Frequently Asked Questions

Getting Started

How do I provision a NAIC Orchestrator VM?

1. Register with MyAccessID using your Feide account

2. Login to orchestrator.naic.no

3. Create a VM — select NREC UiO or NREC UiB as provider

4. Select “Virtual machine with GPU (1 x L40S)” for GPU-accelerated work

5. Download your SSH key and connect via ssh -i key.pem ubuntu@<VM_IP>

Which use case should I start with? If you want the most polished experience, start with UC1, UC2, or UC6. These have the most detailed multi-chapter tutorials (8–10 episodes each). All repos include Sphinx documentation and CI/CD pipelines; six (all except UC4) include AGENT.md files and setup.sh scripts.

What skills do I need to use a WP7 demonstrator? Most demonstrators require familiarity with Python and Jupyter notebooks. Some demonstrators require additional domain knowledge (e.g., physics-informed neural networks, genetic algorithms). Prerequisites are listed in each repository README.

Infrastructure

How do I know what resources I need for a demonstrator? Each demonstrator repository includes a README describing its computational requirements. The table below summarizes GPU needs:

UC	GPU Required?	Typical Training Time
UC1	No (CPU sufficient)	5–30 min per model
UC2	Recommended	~10 min (teacher + student)
UC3	Recommended	Varies by system
UC4	No (CPU sufficient)	~5 min per subject
UC5	Recommended (CUDA 11.8)	~15 min training
UC6	No (CPU, multi-core helps)	~5 min per function
UC7	Recommended	~20 min (autoencoder training)

How do I use GPUs? On NAIC Orchestrator VMs, request a GPU-enabled flavor when provisioning. Each demonstrator that requires GPU access documents the specific setup in its repository.

What Python version is required? All repositories target Python 3.11. CI pipelines use the python:3.11-slim Docker image. UC4 uses Conda with Python 3.11 pinned in environment.yml.

Technical Setup

How do I set up JupyterLab on NAIC Orchestrator VMs? Each demonstrator repository includes VM setup instructions. The general workflow is:

1. Provision a VM at https://orchestrator.naic.no

2. SSH into the VM and clone the demonstrator repository

3. Run the provided setup.sh script to configure the environment

4. Start JupyterLab and create an SSH tunnel from your local machine

Using AI Coding Assistants

Can I use AI coding assistants with the demonstrators? Yes. Six repositories (UC1, UC2, UC3, UC5, UC6, UC7) include AGENT.md files with machine-readable instructions for AI coding assistants like Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or Cursor. Tell your assistant:

“Read AGENT.md and help me run the demonstrator on my NAIC VM.”

The assistant will set up the environment and run experiments automatically.

Troubleshooting

When I try to run a notebook cell I get “library X not found” Ensure you have activated the correct Python environment. Each demonstrator provides a setup.sh or requirements.txt. Run pip install -r requirements.txt within the activated virtual environment.

The optimization/training takes a very long time Check whether the demonstrator supports parallel execution. For example, the Multi-Modal Optimization demonstrator offers MultiModalMinimizerParallel with n_jobs=-1 for multi-core speedup. GPU-based demonstrators require a GPU-enabled machine.

Some tests skip when I run pytest — is that a problem? No. Tests are designed to skip gracefully when optional heavy dependencies (e.g., DGL, TensorFlow, requests) are not installed. This ensures CI pipelines pass quickly while still validating project structure and code logic. All critical tests run in every environment.

Citations and Contact

How do I cite a WP7 demonstrator in a publication? Each demonstrator repository includes citation information in its README or references section. Some demonstrators build on prior published work:

• UC3: Based on Eidnes et al., Journal of Computational Physics (2023), Applied Mathematics and Computation (2024)

• UC6: Based on Johannsen et al., Nordic Machine Intelligence, 02, 16–27 (2022). DOI:10.5617/nmi.9633

For citing the demonstrators themselves, use the Zenodo DOIs listed in the Overview.

Who do I contact for questions?

UC	Contact
UC1	Klaus Johannsen (NORCE)
UC2	Hasan Asyari Arief (NORCE)
UC3	Sølve Eidnes (SINTEF)
UC4	Saruar Alam (UiB)
UC5	Xue-Cheng Tai (NORCE)
UC6	Klaus Johannsen (NORCE)
UC7	Klaus Johannsen (NORCE)