Research Computing Support Center opens

By Rebecca Arrington

Faculty, graduate students and staff have a new facility where they can go to explore research technologies and use specialized software and hardware -- ITC's Research Computing Support Center. Located in Wilson Hall room 244, the new center, which opened Oct. 14, is equipped with Unix workstations, WinTel computers and a Macintosh. Staffed by ITC employees and advanced student consultants, the center provides support for research and statistical computing needs across disciplines, and offers workshops on software packages it supports. For example, the center can help users:

• replicate a statistical analysis described in a journal article;
• write a journal or conference submission using LaTex software;
• determine the appropriate resources to perform a long-running or memory-intensive program; and
• choose software for computer simulations of dynamical systems.

Researchers needing center assistance can walk in, phone (243-8800), e-mail (res-consult@virginia .edu), or visit its web site (www.itc.virginia.edu/research).

"There has been a renewed focus within ITC on the needs of the research community," said Dawn Adelsberger-Mangan, ITC's Research Computing Support Group manager. It began several years ago with the creation of her group, which is "dedicated to providing technologically advanced support in the areas of high-performance computing, statistical computing, scientific word processing, mathematical computing, data visualization, and data access and archiving.

"The center is the latest of our efforts to provide advanced support to the University research community. Business has been steady since the center opened and is picking up day by day," she said.