Accelerating Research Workflows: Introduction to Open OnDemand on Midway3

New Midway3 tool: Open OnDemand

This hands-on workshop introduces Open OnDemand, a web-based portal that simplifies access to the Midway3 high-performance computing (HPC) system at the University of Chicago. Designed for researchers, students, and staff, Open OnDemand eliminates the need for command-line interactions by providing an intuitive interface for launching common applications, managing files, submitting jobs, and monitoring resources.

Participants will learn how to use Open OnDemand to run interactive applications—including Jupyter Notebooks, RStudio, Stata, Blender, Mathematica, COMSOL, ParaView, RELION, and others—without manual configuration. We will demonstrate how this centralized interface compares to traditional access methods (e.g., SSH and command-line Slurm submission), highlighting improvements in usability and efficiency.

Whether you're working with large-scale simulations or data visualization, this workshop will help you maximize productivity on Midway3. We will also gather your initial feedback on Open OnDemand to help guide future feature development and optimize the system for your needs.

Learning Objectives

• Navigating the Open OnDemand dashboard
• Launching interactive sessions
• Using the Terminal and Job Composer within Open OnDemand
• Managing files, folders, and data transfers through the file browser
• Understanding the differences between Open OnDemand workflows and traditional SSH-based access
• Submitting, monitoring, and troubleshooting HPC jobs through the web interface

Level: Beginner

Duration: 2 hours

Prerequisites

• Basic LINUX/UNIX skills
• RCC account