Mathematics Computing

Computer Facilities

The Department of Mathematics encourages computer use for research, teaching, outreach, and administration. This page provides an overview of computing resources available to faculty and graduate students in the Department of Mathematics for professional computing needs. Access to some resources is straightforward, requiring only a few clicks and a password. However, access to other resources may require familiarity with Linux systems and an understanding of how computer clusters operate.

Accessing Resources

1. Office Computers: Office machines can be used for email, mathematical text processing (TeX, LaTeX), symbolic computation (Maple, Matlab, Macaulay, Magma, Mathematica, etc.), graphics, computational science and engineering.

   Faculty can request a Windows or Linux machine for their office. If the office does not have the desired operating system, a request can be made to sciencehelp@purdue.edu. Additional hardware options, such as Macs or advanced configurations, are possible but may require funding. Student offices are equipped with Linux machines.

2. Departmental Computers:

   1. Computers banach and hardy are used to access computational servers with greater capacity. To access them, visit Remote Desktop Access page. There, you can log in with your Purdue Career username (including @purdue.edu) and password. For off-campus access, connect to Purdue VPN first. You can also log in via the terminal command “ssh user@hardy.math.purdue.edu,” replacing “user” with your username. Note that password-only logins are disabled on banach and hardy, and the use of Duo Mobile (follow password by comma and then PUSH), a hardware token (follow password by comma and then the 6-digit token), or an SSH key pair is now required. For GUI applications, use “ssh -Y” if your X server is appropriately configured.

   2. For very small computational jobs, you may use the capabilities of banach or hardy. You can locate programs such as Maple, Macaulay2, R, SageMath, and Mathematica in the Applications > Programming drop-down menu. Alternatively, use commands such as “maple”, “M2”, “R”, “sage”, or “math” from the command line. Older versions of these programs can be accessed by using the “module” command. Use “module avail” to list available versions (modules) and “module load foo” to load the module “foo”.

   3. For larger (than very small) computational jobs, connect from banach or hardy to the departmental computer maclaurin using another ssh command (use your plain password or SSH keys). On-campus, you may log in to maclaurin directly without logging in to banach or hardy first.

3. Connecting to Other Departmental Computers: For even larger computing requirements, department members can connect to the departmental CPU servers (dirac nodes) or GPU servers (chongzhi/arnold/majda nodes).

4. Connecting to RCAC Nodes: In Spring 2024, the department gained access to Purdue’s GPU cluster (gilbreth) and CPU cluster (negishi) at the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC).

   • New users should request an account (specify “Mathematics Department” as the research group). After approval, access gilbreth or negishi at https://www.rcac.purdue.edu/compute/gilbreth or https://www.rcac.purdue.edu/compute/negishi and select “Launch” in the “Gateway” box near the top.

   • Under Interactive Apps in the ribbon bar menu at the top, select MATLAB, Jupyter Notebook (for Python), or Desktop (for a Linux environment). You will then see options for the maximum allotted time, the number of cores to use, and other settings.

     • Do not request a long time and/or many cores unless you need those resources. You will have to wait longer to get a lot of resources, and you will be taking them away from others.
   • Fill out the options and press “Launch”. Your request will be queued and fulfilled based on the current load and resource availability. This may take from a few seconds to several hours.
   • Disconnect or log out using the icon on the left-side pop-out menu. You will be automatically disconnected if you exceed the allotted time.
   • Explore the Account, Compute, and Storage sections in the ribbon bar menu for more possibilities associated with these clusters. For more information and additional RCAC services, visit Negishi User Guide and Gilbreth User Guide.

5. Accessing Applications Through Purdue IT's GoRemote/Citrix: Access applications such as Git, Maple, Mathcad, Matlab, PolymathPlus, RProject 431, RStudio, SAS, and TeX for the whole campus at https://goremote.itap.purdue.edu. Log in with your Purdue Career username (without @purdue.edu) and password. Click on the “Light version” if you do not want to install Citrix on your computer.

For inquiries about which resources best fit your needs, contact Science IT at sciencehelp@purdue.edu or the chair of the Computer Committee Xiangxiong Zhang.

Other Available Hardware

The Mathematics department maintains publicly accessible computer labs (MATH 635 and MATH 737) that contain public printers and desktop computers. A number of laptops and projectors are available for checkout. This equipment is typically used for presentations and/or working remotely on official university business. See the receptionist in the main office MATH 835 to check out projectors. Laptop reservations can be made through the Science IT Submit Help Ticket page.

Purdue Information Technology (Purdue IT)

Purdue IT provides a variety of computing services for the campus, including support for instructional and research computing needs that are not specific to the department. Information about these services including the use of career accounts, obtaining Purdue IT research accounts, or other Purdue IT services can be found at the Purdue IT Services website. Purdue IT instructional labs can be reserved for occasional or regular use in courses; you should see the Schedule Deputy as far in advance as possible for scheduling since these labs are heavily used. Faculty and student discounts are available for personal purchase of Macintosh and PC compatible hardware and software through Purdue IT Shopping.

Science IT

The Science IT staff, supporting the day-to-day operation of our computer systems, has several teams with different technical focus: Unix, Macintosh, Windows, Web, etc. When requesting help, the preferred option is to use the Submit Help Ticket form, though emailing sciencehelp@purdue.edu or calling 765-494-4000 are available as well depending on the situation. Once submitted the request will be assigned to the most appropriate team(s). If you have a problem with department computers or printers please report the problem using the options just mentioned.

It is University policy (and the law!) that software copyrights and license agreements be respected.

Important Resources

• Eduroam service (available to users from participating institutions)
• How do I set up College of Science printers?
• Submit Help Ticket form (if FAQ does not provide a solution)
• Remote access to department services through SFB software
• Math department faculty and graduate students may set up a personal web page in addition to the structured profile page.