Skip to content

Participating in a NDP Data Challenge

Participating in NDP Data Challenges is an excellent opportunity to collaborate on the development of scientific workflows and explore innovative solutions to complex problems.

Joining a Data Challenge

  1. Log in to NDP
    • Ensure you have an active account and credentials to access the platform.
  2. Explore Challenges
    • Navigate to the Education Hub and select Explore. Challenges are listed according to their publication dates.

  3. Select a Challenge

    • Once you find a challenge that interests you, click Open to view its details.

  4. Review Information

    • Carefully read all the details and instructions before joining a challenge. Joining a challenge involves the allocation of resources, so ensure it aligns with your availability and goals.

  5. Join the Challenge

    • Click Join Data Challenge to initiate team creation.
    • By default, you will be added to your team as the first member.
    • If the challenge permits individual participation, you can name your team and proceed.

  6. Add Team Members

    • Enter the emails of your team members, preferably academic accounts.
    • Ensure that none of the emails are associated with another active team in the same challenge, as this will prevent team creation.

  7. Confirm Participation

    • Upon successful team creation, you and your team members will become active participants in the challenge.

Participating in a Data Challenge

Once you join a challenge, follow these steps to maximize your participation:

Working with Modules

  • Each team is assigned the challenge's modules as new workspaces.
  • These modules will appear as workspaces in the Jupyter widget on JupyterHub.
  • Teams can enhance their workflows by adding additional data from the catalog and integrating custom code.

Working on JupyterHub

  • Before starting, thoroughly review the instructions for the data challenge and each module, especially those related to resource reservations.
  • Follow the guidelines to optimize resource usage and align with the challenge's objectives.

NOTE: If you’re unfamiliar with NDP workspaces, we highly recommend reviewing this brief tutorial to get started.

Storage

  • Each NDP user is allocated 10GB of persistent storage on JupyterHub labeled as _User-Persistent-Storage_. This storage is private and remains available across sessions.
  • When you join a challenge, your team will receive shared storage labeled as shared-storage-your-team-name, also with a 10GB capacity. Any changes made in this folder are visible to all team members and persist across sessions.

Best Practices for Shared Storage

  1. Coordinate File Modifications

    • Shared storage does not support version control, so avoid simultaneous file edits to prevent conflicts.

  2. Optimize Storage Usage

    • Use shared storage for frequently accessed code or partial data products essential to your workflow.

  3. Avoid File Overwrites

    • Establish clear team protocols for modifying files to minimize risks of accidental data loss.