Main Page

Looking for a specific answer to a quick question? Consider using our automated support chat.

Welcome to the CMU Department of Statistics and Data Science Computing Wiki! To get the most out of this resource, please note the following:

Purpose & Contribution
The main purpose of this wiki is to familiarize readers with the computing resources provided by the department.

• Newcomers: Please read the Beginner's Guide to Computation in Statistical Research to familiarize yourself with statistical computing tools and best practices as you begin you research.
• Computational Researchers: See the Article Catalog for a full selection of topics and pages and the Directory of Computing Resources for Statistical Research for available computational resources. You can also use the search bar at the top of this page. For one-off questions, consider using the Support Chat
• Contributors and Maintainers: Feel free to leave a comment on any page, or create your own pages. Please see Generic Wiki Information for more information.

Important Announcements

Before using any department computing resources, please see Research Computing Dos and Don'ts

• [2026-08-19] New Article: Automating experiments using Agentic Workflow via GitHub Issues
• [2026-04-10] New Article: Introducing Globus, a tool for sharing large files within and between institutions.
• [2026-04-01] PSA: If you use VS Code, look for "Python Environments" in your extensions and uninstall it immediately due to environment conflicts.
• [2026-04-01] Updated Article: The Linux and department servers page has been updated with instructions on how to use /scratch to avoid disk I/O slowdowns. See Linux and department servers#Using /scratch.

Quick Start

Beginner's Guide to Computation in Statistical Research
The essential starting point for understanding how to scale your statistical workflows and choose the right tools for your research.

Directory of Computing Resources for Statistical Research
A comprehensive index of all available clusters, servers, and computing environments accessible to department members.

Department Tools and Services
Additional department tools, printing, web hosting, software licenses, and specialized computing services.

Article Catalog
A comprehensive list of articles organized by topic

Support Resources

For assistance with issues not covered in this wiki, please reach out to the following contacts:

General Tech Support
For general issues with department computing resources:
Email: remarks@stat.cmu.edu

Research Project Assistance (Graduate Students Only)
Live assistance from Alex Shen, PhD Computing TA, for project-specific computing questions:
Office Hours: Mondays 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM @ FMS Interview Room 320
Contact: ajshen@andrew.cmu.edu or reach out directly via Slack.

Onboarding & Troubleshooting (Graduate Students Only)
Live assistance for setting up and troubleshooting computing resources:
Carl Skipper: Office hours by appointment. Request via skipper@andrew.cmu.edu
Jake Gordon: Office hours by appointment. Request via jacobg2@andrew.cmu.edu

Suggestions Box and Todos

• [New Article] Beginner's Guide -> Scaling -> Version Control -> Experiment Management
• [New Article] Beginner's Guide -> Scaling -> Big Data Management -> Articles about file formats and compression
• [New Article] Beginner's Guide -> Software Development -> Package Creation -> Writing Documentation
• [New Article] Beginner's Guide -> Software Development -> Package Repositories

This section contains work in progress and future suggestions for the wiki. If you would like to leave a suggestions, you may:

• Directly contact the Computing TA
• Leave a comment on a specific wiki article with your suggestions
• Leave a comment on this page with your suggestions