Skip to main content

Trainings & Events


Amazon Research Awards (ARA) Open for Fall '26 Proposals

Amazon Research Awards (ARA) has opened its Fall 2026 Call for Proposals, with funding available across seven research areas spanning AI, security, and advanced computing.
Deadline: November 11, 2026 (11:59 PM Pacific Time)
Research Areas
Key Details
  • What ARA is looking for: High-quality scientific content, creative approaches, and potential for impact at scale. Proposals related to theory, practice, and novel techniques are all welcome.
  • What recipients receive: Unrestricted funds, AWS promotional credits, an assigned Amazon research contact, and training resources — including AWS tutorials and hands-on sessions with Amazon scientists and engineers.
How to Apply
Interested faculty can visit the ARA website to learn more about the CFP, the application process, and the FAQs before applying. Researchers may also contact the ARA team directly at research-inquiry@amazon.com.

AWS Lunch & Learn Series

Research IT is partnering with AWS to host this series of training workshops. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to learn directly from an AWS Solutions Architects about leveraging AWS for research computing. Whether you’re a researcher, faculty member, or graduate student, this session will help you optimize your research workflows using AWS services.

Topic: EC2 Essentials for Research Computing (Hands-on Learning)

Thursday, November 19, 2026, 11am - 1pm
SDSC 408

Join us for an interactive AWS Lunch and Learn session where you'll learn directly from an AWS Solutions Architect about leveraging AWS for research computing.  

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) gives researchers on-demand compute, from small virtual machines to GPU clusters, with no wait for hardware. Researchers use it for simulation, genomics and AI/ML training. Using it well keeps your workloads secure, your costs under control, and your jobs running reliably.

In this session, you will learn how to:

  • Run your notebooks and scripts on EC2: Launch an instance sized for your workload, open JupyterLab securely through Session Manager, and run long jobs that keep going after you close your laptop.
  • Use GPUs for AI/ML and imaging: Choose GPU instances for deep learning, model fine-tuning and image analysis. You'll also see how to get GPU capacity when it's scarce, for example with Capacity Blocks for ML.
  • Stretch your grant dollars: Run fault-tolerant batch jobs on Spot Instances (up to 90% off), auto-stop idle instances, and track spend for each grant or lab with tags and AWS Budgets.
  • Protect data and stay reproducible: Secure IRB or HIPAA data with IAM roles and security groups. Save your setup as a custom image (AMI) so collaborators can rebuild the same environment.

This session is ideal for researchers, data engineers and IT professionals who:

  • Wait days in campus HPC queues, or run genomics, simulation or imaging workflows that have outgrown their laptop or lab server
  • Need GPUs to train or fine-tune AI/ML models but don't have reliable access on campus
  • Want to keep cloud spending within grant budgets and avoid surprise bills from idle instances


Register Now! 

Lunch will be provided by AWS

Brought to you by Research IT Services 


 

NEW!! AWS / Research IT Office Hours

AWS now offers monthly office hours via Zoom for UCSD researchers. The sessions occur every second Tuesday from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM. During these sessions, an AWS Solutions Architect is available to answer any questions about AWS services, both technical and business-oriented. 

These are casual, drop-in sessions where researchers can freely join without prior reservation to get their questions answered.

During these sessions, you'll be able to:

  • Receive expert guidance on your current or planned AWS implementations
  • Get detailed clarification on AWS services, features, and best practices
  • Share any challenges you're experiencing and receive targeted recommendations

We look forward to connecting with you and to helping you with your AWS needs.

Join the Zoom session  


 

Microsoft Training Events

Microsoft Azure Lunch and Learn Session 3: From Idea to Cloud Workload

Wednesday, September 23
Time: 11am - 1pm
Location: SDSC 408

Register Now!

Join us for a hands-on session focused on the practical steps researchers and IT teams take to move from an idea to a running workload in Azure! 

Using a simple, hypothetical research computing scenario, we'll walk through the entire process:

  • Budgeting for Grants: Learn how to estimate cloud costs for a grant or funding request, featuring a live demonstration of the Azure Pricing Calculator for an infrastructure-based virtual machine solution.
  • Hands-On Deployment: Complete the journey by deploying that workload directly in Azure, giving you a practical view of how to translate a funded project from concept into an operational environment. 

 


 

SDSC Training Events

 See SDSC Events (https://www.sdsc.edu/events/index.html) for a full list of upcoming events.

COMPLECS: 10-Event Training Series - FREE!

The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is offering a 10-event series of free webinar training opportunities, Comprehensive Learning for End-users to Effectively Utilize Cyberinfrastructure (COMPLECS). Find dates and details and register here!


 

Carpentries Workshops

Designed specifically for researchers, these free hands-on workshops enable non-experts to build essential computing and data management skills for research analysis. Participants learn practical tools to automate workflows, organize data, and improve research efficiency.

Topics Offered Include:

  • The Unix Shell — Master command-line basics and task automation.

  • Git & Version Control — Track revisions and collaborate seamlessly.

  • Python & R Programming — Write scripts for data manipulation and analysis.

  • Tidy Data & SQL — Clean, structure, and query complex datasets.


Learn at the Library

View the selection of upcoming workshops offered by the Library to all UC San Diego faculty, staff, and students!