SciNet Certificate Program

Since 2012, SciNet has offered recognition to the attendees of its training sessions and courses on scientific computing and high performance computing through its Certificate Program.

There are currently three certificates available:

  • Certificate in Scientific Computing
  • Certificate in High Performance Computing
  • Certificate in Data Science

The requirements for these certificates are based on credit-hours of SciNet courses successfully completed. For a short course (typically a day long or shorter, with no between-course homework), a lecture hour counts as one credit hour; for a long course with homework due between sessions, a lecture hour counts as 1.5 credit hours. Note that credits will not be given for attending only part of a course.

1. Certificate in Scientific Computing

Scientific computing is now an integral part of the scientific endeavour. It is an interdisciplinary field that combines computer science, software development, physical sciences and numerical mathematics. This certificate indicates that the holder has successfully completed at least 36 credit-hours worth of SciNet courses in general scientific computing topics.

Required Credits: 36 credits

2. Certificate in High Performance Computing

High Performance Computing, or supercomputing, is the use of the largest available computers to tackle big problems that would otherwise be intractable. Such computational power is needed in a wide range of fields, from bioinformatics to astronomy and big data analytics. Since the largest available computers have a parallel architecture, using and programming high performance computing applications requires a specialized skill level. This certificate indicates that the holder has completed at least 36 credit-hours worth of courses in high performance computing topics.

Required Credits: 36 credits

3. Certificate in Data Science

The SciNet Certificate in Data Science attests that the holder has taken successfully completed at least 36 credit-hours of data science-related SciNet courses. Topics of these courses include "Hadoop workshop", "Scalable data analysis with R / Python", "Database Basics", "Visualization", "Machine Learning", and input/output.

Required Credits: 36 credits

About the Certificates

Ever since SciNet's operations started in 2009, we have has been teaching courses on scientific technical computing, high performance computing, and data analysis for the Toronto-area research community. Since December 2012, SciNet has offered recognition to attendees of these training events in the form of SciNet Certificates. Requirements for these certificates are based on credit-hours of SciNet courses successfully completed. For a short course (typically a day long or shorter, with no between-course homework), a lecture hour counts as one credit hour; for a long course with homework due between sessions, a lecture hour counts as 1.5 credit hours.

What are the prerequisites?

Some requirements such as programming skills vary per course; these are announced when the courses are announced, and are listed on the courses pages on this site. Many courses have a hands-on component that requires participants to bring their laptop.

Who can participate in the certificate program?

SciNet courses and certificates are open to all Compute Canada users. In general, any academic researcher from a Canadian research institution with significant high performance computing requirements to support his or her research may apply for a Compute Canada account. For information on how to get an account, go to this page.

Do the certificates count as University credentials?

No, these certificates are not University credentials and will not appear on transcripts. However, four of our courses (MSC1090 Introduction to Computation BioStatistics, EES1137 Quantitative Applications for Data Analysis, PHY1610 Scientific Computing for Physicists and BCH2203 Introduction to Programming in Python) are offered in cooperation with various departments of the University of Toronto as graduate courses, and can count towards course credit; interested students in other departments are encouraged to contact SciNet and their graduate coordinator for more information.

How do I obtain the certificate?

Since the introduction of the new SciNet Education site, SciNet Certificates are currently issued as Moodle badges. These are automatically issued upon completion of the certificate.

What do the course numbers mean?

Courses that can be taken for a certificate will have a designation of the form ABCxyz, where ABC signifies the type of certificate that the course counts towards (currently SCMP, HPC or DAT for Scientific Computing, High Performance Computing, and Data Science respectively). Of the three-digit xyz part, the first digit expresses whether the course is basic (x=1) or more advanced (x=2), the second indicates the topic, while the third indicates the format (e.g, z=1 is typically a short lecture, z=2 is a graduate-style mini-course, z=3 is one or two full days, and z=4 is a longer multiday course).