Who uses it
Faculty projects with real computational load, graduate research, and upper-level courses that outgrow a laptop — simulation, genomics, large statistical models, GPU training runs. Access is by project request; a faculty sponsor is required for student accounts. The scheduler shares the cluster fairly, so plan for a queue at peak times.
Getting started
Request an account through the research-computing portal with a short description of the work and the sponsor's name. New users are pointed to a getting-started session covering the job scheduler, the module system and the storage layout. Do not put restricted or human-subjects data on the cluster without clearing it first — the consultation hour is the place to ask.
In and around Porter Falls
The Technology Help Desk is on the first floor of the Jarvis Technology Center. One student identity signs into MyPorter, the learning environment, campus Wi-Fi, printing and the library.
The practical details
Cluster: A modest shared HPC cluster with CPU and a few GPU nodes. Storage: Project space with nightly backup, separate from personal drives. Help: Consultations by appointment; a drop-in hour weekly during the term. Anything time-sensitive — an accommodation, a booking, a deadline — is worth confirming directly before you rely on it, because the specifics here can change from term to term.
If you have a question
The office behind this is Technology Help Desk (Jarvis Technology Center, Room 105). Call (715) 555–0120 or email helpdesk@uwporterfalls.edu during the fall and spring terms, or sign in to MyPorter to send a message or book a time. If it turns out another office owns the question, they will route it rather than send you back to the start.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.