Welcome to the Day One

of the 2nd International Work

on FAIR Containerized

Computational Software

Co‐organized by National Institute of Standards and Technology (

National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at 

Institutes of Health (NIH)

Peter Bajcsy Nathan Hotal

NIST NCATS NIH
FAIR Containerized Computational Soft

Digital assets: computational

software in sciences

Containerization: packaging of

software applications so that

the software can run in any

computational environment

FAIR: Findable, Accessible,

Interoperable, and Reusable
Main goal

Containerized

The main goal for the workshop is

to establish a community

consensus on creating

interoperable containerizedcomputational tools that can be

chained into scientificworkflows/pipelines andexecuted over large imagecollections regardless of the

cloud infrastructurecomponents.

Data 

Scientist

Computational T

ContainerizedComputational Tool

Computationa

Workflow
Approach to Forming Computational Work

Containerized

• Create a manifest file

accompanying eachcontainerized softwaretool

• Specify fields in the

manifest file for

• Inputs/Outputs• Security• GUI• Hardware Requirements

Data 

Scientist

Computational T

ContainerizedComputational Tool

Computationa

Workflow
The purpose of the workshop is:

1.establish fields in a manifest file accompanying each conta

software tool (primary purpose),

2.summarize best practices for containerization of algorithm

interfaces between containerized algorithms and datasets 

heterogeneous storage environments,

3.explore application programming interfaces (APIs) for find

containerized software tools and container‐based workflo

registries,

4.support executions of container‐based workflows in a var

workflow engines,

5.discuss tooling and governance to support a large commu

users.
Past Work

• Hosted the 1st Workshop on

Interoperability of Web

Computational Plugins for LargeMicroscopy Image, 2019, URL

• The workshop discussions

focused on:

• 1. Containerization of execution code

• 2. Data storage

• 3. Interoperability requirements of

workflow engines for running

containerized plugins

• 4. Standard packaging of web user

interface modules

• 5. Security of container‐based distribution.
Workshop Conclusions from the 1st Worksh

Between the 1s

and now:• Workflow re

testing betwNCATS NIH

• Plugin regist

at NIST and 

• PandemicNew needs for 

plugin manifest 

based on test d
Structure of the 2nd Internat

Workshop on FAIR Container

Computational Software
Workshop Structure

Themes for each day:

December 5 (Day 1): Inputs/Outputs and Security for FAIR contain

computational software

December 6 (Day 2): Graphical User Interfaces for FAIR containeriz

computational software

December 7 (Day 3): Hardware Requirements for FAIR containeriz

computational software

Top level program outline (Each day):

Session 1: General session consisting of opening remarks and back

introduction (one hour)

Session 2: Five breakout sessions consisting of about 15‐30 people 

specified topics (two hours)

Session 3: General session consisting of summaries from breakout 

and closing remarks (one hour)
The Workshop Flow

• Session 1: Main Zoom room

• After the introduction to the theme of the day, NIST co

facility staff will move participants to breakout sessions 

uniform representation of organizations across all brea

• Session 2: Breakout Zoom room

• Moderators and scribes will go over a set of questions/

discussed. The topics map to the those posted at FederThe set of questions/topics is the same for all breakout

• Session 3: Main Zoom room

• The moderators and scribes report a set of unique

answers/solutions for each question/topic and the resu
Time and Information Resources

Everyday Meeting Times:

US East Coast (11am‐3pm),

US West Coast (8am‐noon),

UK (4pm‐8pm),Germany (5pm‐9pm),Korea/Japan (1am‐5am)

Comments on the topics outside of the workshop:https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2023/08/24/2023‐18263/request‐for‐information‐regarding‐file‐

specification‐for‐findable‐accessible‐interoperable‐and

Workshop event URL: https://w

events/events/2023/12/2nd‐intfair‐containerized‐computation

The GitHub repository with the https://github.com/usnistgov/facontainer

Registries of manifests adhering 

https://wipp‐plugins.nist.gov/https://wipp‐registry.ci.ncats.io/
The Workshop Information

• During the workshop:

• The workshop is not recorded.• The summary notes and chats from breakout session

for preparing the workshop report.

• After the workshop:

• Peter Bajcsy (NIST) and Nathan Hotaling (NCATS NIH) 

the workshop report.

• The workshop report will be shared with all registere

for feedback before it will be disseminated to the pub

• The GitHub repository https://github.com/usnistgov/

compute‐container will be updated with the worksho
Additional Topics

• Use cases• Ecosystem of tools to support seamless

integration to scientific research

• Educational materials• Benchmarking information• Governance
December 5, 2023 (Day 1

Theme: Inputs/Outputs an

Security for FAIR containeri

computational software
Agenda

• Session 1: Introduction

• Peter Bajcsy (NIST) – workshop goals

• Mylene Simon (NIST) – current manifest file

• Nathan Hotaling (NIH) –development of containerized computational tools 

• Michael Bartock (NIST)– security of container platforms

• Session 2: Breakouts

Date Breakout Moderator Scribe

5‐Dec 1 Peter Bajcsy Sameeul Sam

5‐Dec 2 Nathan Hotaling Derek Juba

5‐Dec 3 Mylene Simon Kevin Duerr

5‐Dec 4 Nick Schaub Pushkar Sath

5‐Dec 5 Sunny Yu Guillaume So

• Session 3: Summary