ACCESS Resource Advisor (ARA)

ACCESS provides many essential High Performance Computing (HPC) resources to researchers across diverse scientific disciplines.However, selecting the most appropriate resource from the numerous available options presents significant challenges, especiallyfor researchers without extensive technical expertise. This paper introduces the ACCESS Resource Advisor (ARA), a web-based tooldesigned to guide researchers toward suitable HPC resources by using accessible language, only asking about basic HPC conceptsthat users would understand, identifying workflow patterns, and providing recommendations with minimal required input. We detailthe design philosophy, implementation approach, and rules-based recommendation used by the ARA. Usage data collected over tenmonths demonstrates consistent adoption, averaging 99.2 recommendations per month, with recent increases coinciding with thetool’s integration into the ACCESS Resource page. By simplifying the resource selection process, ARA helps researchers from over ahundred scientific fields make more informed decisions about computational resources, ultimately improving research efficiency andresource utilization across the ACCESS ecosystem.