Scaling up Computation for Research Workflows Across Platforms

We are pleased to announce a new virtual seminar series, Enabling Research: A Seminar Series on Research Software, organized by ASU-RSE! This seminar series explores how research software drives discovery across disciplines. Each session features researchers and software engineers sharing insights into the tools, practices, and collaborations that make modern science possible, and the challenges they face. Whether you develop software, rely on it for your research, or are simply curious about the intersection of technology and science, this series offers inspiration and practical knowledge for all.

This presentation examines Nextflow resource management on SLURM clusters through an engineering lens, focusing on design patterns, configuration management, and system optimization. Using make_lastz_chains—a computationally demanding genome alignment pipeline—we'll explore how proper executor configuration, process-level resource directives, and monitoring strategies create robust, scalable research software. We'll cover architectural considerations for pipeline design, common anti-patterns that lead to resource contention or underutilization, and engineering best practices for deploying workflows across HPC infrastructures. The goal is equipping you with software engineering principles that transform research code into reliable, scalable research software.

Questions? Please visit rse.asu.edu for more information about Research Software Engineers at ASU.

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