Interview: Choosing the right computational platform and dataset

This discussion between Martin Aslett, Informatics Training Lead, and Vaishnavi Gangadhar, Informatics Technical Developer from Wellcome Connecting Science explores how computational platforms and datasets are selected for genomics training courses.

A key theme is choosing the right computational platform based on the mode of delivery. For virtual courses, browser-based or cloud solutions such as Google Colab or cloud services like Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud Platform are preferred to minimise installation issues and ensure accessibility. For in-person courses, decisions depend on venue infrastructure, such as access to high-performance computing (HPC) systems, local IT support, and available hardware. Using local clusters or pre-configured virtual machines can improve efficiency, reduce setup problems, and support long-term sustainability for partner institutions.

Discussion

If you are designing a bioinformatics course, which computational platform would you choose to deliver the training, and what factors would influence your decision?