Welcome!

This page is meant to be an introduction to many of the research and computing resources available to you.

Research Resources

The McMaster University Library is a great resource for research. The Library manages catalogues of physical resources, an extensive subscription for many online journals, as well as resources for research data management. The Research Data Storage Finder (accessible from this link and then clicking on the Store tab) is an excellent tool to help you choose the most appropriate way to store your research data.

Computing & IT Groups

Below are many of the common computing groups you might encounter during your graduate studies.

• UTS
• Library
• MacPherson Institute (formerly MIITEL)
• ComputeCanada / SHARCNET
• RHPCS
• Department-specific groups

Distributed computing clusters

SHARCNET is an advanced research computing network that is now part of ComputeCanada. This computing network spans all across Canada and offers over 33,000 computational cores. ComputeCanada offers a plethora of resources, including but not limited to batch clusters, interactive nodes, storage, visualization, GPUs, VMs, DBs, websites, and programming assistance.

Who Do I Ask For Help?

With so many IT groups on campus (there are more unlisted), it can be unclear who to go to with what type of inquiry. To get you started, here's a quick list of the system/service and who to contact:

• RHPCS-managed workstations, servers, and services:
  • RHPCS
• Mac-WiFi, MacID, McMaster VPN: 
  • UTS
• Campus-wide software and licensing:
  • UTS 
• Learning management systems
  • MacPherson (for campus-wide systems, like Avenue2Learn, etc.)
  • Department office (for department-specific systems, like LON-CAPA, etc.)
• Administrative workstations
  • Department IT
• High performance cluster computing
  • Your supervisor
  • ComputeCanada