by Rob MacLeod and Jeff Weiss
This is an overview of some of the computing facilities available to
graduate students in the Bioengineering Department. If you have
additional information that might be of interest to others, please send email!
The College of Engineering runs its own computer facilities and aim to
provide all the services available through Academic Computing. Their main
function is to provide faculty and students computer resources for
instructional purposes. This includes access to our computers, software
and storage for professors and students involved in classwork and teaching.
They also provide accounts for any student in the college of engineering
which will give them access to email, ftp, www, and storage for class
projects.
One unique feature of the CADE lab is the variety of operating systems
supported, especially various flavors of Unix. Unfortunately, there is no
Macintosh support at present!!! Another shortcoming of this facility is the
lack of dial up access (see below for more details on this). The CADE lab
itself is located in Energy and Mines Classroom Building (EMCB) Room 224.
Links to specific services of interest
to most students include:
There are a huge variety of short courses available at the Marriott Library on
topics from tours of the facilities to web web page design. Many library
services like renewing books and performing library searches are available
via the web so be sure to go visit.
Their hardware resources include: Software in academic versions and pricing is also available at the
University Bookstore at excellent prices. The U Office of Software
Licensing has numerous software licenses
for many technical and mathematical software.
For all other goodies, the open market is your best bet!
In the department we have 20 Intel based computers running Windows NT
that are based in one of the integrated labs in MEB. They are equipped with
a Computer Boards general purpose interface card (12 bit A/D with some DIO
lines). Installed software includes MS Office, Matlab, and Labview, plus
NI's C programming package. Speak to Paul Dryden or your faculty advisor
about access to these facilities.
A great deal of additional computing resources are available through the
faculty of the Department and you will learn more about these options as
you progress in your research. So if you need anything specific, ask
around!
Some labs of Bioengineering faculty that use a lot of computing include:
Central Facilities
There are several entities on the campus who provide access to computing
for all students and at least one that is more specialized for students in
the engineering disciplines. If some services look redundant, they
probably are. This may change in the future as a result of more
centralized management of user accounts and networking, but for the moment,
start with the College of Engineering facilities and then branch out as
needs arise.
College of Engineering Computing: the CADE Lab
Office of Information Technology
Here is the mission of the OIT on campus: "The Office of Information
Technology is people and mission centered. Our role is to bring the campus
together through technology. We are here to serve you. Please don't
hesitate to contact us so that we can be of service. "
So take them at their word and make use of the following services:
Multimedia Center and Student
Computing Labs
The Multimedia
center is located in the first floor of the Marriott Library and
offers much more than just computing, with its collection of audio visual
materials and facilities to view them. They also have rooms for computer
education (and are often the hosts for various computer courses) and some
open labs in the Marriott Library and the EMCB, Room 130, with is closed now until completion of the
Warnock Engineering Building.
Center for High Performance Computing
For the power users who need large computing and visualization resources,
there is also a Center for High Performance Computing (CHPC) on the campus. The
CHPC is located in the INSCC Building, a new structure near the Physics and
Math Buildings on the lower campus. THey also offer a
Getting started guide to using their facilties. Or the
CHPC FAQ guide. THe CHCP also offers a series of
presentations
that outline the center and its resources.
Help Informaton
Here are some specific links to more information:
Campus Computer Help Desk
Campus network information
Applying for
Network connections
Spencer S Eccles Medical Library
Marriott Library
online databases
Buying Computers/Software
The University Bookstore is a good place to buy Apple Hardware
and the best way to get pricing is to go to the Apple Store at www.apple.com/store. There you can see what
discounts you enjoy as students of the UofU.
Dial Up Access
At present, there are (or soon will be) three options for access the campus
network from home.
Department Computing Facilities
The Bioengineering has some computer facilities, but these are all
associated with labs and not usually available for general use. These are,
however, equipped with addition hardware that make them very useful in the
lab for data acquisition and analysis.
Department Links