ICS run the Department’s Central Computing System, used for almost all undergraduate computer-based teaching, as well as for use outside scheduled teaching sessions by any member of the Department. The system is located in the DPO and the EIETL, and all of the computers are dual-boot, able to run either Linux or Windows.
Bookings
When being used for teaching, the system is booked by ‘clusters’ of machines; all members of the Department can view the bookings. Staff may request bookings for approval by the DPO Manager.
Software available
The same software is available across all of the Central Computing System computers. If booted into Linux, the software available includes standard packages included as part of the Linux distribution (CentOS 7), plus the following major packages used for teaching:
- Intel FORTRAN
- Matlab
- Mentor
- Abaqus
The list of software installed under Windows is available as a PDF.
Note that additional specialist software is available on computers in the Dyson Centre, but they are not part of the Central Computing System for teaching.
Requests for teaching software
Staff planning to use the Central Computing System for teaching in the following academic year should inform ICS of their software requirements by 1st June each year. Where possible, requirements notified by that date will be incorporated into a new ‘build’ of the system for the coming year, and that build will be available for testing by 1st September. If requirements are notified after 1st June, it may still be possible to incorporate them into the coming year’s build, but that cannot be guaranteed. Staff should supply their requirements for each paper/module/coursework for which they are responsible using the online form on this site.