must be from University of Wyoming, or one of Wyoming’s Community Colleges), and Department 

B. Overview of Project.

The overview of the project should include:

• A summary of the science question and computational plan.
• The relationship of the proposed work to atmospheric, earth system or closely related scientific domains.
• The explicit linkage between the award and the computational experiments being proposed. This is especially important if the published award abstract does not clearly describe the computational component of the work funded.

C. Science Objectives.

The science objectives should be briefly described. This section should give sufficient information for understanding the computational plan in section E; it is not necessary to justify the science objectives as they must have already passed external review. The bulk of the Request Summary should focus on Section E.

D. Broader impacts.

The ways that the allocation request will

• Substantially involve both UW and researchers from other universities, and federal laboratories,
  
• Strengthen of UW’s research capacity, directly or through collaboration,
• Strengthen university computational science capacity in EPSCoR states, or 
• Catalyze research in a new or emerging area of earth system science

should be briefly described.  

Computational Experiments and Resource Requirements

Discussion of your planned computational experiments and the resources needed to conduct the work is the focus of this section. For the computational experiments, please cover the following topics:

Numerical Approach. The numerical approach(es) or model should be briefly described. If a standard community model is being used, simply explain why it is appropriate for the scientific objectives and include a reference to a published description of the model or method. If a community model is being modified, include a description of the modification sufficient to explain any changes in the computational cost of the model and explain why modifications are necessary for the scientific objectives. For a non-standard or non-community model, the numerical description should briefly describe the approximations and other methods proposed to obtain valid solutions to the problem.

Computational Experiments. Describe the computational experiments needed to address the Science Objectives. The description should clearly indicate the number and type of experiments and how they relate to the scientific objectives. Be sure to justify the model configuration choices such as grid size, time steps, simulated time span, ensemble size, and parameter choices. References on the selection of the ensemble size are strongly encouraged.  Without an adequate justification of the model configuration the Panel may reduce or deny your computing request.

Code Performance. Documentation on program code performance (e.g., timings, performance monitoring tools) should be included; you may refer to a web page detailing code performance. Describe how flexible your code is in the number of processors it can use and why you may choose a particular number.  The WRAP will evaluate the likelihood that a request can scale up its production runs based on this information.  Information on the portability of the code to other platforms may also be very useful to the WRAP; requestors are strongly encouraged to provide this information about the code and the team’s knowledge/use of other HPC computers similar to Cheyenne.

For you resource requirements, provide a table summarizing the resources required for each experimental configuration and the complete set of computational experiments. This should include the number of core-hours needed and, if required, the amount of data destined for the requested storage resources. The table should be accompanied by a narrative that elaborates on how you arrived at the numbers in the table and describes any needs for project disk space or data analysis and visualization resources as detailed below.

HPC. The table should give the core-hours per simulated year or appropriate time period and the total core-hours needed for each experimental configuration as well as the total core-hours for the request. Describe how you arrived at the number of core-hours for each proposed computational experiment.  If not provided elsewhere, details on how HPC resource requirements are estimated MUST be included to help reviewers evaluate whether the resources sought are justified and will be used efficiently.

Campaign Storage. In the table showing core-hours include a column for the terabytes to be stored for each experimental configuration and include the total terabytes to be stored. Projects with larger anticipated storage needs should include a description of how the estimate was calculated. If this request is a continuation of a previous request on the same project, please include any current data stored in Campaign Storage in your calculations of total data for the project.

Data Analysis and Visualization. Describe any need for CISL's DAV cluster (Casper) to analyze or visualize your results. For standard interactive access to these clusters, the number of users expected to use the DAV clusters will serve as sufficient justification for up to 5,000 core-hours per project. Projects with more extensive plans for use of the clusters (e.g., long-duration, multi-node batch runs) should consider justifying their needs in a manner similar to their HPC requests. CISL will accept requests to increase DAV allocations as the project progresses.

Multi-year plan. If applicable, provide a breakdown showing the project’s projected use of core-hours and, if applicable, terabytes to be produced during each year of the allocation.  Tie this to the planned computational experiments completed or partially completed each year.

Special Requirements. Please specify any resource requirements that you feel may affect your ability to complete the proposed computational experiments.

Sections F through H contain additional supporting information and should together be no more than five pages.

F. Data Management Plan.   Consistent with NSF’s new requirement that all proposals include a Data Management Plan, summarize your plan for managing the data resulting from this computational work. This section can note plans to minimize the storage footprint for the work (e.g., reducing variables to be written out, post-processing steps to reduce file size, deletion of temporary model output, data compression approaches, and so on), and to summarize any anticipated long-term storage needs beyond the lifetime of the supporting award. A well-justified data management plan is critical because of the size of Cheyenne and its potential for large-scale projects to produce extensive data output. Important: CISL resources are available while the project is active and for a limited period afterwards; arrangements must be made with UW for long-term storage of the data.

G. References.  Please limit to those directly related to the proposed project.

H. Figures and captions. Optional. Figures may be embedded within the main body of the Request Summary; embedded figures will count against the 5-page limit.  Figures and charts at the end of the Request Summary will not count against the 5-page limit.  

I. Accomplishment Report. (Up to 2 pages; these will not count against the 5-page limit) The Accomplishment Report should encompass computations performed using NWSC resources by the PI or Project Lead. Clearly distinguish accomplishments on this NWSC project (i.e., for prior NWSC use associated with the same project) and accomplishments from all past use of NWSC resources. Related work performed on NWSC resources by other members of a larger research group may be described, if relevant to this request. Briefly describe the calculations and scientific accomplishments that were completed. Include publications submitted or published that resulted from use of NWSC resources.  List graduate students who used these computational resources and if these resources supported their thesis research. If so, please include the thesis title(s). 

J. Powerpoint presentation (3-4 slides).  All continuing projects or projects led by a faculty with a previous large allocation must include a short presentation that highlights the scientific results from previous allocations.