The MLW IT Department successfully hosted the Sapitwa High-Performance Computing (HPC) Training and the official launch of the Open OnDemand platform on 24 July 2025. Held in the Lecture Theatre of the CREATOR Building, the half-day event brought together over 40 participants from various research departments across MLW.
The event was presided over by Dr. Augustine Choko, Chairperson of the MLW Training and Development Committee (TDC), who highlighted the critical role of computing infrastructure in advancing data-driven research. He also applauded the deployment of Open OnDemand as a user-friendly gateway to HPC resources.
Technical training sessions were co-facilitated by Dr. Marc Henrion, Head of the Statistical Support Unit, and Mwiza Mhango, HPC System Administrator. Participants received both conceptual and hands-on guidance on navigating the Sapitwa HPC cluster, now enhanced with Open OnDemand—a browser-based interface that allows users to access files, launch interactive applications such as RStudio, JupyterLab, and QGIS, submit jobs, and monitor workflows securely, without relying solely on the Linux command line.
The training schedule included an overview of the Sapitwa HPC system, live demonstrations of Open OnDemand, interactive sessions on running graphical applications and submitting SLURM jobs, guidance on managing software environments with Lmod, real use cases from genomics, epidemiology, and geospatial research, and a closing session on support resources and future training opportunities.
The successful launch and training mark a major milestone in MLW’s investment in research-enabling technologies. With Sapitwa HPC now accessible through Open OnDemand, researchers of all skill levels can focus more on their science and less on technical barriers.
