Research Support

The Division of Information Technology (DoIT) provides the following services to researchers (faculty and graduate students) on campus.

  • High Performance Computing – DoIT, in collaboration with the Vice President of Research, provides operational support for the campus HPC core facility.  This is an NSF funded, 240 node, 480 processor (1920 core), system supporting parallel programming with over 500 Terabytes of high performance storage.
  • Center for Hybrid Multicore Productivity Research (CHMPR) – CHMPR is focused on S/W Tool development and algorithmic design for parallel distributed and cloud computing. DoIT’s provides ongoing assistance to CHMPR.
  • Advanced Networking –DoIT operates the on-campus and off-campus network to support campus. UMBC, through an NSF grant to CIO Jack Suess in 1997, was among the first 50 universities to be connected to the NSF vBNS network. DoIT oversees the universities membership in Internet2. To support advanced networking UMBC participates in the Mid-Atlantic Crossroads (MAX) and is active in the MD Research and Education Network (MDREN). UMBC has a 10GB connection to MDREN and 1GB connection to Internet2.
  • Storage – DoIT manages well over 800 terabytes of storage used by researchers and is working closely with the deans and VP of Research to build a robust storage architecture to meet the needs of researchers. In addition, to HPC storage, researchers can take advantage of Box, a web-based storage service used by UMBC.
  • Software – DoIT manages and pays for many of the campus software packages used for research. DoIT provides free to faculty the following software — Microsoft Windows, Apple OS, Microsoft Work, Redhat Linux, Matlab, SAS, SPSS, Mathematica, along with a number of limited use licenses. All software can be found and downloaded at http://my.umbc.edu/go/software
  • Software Support – DoIT, in a partnership with the Mathematics and Statistics Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Consulting, provides funding to provide software workshops throughout the semester and to provide introductory consulting support.
  • New Media Studio – DoIT’s New Media Studio provides support for digital storytelling, video production, web site development, and publication support for researchers and campus units. The studio works closely with faculty in the digital humanities.