Welcome to the SSCC! This page will direct you to the resources you need to get starting using SSCC services. However, what those are will depend on whether you are an SSCC Member or a Lab User. In each of the sections below, look for the instructions that apply to your situation.
Lab Accounts
The SSCC offers lab accounts to graduate students or those taking graduate-level classes in the Social Sciences division of the College of Letters and Sciences, as well as any student taking a class whose instructor has arranged to use the SSCC labs. A lab account gives access to the SSCC computer labs and to Winstat, the SSCC’s Windows Remote Desktop Server cluster.
Member Accounts
Those affiliated with departments and agencies which are members of the Cooperative may request an SSCC Member account. Members have access to the labs, Winstat, SSCC’s Linux servers, and other services. Students and staff in some departments must have an account sponsor: a faculty member who already has an SSCC account, normally your advisor or supervisor. In other departments, all account request go to a single person for approval.
Request an Account
If you don’t have an account yet, request one online. Once it has been created, you’ll then need to activate it:
Activate Your Account
When your account is created, you will receive an email with a custom link that you can use to complete the account activation process.
Log In
Most of your computing will probably take place on Winstat, the SSCC’s Remote Desktop Server cluster:
The SSCC also has computer labs in the Sewell Social Sciences Building.
Do you want to use Linstat but find the command line intimidating? OnDemand is a graphical user interface created to make Linux servers more user-friendly. OnDemand gives you a graphical “desktop” interface like Winstat or a regular PC or Mac, but also gives you access to all the programs and computing power available on Linstat. You can also use OnDemand to submit jobs to Slurm.
If you are an SSCC Member and need to work with sensitive data (including HIPAA data) you’ll need to use our secure computing environment, Silo. Lab Users do not have access to Silo.
If you are an SSCC Member and need more computing power, you may want to use our Linux computing cluster, Linstat. Lab Users do not have access to Linstat.
Learn More
The SSCC Knowledge Base should be your first resource for learning about the SSCC or statistical computing in general. Knowledge Base articles can teach how to use SSCC resources, like Linstat or Slurm. Articles on statistical computing range from general introductions like Stata for Students or Data Wrangling in Stata, R, or Python, to specific topics like making bar graphs and mixed models. Some especially good places to start are:
Welcome to the SSCC! (For Lab Users)
Get Help
For help with general computing issues, contact the SSCC Help Desk.
For statistical consulting, start by contacting the SSCC Help Desk. This could be anything from “Why is my Stata program crashing?” to “What model should I use for these data?”
For help with personal computers, SSCC Members should go to the SSCC Help Desk. Lab Users should go SSCC Help Desk if they’re having trouble connecting to Winstat.