SSCC's Fall Training Schedule
SSCC training for fall is well underway. Many members took advantage of the Stata and R training that was offered last week. In September we will offer several Stata, Matlab, and SPSS classes. In addition, Mark Banghart, our new statistical computing specialist and R expert, will offer a new R for Researchers class which provides an introduction to R using the RStudio suite of development tools. The course will then teach you how to prepare data for analysis, carry out regressions, and perform diagnostics using R. Visit the training page today to register for classes.
Welcome Oliver Giramma to SSCC's Support Team
Please welcome Oliver Giramma to SSCC's help desk and desktop support teams. Oliver earned his B.A. degree at Willamette University in May. He worked on Willamette's help desk and desktop support teams for almost three years. When you get a chance, drop by 4226 Social Science and welcome Oliver.
SSCC's High Performance Computing Cluster Upgraded
We’ve recently finished a major upgrade to our high performance computing (HPC) cluster. The overhaul involved adding more than 300 processor cores, new networking switches, and upgrading all the software. The cluster allows SSCC members using tools like Fortran and MPI to run computations more quickly by breaking large problems into smaller pieces and solving them in parallel. A simulation problem that would take one year to finish could be completed in just a few days by using the cluster. The cluster is open for use to all SSCC members. If you’d like more information you should read our knowledge base article or contact Ryan Horrisberger.
Summer Recap
This was a busy summer at the SSCC:
- Mark Banghart joined us as a Statistical Computing Specialist. Mark just received his Masters in Statistics from UW-Madison and is an R expert. We're very excited to have him on the team.
- Andy Kraus left our PC Support group, as his wife, Nikki, finished her PhD. in Sociology and took a faculty position at Rutgers. Congratulations to them both!
- Stata MP16 (Stata running on up to 16 cores) is now available on Linstat and Winstat. It is much faster than our standard MP2 for computationally intensive tasks.
- The latest version of Firefox made a change that prevents the Citrix Receiver from connecting to Winstat unless you explicitly give it permission to do so. (Instructions)
- The new campus agreement with Adobe required us to remove all Adobe software from Winstat, including Dreamweaver and Acrobat Professional. However, they can now be freely installed on any University-owned computer. (Instructions) Recall that we had to remove Microsoft Office and SPSS from Winstat for undergraduates (only) last summer for similar reasons.
- SSCC's Server Usage Policy has been updated in response to the growing ubiquity of parallel processing, and now gives clearer guidance about how many cores members may use on Winstat, Linstat, and the SSCC Condor flock.
- To increase the security of SSCC's Linstat servers, SSCC members outside the Madison area will need to take one of several steps to establish their identity before logging in. (Instructions)
Reserving the Computer Classroom for Fall Semester Courses
Now is the time to reserve the 3218 classroom or mobile lab for your fall semester class, before your spot gets taken by someone else. Fill out the web form to make reservations. Visit our Instructional Support web page for more information about the 3218 classroom and the mobile lab. If you have any questions, contact Caitlin Tefft (ctefft@ssc.wisc.edu or 2-0862).
Even if you do not need to reserve the classroom or lab, you can arrange for your students to have access to SSCC's drop in labs (3218 and 4218 Social Science) for doing their homework. Caitlin can help you with this as well.
Doug Hemken (dehemken@wisc.edu), statistical computing specialist for SSCC, is available to help students with homework and class projects. You can also arrange for Doug to come to your class and provide instruction on statistical software. Students may drop in or make an appointment online with Doug. Doug's office is in the 4226 office suite and his phone number is 2-4327.
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