Main Page

Anyone can read this wiki.  If you want to write/edit stuff in the wiki, you will need to log in with your account provided by the Statistics & Data Science Department computing group. This Wiki is intended to be a repository for instruction, information and ideas related to the many computing environments available to members and affiliates of the Statistics & Data Science Department.

Getting to know the computing resources & getting support

If you're interested in knowing about what resources you have access to (and/or) what resources you have access to that might solve a problem you're having, please visit our "what resources when" article.

To get support that is beyond this website please attend office hours below and/or email remarks@stat.cmu.edu for support (for more details about how the support ticketing works through remarks@stat.cmu.edu + ServiceNow please see the ServiceNow article).

Reset your StatDS password here - https://util.stat.cmu.edu/passwordreset/

Department Contacts

• events@stat.cmu.edu: seminars, conferences & workshops, and calendar updates

• news@stat.cmu.edu: dept/dept member-related public news & announcements

• lists@stat.cmu.edu: department email lists

• webmaster@stat.cmu.edu: website updates

• remarks@stat.cmu.edu: computer/tech requests

• rooms@stat.cmu.edu: request space for meetings and TA office hours

• reimbursements@stat.cmu.edu: travel and reimbursement requests

Computing Office Hours

These office hour opportunities provide a dedicated time for you to come ask questions about research computing.  These include code advice, how to access certain resources, what the best resources are for your project, or to learn about new connections to help you progress in your education and research. Staff Office hour times will be sent out each week on Monday as a calendar invite; accept any of the invitations to add it to your personal calendar. PhD TA Office Hours are below, unless a different time is communicated.

1. PhD TA Office Hours for the first half of summer 2025 are held by Elizabeth Cucuzzella in FMS Room 320 on Mondays from 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm. PhD students can also message on the #computing channel on slack.
2. Staff Office Hours are held by appointment by Carl Skipper in BH 129G. Schedule via email.

See computing office hour usage for what office hours can be used for.

Computing Wiki Pages

Managing servers and environments

Introductory Tutorials

Introduction to Basic Linux Commands

Virtual environments

• Why use virtual environments?
• R's Renv
• Python's virtual environments (2 options)
• Old instructions for conda with Python

Containers

• Introduction to containers
• Docker, and why-you-should-use-it-for-your-research
• Basic tutorial
• Running Docker locally and on Hydras

Department computing resources

Printing

• Department Printers

Web Hosting

1. How to host your webpage under stat.cmu.edu
2. Bulding your website with Hugo

Servers

• Department Servers.
  1. Using the Servers Overview -This wiki introduces you to the hydra servers, basic Linux commands, and more.
  2. Terminal multiplexers (screen and tmux). This wiki presents tools for use on the hydra that can allow you to run jobs even when your not on the server, and much much more!
  3. Python on the server. This wiki introduces uses command line approaches to running python on a virtual machine, and how to use jupyter notebooks through the server as well.
  4. R on the server. This wiki introduces uses command line approaches to running R on a virtual machine
  5. Software - overview of the software installed and ready for use.

• Department GPU Servers, for small jobs needing 1 GPU.
• GPU Cluster, for larger jobs that may need multiple GPUs and many CPUs.
• PSC, the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. Free accounts and usage credits are available
  1. ACCESS
  2. Slurm. This wiki introduces the job management system uses at PSC.
  3. Parallelization_on_PSC/Bridges-2
  4. Access PSC compute nodes directly from VSCode
• Open OnDemand

Development guides

Parallelization

• R-specific parallelization
• Python-specific parallelization

Package development

• R package development
• Python package development

Terminal automation. This wiki introduces approaches to automate Linux/OS command line calls.

• Bash files. This wiki presents potential uses of Bash files including automated file/folder creation, parallelization and much more!
• Make. This wiki presents potential uses of make and Makefiles including automated workflow and dependency tracking
• Jumping to frequently used folders and automating environment setups

Version Control

See the guide provided in the site of 36750 - Statistical Computing

Reference management

1. Zotero
2. Mendeley

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)

1. VSCode
2. PyCharm
3. RStudio
4. Eclipse

Text Editors

1. Vim
2. Nano
3. Emacs
4. Atom
5. Sublime

See also the guide provided in the site of 36750 - Statistical Computing

AI Tools

• ChatGPT and other LLMs

• GitHub Copilot

Miscellaneous

1. Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) and Python
2. Amphetamine: How to keep your computer awake

General Department Computing Resources

• Fall 2021 Computing Seminar Resources (video and slides)

Ideas for the Wiki

Please see the TODO page to post suggestions and errata.

Using the Wiki

• Here is some Generic Wiki Information that you may be interested in, such as a users' guide and other resources for Wiki users.

Archived Pages

These area pages that are potentially useful for some users, but no longer reflect the computing resources of the department writ large.

Azure

1. Azure: getting started. This wiki walks you through the steps to create a virtual machine through Azure
2. How to obtain a virtual machine with a GPU
3. Attach a disk to a virtual machine