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Classroom Support

This document provides a defined pathway for MSU Faculty Instructors to request ICER HPCC resources for classroom education.

HPCC Resources

ICER offers the following HPCC resources for MSU credit-bearing courses:

  • Asynchronous D2L-based HPCC Foundations and Intro2Python tutorial series

  • Student HPCC accounts with access to collaborative file storage for shared data Note: current HPCC data storage and usage policies apply

  • Student access to OnDemand, an HPCC web portal with Jupyter notebooks, RStudio, Matlab, and HPCC-based AI tools

  • Course related software installation requests Note: some software cannot be installed on the HPCC, consulation is required to determine suitability

  • Compute cluster reservation requests when assignments require intesive compute resources e.g., large memory nodes or GPUs

  • Technical Support from the ICER HelpDesk

Request Classroom Support

Requests should be submitted at least two-weeks in advance of the required student access date

To request classroom support, MSU Faculty Instructors must submit an Add New Course request using the HPCC Access Management Form

HPCC Student Access Policies

As MSU Faculty, Instructors are responsible for the oversight of the students' HPCC use, including an explicit understanding of the HPCC Access and Usage Policy. In addition, Instructors should take care to plan course activities carefully while considereing the following:

  • HPCC Usage Constraints -- Students should understand the HPCC Usage Constraints e.g., wait times on queued jobs and the fairshare policy. These factors should also be taken into consideration while designing assignments and projects that utilize HPCC resources and included in the course syllabus.

  • ICER HelpDesk Access -- Instructors should provide clear policies in their syllabus regarding student use of the ICER HelpDesk. The HelpDesk provides account management, system hardware and system software support. So as not to overwhelm the HelpDesk with course-specific questions, all student questions must be routed through the Instrcutor and/or TA who will then determine whether to forward these to the HelpDesk. Note: While ICER encourages appropriate utilization of the HelpDesk, this system is designed for research support and NOT to be used as a means of TA support; students should be aware that submitting queries to the ICER HelpDesk that seek answers to assigned problems will be considered a violation of The Spartan Code of Honor: Academic Pledge.

  • Unscheduled Outages -- HPCC resources may become unavailable as a result of unscheduled system outages. Instructors are advised NOT to depend on HPCC resources for final exams and/or course projects with short lead times.

  • Data Backup and Recovery -- Data stored on the HPCC is periodically archived to a recovery system, however ICER cannot guarantee that all data stored on the HPCC can be recovered from backup. Note: Instructors should advise students against storing data on the Scratch Space where data is automically purged after 30-45 days and cannot be recovered.

  • HPCC Course Account Expiration -- HPCC course accounts will be removed 30 days after the end of the Semester. MSU Faculty Instructors must make additional arrangemnts with ICER regarding course data retention.

  • Acknowledging ICER -- Instructors and students are strongly encouraged to Acknowledge ICER upon publication of data related to the HPCC resources used during the course.

Last updated: Fall 2025