Research Computing
The University of Texas at Austin has numerous resources to assist researchers with their computation needs. This site assembles research computing resources and provides links to service providers.
The primary research computing resources available to University faculty and staff include:
- High Performance Computing
- Data Services
- Data Preservation and Sharing
- Data Management Planning
- Virtual Machines
- Departmental Computing Resources
- Visualization Laboratory
High Performance Computing - for medium and large scale research computing needs
Solving the world's biggest problems requires the world's biggest solutions and the advanced computing systems at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) are among the most powerful in the world. These systems are fundamental to science and society, allowing researchers to push the boundaries of human knowledge and tackle the biggest scientific challenges we face today.
TACC is accessible to all University of Texas faculty and staff. Not just for scientists and engineers, TACC's resources can be used by technologists, educators, humanities scholars, and others.
TACC has 11 HPC environments available for research computing. Please visit the TACC User Services page or contact Chris Hempel, TACC Director of User Services, to start using HPC at TACC.
Data Services
Conducting scientific research often relies on the analysis and interpretation of tremendous amounts of data. To find meaning in this sea of information, researchers must first be able to organize, store, and share their data. Once data are stored, researcher are able to leverage the advances in data analysis and computing capabilities, frequently referred to as "Big Data," to enable the systems at TACC to bring understanding and structure to these complex problems and highlight potentially interesting results in data sources too large for any team of people to explore by hand.
Every day, researchers leverage TACC's high-speed, high-density data systems and powerful computational systems to make this possible. With more than 100 petabytes of dedicated user storage and several new systems designed specifically for data analysis and computations, TACC is a leader in the deployment and use of data intensive computing.
Learn More About TACC's Data Services & Systems:
Please visit the TACC User Services page or contact Chris Hempel, TACC Director of User Services, to get started using Data Services at TACC.
Data Preservation and Sharing
Ensure that your data will be accessible long after your project is over. It is important to think about a long-term plan from the earliest outset of your research project so that you can set aside enough time and resources to accomplish it. Also, making data discoverable, available, and citable can increase the visibility and impact of your work.The UT Libraries provides multiple services to help preserve and share research data:
If you need a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), contact UT Libraries.
Please visit the UT Libraries Data Preservation page, or contact Jessica Trelogan and Colleen Lyon, to get started with Data Preservation.
Data Management Planning
A Data Management Plan (DMP) is a formal document describing your data and what you will do with it during and after your research project. Most funding agencies require one, and each has specific requirements. Even if not required, writing a DMP can be a hugely useful exercise that can save you time, money, and a lot of pain in the long run.
The UT Libraries provides multiple services to help preserve and share research data:
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Access to the DMPTool
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Consultation for Data Management/Data Sharing Plans for funding agencies.
Please visit the UT Libraries Data Management site, or contact Jessica Trelogan and Colleen Lyon to get started with your Data Management Plan.
Virtual Machines - for small to medium research computing needs
A virtual machine (VM) can meet small to medium scale research computing needs and save researchers from managing their own IT infrastructure. The ITS virtualization service, UT-Virtual Machine Gateway (UT-VMG), is an enterprise scale environment that offers VMs to faculty and staff. UT-VMG is ideally suited for predictable compute workloads that do not include sudden spikes in utilization. Common use cases include web servers and application servers. UT-VMG can tie into the ITS database platform and also offers managed VM support.
Please visit the UT-VMG service page, or contact the UT-VMG team to get started using a VM.
Departmental Computing Resources
Speak with your local technical support to determine if department IT resources can help meet your research computing needs.
If you are not clear who your local technical support is, please contact the UT Service Desk for help.
Visualization Laboratory
The TACC Visualization Laboratory (Vislab) is a state-of-the-art facility where UT faculty and staff can explore the intersection between human perception and large-scale visual analysis through the study of visualization and interactive displays. The Vislab offers opportunities to use visualization, interaction and computational resources for the exploration and presentation of research data. It serves as a research hub for human-computer interaction, tiled display software development, and visualization consulting
For additional information on the Vislab, or to view a showcase of the Resources & Technologies that are used to support researchers as they turn their simulations into visually appealing, scientifically significant images please visit the Vislab.