Facilities

General Computing Labs

The department has general computer laboratories at the Lake Shore and Water Tower Campuses. They are three windows labs and one free/open source laboratory (at Water Tower Campus only) running Ubuntu Linux. The Windows labs are managed by Information Technology Services (ITS) with software requests submitted regularly by the department.

::: index pair: research; Internet-2 :::

Internet-2

The CS Department was part of a successful team that received funding to bring Internet-2 to Loyola University Chicago as a whole. This next-generation Internet allows students within the department to explore ideas such as cluster computing, grid computing, Internet telephony, and distributed scientific application development. In addition to Internet-2, the university maintains a high-speed optical network/ring that connects all of the Loyola campuses (LSC, WTC, and Loyola University Medical Center).

::: index pair: research; Windows HPC Cluster :::

Windows HPC Cluster

Drs. Putonti and Thiruvathukal operate two Windows HPC clusters: an 80-node dual-core Opteron cluster by Rackable Systems and a 24-node dual-core Xeon cluster by Dell. Both clusters feature high-speed Ethernet and/or Infiniband. These clusters are housed in the ITS data center.

::: index pair: research; GPGPU pair: Emerging Technologies Laboratory; GPGPU :::

GPGPU Server

Our new GPGPU Server was set up at our ETL. It is SuperServer 7046GT-TRF-TC4 with 2 x Intel Xeon Quad-Core (16 logical processors), 96GB RAM, 4 x NVIDIA® Tesla C2075 GPUs. Please read our gpgpu-server{.interpreted-text role=“doc”} guide on how to get started.

::: index single: Emerging Technologies Laboratory :::

Emerging Technologies Laboratory

The ETL is a growing presence for experimental computer science and engineering projects. This laboratory supports many experimental computing needs and is a place where students can explore ideas not covered directly in any particular class. Virtualization, embedded systems, green computing, and mobile development take place here.

::: index single: wireless :::

Wireless

The entire department (faculty offices, computer labs, emerging technologies lab, and halls) are covered by 802.11g Wireless LAN.

Research Data Center

Loyola University Chicago’s Research Data Center (RDC) is a 1,000-square-foot facility dedicated to support research and funded grants projects, provides a secure home for the computational clusters and related equipment used by our research community.

The RDC (opened in 2010) delivers a high availability computing environment for research projects. This facility is equipped with power protection, including an uninterruptible power supply and a back-up generator. Multiple computer room air conditioner (CRAC) units provide redundant cooling for the space, and a structured cabling design allows for high-speed network connectivity. In addition to fire protection, additional safety and security elements for the RDC include keycard access, camera surveillance, and environmental monitoring.

Sized to accommodate moderate growth, several research initiatives are currently taking advan- tage of the space, which at present houses three research clusters and over 100 nodes. Additionally, collaborative research efforts with other participating institutions and/or organizations have full access and connectivity to Internet2 via the Metropolitan Research & Education Network (MREN) to accommodate high bandwidth applications, data transmissions, and computational require- ments.

A steering committee, made up of senior administrators, faculty, and ITS professionals, is re- sponsible for reviewing, evaluating, and recommending strategies, plans, and policies governing the use of the RDC resources. Loyola’s RDC is managed by Information Technology Services (ITS) in partnership with the university’s Facilities Department.

Drs. Thiruvathukal, Läufer, and Putonti have a general-purpose 80-node computing cluster that runs a mix of Windows HPC Server and the ROCKS clustering software.