Cyberinfrastructure & High Performance Computing - Coastal Carolina University
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Cyberinfrastructure & High Performance Computing

Cyberinfrastructure and High Performance Computing

Coastal Carolina University's Cyberinfrastructure and High Performance Computing Services (CCU CI) is a joint collaboration between Information Technology Services and the Gupta College of Science. Its purpose is to provide scientific and research computing equipment and services to CCU faculty, staff, and students.

CCU CI is an environment consisting of several computing systems, high performance computing clusters, data storage systems, virtualization systems, advanced scientific tools, and users interconnected with high performance networks to enhance research productivity and instructional efficiency.

The CCU CI environment currently relies on 77 managed servers, three high performance cluster partitions, five high capacity disk arrays delivering nearly 400 TB of storage capacity, a tape library to backup the most crucial user and scientific data while performing tape backups, five high performance network switches, over 80 managed software packages and nearly 700 users. All servers perform roles associated with scientific research, experiential learning, and academic instruction. As researchers and instructional faculty need additional resources and tools, those are added, maintained, and enhanced within CCU CI.

Examples of CCU CI research projects include:

  • Gravity Waves and the Jet Stream
  • Gene Rearrangements
  • Big Data Analytics
  • Operational Forecasting
  • Coastal Surge and Inundation
  • Molecular Modeling
  • Dynamics During Stratospheric Warming
  • Wave Turbulence Interactions

In addition to scientific research, CCU CI is used for all experiential learning endeavors around campus. While most CCU CI users are involved with scientific research and have a dedicated set of tools and utilities they use frequently, there are many others who are leveraging the CCU CI resources in an academic setting or experiential learning through active discovery. Each semester more faculty are integrating the catalog of CCU CI resources into their instructional plans either by utilizing the Guacamole web desktop as a consistent and mobile lab platform for their students or by leveraging the many software tools and utilities as part of their core instructional pedagogy.

Most users interact with the CCU CI resources through the Guacamole web desktop which provides a fully functional and graphical desktop environment with access to storage and software resources from any browser. Think of it as opening a webpage to your managed and maintained desktop computer, complete with all the tools and software you need and often use, available anytime, anywhere, from any platform. Other users interact through a secure shell (SSH) command-line interface, which is also accessible through the Guacamole web desktop environment. Both interface methods are available from any browser on any device and provide a continuous and persistent virtual desktop environment similar to that of a mobile computer lab.