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Classroom Support

This document provides a defined pathway for instructors at MSU to utilize ICER/HPCC resources for classroom education.

Services Available

ICER will work with instructors to provide the following services during the class:

  • Training workshops on using the HPCC, via our asynchronous Desire2Learn-based training modules.

  • HPCC student accounts and research space for use in classes and for sharing data files

  • Access to OnDemand, a web-based portal to use Python via Jupyter notebooks, RStudio, Matlab, Stata, and an interactive Linux desktop. OnDemand has access to all of the HPCC's file systems.

  • Software installation for teaching purposes

  • Reservations for computing resources in the cluster so that the students can instantly have access to the resources to finish the assignments

  • Helpdesk tickets (submitting your questions via our online form)

Request Classroom Support

Requests should be submitted two weeks in advance, to allow for time for account creation, specialized software installation, etc.

Request individual student user accounts

Instructors need to submit a New Account Request online form for all students enrolled in the course. Please note that instructors are also responsible for requesting the accounts be closed when students are no longer enrolled in the course or when the course is finished. The following information should also be included in the request.

  • MSU NetIDs of students enrolled in the course
  • Course name for the group name of the student accounts
  • Software installation, CPU/GPU core reservation (as needed)
  • Start and end dates of the course

Request a research space for course use

Instructors can also submit a Research request to create a research space for the course group and add all students enrolled in the request form.

Note on storage quota

Both the home directory of a user and the research directory of a group are initialized with 50 GB storage quota. Additional space up to 1 TB may be requested for home directory or research space. Beyond 1 TB, ICER will need to charge for the additional storage.

Class Account Agreement

Instructors are expected to make good faith efforts towards implementing the following policies:

  • Awareness of ICER and MSU policies -- Instructors using ICER resources are expected to have an understanding of ICER and MSU IT policies. Broadly, they should be cognizant of MSU's data sharing policies, wait times on queued jobs and the possibility of unscheduled outages. These factors should be taken into consideration while designing assignments and projects that utilize ICER resources. ICER/HPCC policies are emailed to users upon account creation.

  • Contacting ICER -- Instructors should provide clear policies in their syllabus about when students should contact ICER staff.  ICER will provide account, hardware and system software support. Very limited applications software support for the course TAs and instructors is available. However, so as not to overwhelm the ticketing system with course-specific questions, we ask that all student questions be routed through the TA or course instructor who will then determine whether to forward these to ICER's ticketing system. While students are encouraged to visit ICER research consultants during office hours, these hours are meant for research support and are not designed to be used as a means of TA support. In particular, students should be aware that submitting queries to ICER that seek answers to homework problems will be considered cheating and a violation of the Honor Code.

  • Planning for outages -- ICER resources may become unavailable as a result of an unscheduled system outage. Instructors are advised not to depend on ICER resources for final exams and/or projects that require a short turnaround time.

  • Storing data -- Instructors should advise students against storing data on the "scratch" space. Files are typically purged on scratch after 45 days if no modification has been made, and cannot be recovered. Instructors may request a research space for students to store their class related data for the duration of the semester. Students may also store their data in their home directory. Accounts for course work are typically limited to 50 GB.

  • Terminating educational accounts -- Student HPCC accounts, linked home folders, and group folders created for courses will be removed 30 days after the end of the class. This applies only to education-sponsored accounts and NOT research-sponsored student accounts. However, students who wish to convert their educated-sponsored account to a research-sponsored account after the course is completed must have their research supervisor submit a request for membership change no later than 30 days after the semester in which the course was completed in order to retain the data saved in the education-sponsored student account.

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

Last updated: Aug 2022