December 4, 2003
More high-end computers available for students
Student researchers who need access to more than one high-end computer can now use the Computing Resource Center.
The CRC, located in Mary Gates Hall, will be open Saturdays by appointment only for students with special projects that require the computing power of multiple workstations.
“When we purchased computers for the CRC with money from the Student Technology Fee, we asked for high-end machines, knowing that students would find a need for them,” says Karalee Woody, director of student access and computing for Educational Partnerships and Learning Technologies. “Sure enough, about two weeks after we installed the machines, a student came forward with the perfect proposal.”
That student was Peter Norgaard, a senior in aeronautics and astronautics, who wanted to run simulations on as many as 20 computers simultaneously — a project that otherwise would take days to run on a single computer. Because the center is heavily used on weekdays, it wasn’t feasible to do the project during normal hours.
“We thought about this,” says Woody, “and figured there must be a lot of students in situations similar to Peter. So we decided to create a model for using the center for high-powered scientific computing for those students who need more than one machine.”
The center had been open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on weekdays only. The center is now the only general-access facility that makes resources available in this way.
Norgaard was able to use the research service the weekend of Nov. 22 and termed his experience “very successful. The atmosphere was much less stressful (and much more productive) than trying to fight for space in Odegaard. Even better, I found that many of the models I was running solved in half or even one-fourth of the time I expected.”
Woody says this use of the center is very exciting. “Potentially, we could have 10 or 20 students doing high-performance computing at the same time on a Saturday,” she says.
The CRC is equipped with Pentium 4 computers running at 3.2 gigahertz, and also with dual 2 gigahertz G5 PowerPCs.
More information about special projects in the CRC is available at http://depts.washington.edu/sacg/facilities/labs/projects.shtml.
The Tech Fee also made possible an upgrade to computers in the Libraries. “Students have been telling us that they’d like the computers in the Libraries to do more,” Woody says. “So when the computers in four Libraries units — Suzzallo-Allen, Odegaard, Foster Business and Engineering — were replaced, the new PCs were loaded with Microsoft Office and other popular software, and now they can be used for much more than just e-mail and Web access.” Access to these PCs will require users to log on using their UWNetIDs. (There are still enough general public access computers available to serve the needs of non-UW people using the Libraries.)
A total of 185 machines have been purchased, and their installation has been phased in during Autumn Quarter.
“These computers are becoming very popular with students,” Woody says. “They can do research and write in one location.”
