{
	"event_id": "1153887",
	"eventinstance_id": "4221233",
	"calendar": {
		"id": 6812,
		"title": "UCF Research Cyberinfrastructure Events",
		"slug": "ucf-research-cyberinfrastructure-events",
		"url": "https://events.ucf.edu/calendar/6812/ucf-research-cyberinfrastructure-events/"
	},
	"id": "4221233",
	"title": "CloudBank 101: Getting free commercial cloud credits for your research and classroom through the NSF ACCESS Program",
	"subtitle": null,
	"description": "\u003Cp\u003ECommercial cloud platforms offer capabilities that are hard to replicate on campus: specialized hardware, managed AI services, quantum backends, globally distributed infrastructure, and always\u002Don hosting for gateways and community tools. The obstacle is usually funding and procurement, not technical need. CloudBank, an NSF\u002Dfunded service platform, removes that obstacle. U.S.\u002Dbased researchers and educators can receive allocations in dollars, usable across Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and IBM Cloud, at no cost to the researcher or the department.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EIn this one\u002Dhour session, the CloudBank team will walk UCF researchers and instructors through what the service provides and, most importantly, how to get an allocation. Topics include the ACCESS allocation tiers and award ceilings (Explore up to $10,000 per year, Discover up to $37,500 per year, Accelerate and Maximize up to $75,000 per year)\u003B what a successful request contains, including a cloud cost estimate, allocation type, supporting grant information where applicable, and a CV for the PI and any co\u002DPIs\u003B and what happens after an award, including automatic cloud account provisioning through the CloudBank Portal, federated login with ACCESS credentials, managing authorized users, and automated usage tracking and spend alerts.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EThe session highlights use cases of particular interest at UCF: running and evaluating AI and foundation models on commercial platforms, and estimating what they will cost before committing\u003B quantum computing through IBM Cloud, where CloudBank provides a route our researchers do not otherwise have\u003B and teaching and training, including CloudBank Classroom, a browser\u002Dbased JupyterHub for coursework that requires no local setup by students. Presenters will also address fit. CloudBank is aimed at modest\u002Dscale AI workloads, small research production infrastructure, specialized hardware, distributed\u002Dsystems experiments, and hosted gateways, while large\u002Dscale compute and GPU\u002Dheavy jobs are better served by on\u002Dpremises ACCESS and NAIRR resources.\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EAudience: Open to all UCF faculty, researchers, postdocs, graduate students, and instructors. No prior cloud experience required\u003B attendees new to commercial cloud are especially welcome.\u003C/p\u003E\u000A\u003Cp\u003E\u003C/p\u003E\u000A\u003Cp\u003EPresented by Shava Smallen, Rob Fatland, Eric Van Dusen\u003C/p\u003E",
	"location": "Virtual",
	"location_url": null,
	"virtual_url": "https://ucf.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6lZhnuT8ZT3apZY",
	"registration_link": "https://ucf.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6lZhnuT8ZT3apZY",
	"registration_info": null,
	"starts": "Wed, 07 Oct 2026 13:00:00 -0400",
	"ends": "Wed, 07 Oct 2026 14:00:00 -0400",
	"ongoing": "False",
	"category": "Workshop/Conference",
	"tags": ["nsf access","CloudBank","research computing"],
	"contact_name": "Office of Research Cyberinfrastructure Events Team",
	"contact_phone": null,
	"contact_email": "ResearchITEvents@ucf.edu",
	"url": "https://events.ucf.edu/event/4221233/cloudbank-101-getting-free-commercial-cloud-credits-for-your-research-and-classroom-through-the-nsf-access-program/"
}