From 1d2a16213258f9006667e6149b8919b25efa3fa7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Richard Darst Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2025 22:38:16 +0300 Subject: [PATCH 1/6] about/science-it-history: New page with our background - To help maintain some institutional knowledge - This first attempt is what I can quickly remember. It needs good fact-checking and expansion by someone who was around for more of it. --- about/index.rst | 1 + about/science-it-history.rst | 58 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 2 files changed, 59 insertions(+) create mode 100644 about/science-it-history.rst diff --git a/about/index.rst b/about/index.rst index b23a3ee8c..c7f5e7729 100644 --- a/about/index.rst +++ b/about/index.rst @@ -65,6 +65,7 @@ Science-IT :maxdepth: 2 science-it + science-it-history Science-IT is the organizational manifestation of Aalto Scientific Computing. diff --git a/about/science-it-history.rst b/about/science-it-history.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..418e00cce --- /dev/null +++ b/about/science-it-history.rst @@ -0,0 +1,58 @@ +History of Science-IT +===================== + +Our history explains how we are now, so here's a summary for those who +are interested. + +2009: M-grid +------------ + +M-grid was funded as a Finnish Research Infrastructure (FIRI) project +by the Academic of Finland. It provided funding for local university +HPC clusters and a collaboration to develop the configuration to run +them. They were run together as a grid, where jobs submitted to one +cluster can also run on others. This was the start of the **Triton +cluster**. + +20xx: department collaboration +------------------------------ + +Eventually, M-grid grew and became a collaboration between several +departments, mainly Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science, +Information and Computer Science, and Applied Physics. There was the +joint Triton resource, used by members of all departments. This is +when the name **Science-IT** emerged. Management was members of the +IT groups of the departments. + +In 20xx, Triton hardware had grown enough that it moved to a machine +room run by CSC nearby. This provided more reliability, and further +professionalization of all of the management. + +During this time, Science-IT was still funded by FIRI, in the projects +"Finnish Grid Infrastructure" (FGI) and "Finnish Grid and Cloud +Infrastructure" (FGCI). It provided continued growth, regular new +hardware, and most importantly a collaboration with other +universities and CSC. + +Training was a part of Science-IT/FGI/FGCI from the beginning. +Courses began in earnest around 2015ish. We began yearly "HPC +Kickstart" courses as well as a wide variety of other courses on +specialty topics. Most were run by Aalto but all other university +affiliates in Finland were invited to attend. + +2017ish: expanding the scope +---------------------------- + +Around 2017, there was a push towards expanded usability of the HPC +resources: now longer were they mainly focused on computational +experts, but were for a wider and wider audience. This basically meant +thinking about usability some, expanding our documentation to make it +clear we wanted to support others, and so on. This led to a +medium-term problem, where we found more people were trying to use the +cluster, but weren't fully prepared to do so. + +Our solution was to, in 2020, start the **Research Software Engineer** +team. These were dedicated people hired not as cluster admins, but to +help others with their work, however it may be. This explicitly +included those who didn't come from computational fields. This turned +out to be a winning idea, and we slowly. From 038eccc5bd3ec944888915572eb7e73bcd0ff879 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Richard Darst Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2026 20:41:25 +0300 Subject: [PATCH 2/6] about/science-it-history: A bit more info of the older history --- about/science-it-history.rst | 55 ++++++++++++++++++++++-------------- 1 file changed, 34 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-) diff --git a/about/science-it-history.rst b/about/science-it-history.rst index 418e00cce..1f8c6a797 100644 --- a/about/science-it-history.rst +++ b/about/science-it-history.rst @@ -4,34 +4,39 @@ History of Science-IT Our history explains how we are now, so here's a summary for those who are interested. -2009: M-grid +2005: M-grid ------------ -M-grid was funded as a Finnish Research Infrastructure (FIRI) project -by the Academic of Finland. It provided funding for local university -HPC clusters and a collaboration to develop the configuration to run -them. They were run together as a grid, where jobs submitted to one -cluster can also run on others. This was the start of the **Triton -cluster**. +M-grid (name from "materials", as in physics stuff) was funded as a +Finnish Research Infrastructure (FIRI) project by the Academic of +Finland. It provided funding for local university department HPC +clusters and a collaboration to develop the configuration to run them. +They were run together as a grid, where jobs submitted to one cluster +can also run on others. This was the start of one of the parts of the +Triton cluster. `Check out these old docs +`__ -20xx: department collaboration ------------------------------- +2009: Finnish Grid Infrastructure and department collaboration +-------------------------------------------------------------- -Eventually, M-grid grew and became a collaboration between several -departments, mainly Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science, -Information and Computer Science, and Applied Physics. There was the -joint Triton resource, used by members of all departments. This is -when the name **Science-IT** emerged. Management was members of the -IT groups of the departments. +Eventually, M-grid grew within Aalto and became a collaboration +between several departments, mainly Biomedical Engineering and +Computational Science, Information and Computer Science, and Applied +Physics. The next FIRI project became the "Finnish Grid +Infrastructure". There was the joint Triton resource, used by members +of all departments. This is when the name **Science-IT** emerged. +Management was members of the IT groups of the departments. Along +with this was the merger of various computing clusters to form the +Aalto **Triton cluster**. -In 20xx, Triton hardware had grown enough that it moved to a machine +In 201x, Triton hardware had grown enough that it moved to a machine room run by CSC nearby. This provided more reliability, and further professionalization of all of the management. During this time, Science-IT was still funded by FIRI, in the projects -"Finnish Grid Infrastructure" (FGI) and "Finnish Grid and Cloud -Infrastructure" (FGCI). It provided continued growth, regular new -hardware, and most importantly a collaboration with other +"Finnish Grid Infrastructure" (FGI) and later the "Finnish Grid and +Cloud Infrastructure" (FGCI). It provided continued growth, regular +new hardware, and most importantly a collaboration with other universities and CSC. Training was a part of Science-IT/FGI/FGCI from the beginning. @@ -51,8 +56,16 @@ clear we wanted to support others, and so on. This led to a medium-term problem, where we found more people were trying to use the cluster, but weren't fully prepared to do so. +2020s: Scientific computing support, not HPC support +---------------------------------------------------- + Our solution was to, in 2020, start the **Research Software Engineer** team. These were dedicated people hired not as cluster admins, but to help others with their work, however it may be. This explicitly -included those who didn't come from computational fields. This turned -out to be a winning idea, and we slowly. +included those who didn't come from computational fields and those who +haven't studied computing for all their careers. This turned out to +be a winning idea, and we slowly but constantly have been growing with +more users from all around Aalto. Our mission is no longer to only +support the Triton cluster, but to support computing in general: +Triton locally, CSC computers, or even smaller scale data and software +support. From f33628072e56a67be1a65e5fb2e40987da9257d0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Richard Darst Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2026 21:32:12 +0300 Subject: [PATCH 3/6] about/science-it-history: more history dug up from archives --- about/science-it-history.rst | 24 ++++++++++++++---------- 1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 10 deletions(-) diff --git a/about/science-it-history.rst b/about/science-it-history.rst index 1f8c6a797..a23921a07 100644 --- a/about/science-it-history.rst +++ b/about/science-it-history.rst @@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ History of Science-IT Our history explains how we are now, so here's a summary for those who are interested. + 2005: M-grid ------------ @@ -16,18 +17,19 @@ can also run on others. This was the start of one of the parts of the Triton cluster. `Check out these old docs `__ -2009: Finnish Grid Infrastructure and department collaboration + +2010: Finnish Grid Infrastructure and department collaboration -------------------------------------------------------------- Eventually, M-grid grew within Aalto and became a collaboration between several departments, mainly Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science, Information and Computer Science, and Applied -Physics. The next FIRI project became the "Finnish Grid -Infrastructure". There was the joint Triton resource, used by members -of all departments. This is when the name **Science-IT** emerged. -Management was members of the IT groups of the departments. Along -with this was the merger of various computing clusters to form the -Aalto **Triton cluster**. +Physics. Around the same time, the next FIRI project became the +"Finnish Grid Infrastructure". There was the joint Triton resource, +used by members of all departments. This is when the name +**Science-IT** emerged. Management was members of the IT groups of +the departments. Along with this was the merger of various computing +clusters to form the Aalto **Triton cluster**. In 201x, Triton hardware had grown enough that it moved to a machine room run by CSC nearby. This provided more reliability, and further @@ -35,9 +37,9 @@ professionalization of all of the management. During this time, Science-IT was still funded by FIRI, in the projects "Finnish Grid Infrastructure" (FGI) and later the "Finnish Grid and -Cloud Infrastructure" (FGCI). It provided continued growth, regular -new hardware, and most importantly a collaboration with other -universities and CSC. +Cloud Infrastructure" (FGCI, starting in 2014). It provided continued +growth, regular new hardware, and most importantly a collaboration +with other universities and CSC. Training was a part of Science-IT/FGI/FGCI from the beginning. Courses began in earnest around 2015ish. We began yearly "HPC @@ -45,6 +47,7 @@ Kickstart" courses as well as a wide variety of other courses on specialty topics. Most were run by Aalto but all other university affiliates in Finland were invited to attend. + 2017ish: expanding the scope ---------------------------- @@ -56,6 +59,7 @@ clear we wanted to support others, and so on. This led to a medium-term problem, where we found more people were trying to use the cluster, but weren't fully prepared to do so. + 2020s: Scientific computing support, not HPC support ---------------------------------------------------- From 27734c7c9033c4ea172b5ae0722636a40477773a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Richard Darst Date: Thu, 16 Apr 2026 09:40:58 +0300 Subject: [PATCH 4/6] about/science-it-history: More revisions --- about/science-it-history.rst | 20 +++++++++++++++++--- 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/about/science-it-history.rst b/about/science-it-history.rst index a23921a07..972b23608 100644 --- a/about/science-it-history.rst +++ b/about/science-it-history.rst @@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ M-grid (name from "materials", as in physics stuff) was funded as a Finnish Research Infrastructure (FIRI) project by the Academic of Finland. It provided funding for local university department HPC clusters and a collaboration to develop the configuration to run them. +The Helsinki University of Technology (predecessor to Aalto +University) cluster was named kvartsi ("qwartz"). They were run together as a grid, where jobs submitted to one cluster can also run on others. This was the start of one of the parts of the Triton cluster. `Check out these old docs @@ -37,9 +39,10 @@ professionalization of all of the management. During this time, Science-IT was still funded by FIRI, in the projects "Finnish Grid Infrastructure" (FGI) and later the "Finnish Grid and -Cloud Infrastructure" (FGCI, starting in 2014). It provided continued -growth, regular new hardware, and most importantly a collaboration -with other universities and CSC. +Cloud Infrastructure" (FGCI, starting in 2014, `ref +`__). +It provided continued growth, regular new hardware, and most +importantly a collaboration with other universities and CSC. Training was a part of Science-IT/FGI/FGCI from the beginning. Courses began in earnest around 2015ish. We began yearly "HPC @@ -73,3 +76,14 @@ more users from all around Aalto. Our mission is no longer to only support the Triton cluster, but to support computing in general: Triton locally, CSC computers, or even smaller scale data and software support. + +Around this time, the FGCI collaboration turned into the "Finnish +Computing Competence Infrastructure" to emphasize that its role is not +just hardware, but promoting the broader competence in computing at +the university level. + + +See also +-------- + +* `University of Helsinki history `__ From 3d345b0af0cc7ec5077ec0b375d0e833d707f6fd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Richard Darst Date: Tue, 12 May 2026 16:54:39 +0300 Subject: [PATCH 5/6] about/science-it-history: Update link text at bottom --- about/science-it-history.rst | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/about/science-it-history.rst b/about/science-it-history.rst index 972b23608..027fa3f21 100644 --- a/about/science-it-history.rst +++ b/about/science-it-history.rst @@ -86,4 +86,4 @@ the university level. See also -------- -* `University of Helsinki history `__ +* `FCCI history at University of Helsinki `__ From b64213c7f60386fad06e178a316b89c043c5083d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Enrico Glerean Date: Wed, 13 May 2026 13:31:59 +0300 Subject: [PATCH 6/6] Fix formatting of FCCI history link --- about/science-it-history.rst | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/about/science-it-history.rst b/about/science-it-history.rst index 027fa3f21..95d63ff31 100644 --- a/about/science-it-history.rst +++ b/about/science-it-history.rst @@ -86,4 +86,4 @@ the university level. See also -------- -* `FCCI history at University of Helsinki `__ +* `FCCI history at University of Helsinki `__.