XSEDE – eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment
GMU is a member of XSEDE (Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment) an NSF-sponsored project which provides digital resources and services to research scientists and educators in the US. XSEDE provides an array of services to ensure that researchers can make the most of supercomputers. There is no charge to use these resources. If the computational facilities available on the Mason campus do not meet the researchers’ needs, then needed facilities can be obtained from XSEDE.
XSEDE provides a wide array of resources including extremely large-scale traditional HPC cluster access, virtual machine hosting, GPU-enabled compute, and storage. You can find out more about the resources available in XSEDE at the XSEDE ecosystem website.
Each XSEDE member has one or more “Campus Champions” who act as facilitators to provide access to XSEDE resources. If you are interested in using XSEDE resources, the ORC has several XSEDE campus champions who are available to help please submit a help request to set up an appointment.
Cyverse
Cyverse is an NSF-sponsored project that provides cyberinfrastructure targeted specifically at life sciences research in the US. Cyverse provides cloud-based infrastructure for data storage, analysis, and sharing, through a secure web-based portal. Cyverse also has consultants who can assist with making use of Cyverse resources. There is no charge to use these resources.
Cyverse has an extensive list of applications that they provide through their portal. A list of webinars, workshops, and other training provided by Cyverse can be found on the Cyverse Learning Materials website.
Science Gateways
Science gateways provide access to advanced domain-specific research resources. Data collections, analysis tools and compute resources are made accessible through simple web-based interfaces. There is a large number of science gateways available, the Science Gateways Community Institute (SGCI) maintains a searchable catalog of available gateways. XSEDE also maintains a list of XSEDE science gateway projects.
Virginia ACCORD
(Assuring Controls Compliance of Research Data)
Mason participates in the ACCORD project, hosted by the University of Virginia and developed in collaboration with 11 other Virginia universities and public institutions. The goal of the project is to provide a secure shared infrastructure, that is capable of supporting diverse research computing workloads with sensitive data requirements.
The ACCORD systems are still being set up. In the interim ORC can facilitate access to the IVY VM HIPAA Compliant Cluster run by UVA, or the eCUI virtual desktop environment provided by Mason’s IT services. Please submit a help request to set up a consultation.
CLOUD Services
Mason has relationships with a number of commercial cloud services providers including Microsft Azure and Amazon AWS. Mason’s IT services can help with pricing and information. Please submit a help request to set up a consultation.
CloudLab is an NSF sponsored project of the University of Utah, Clemson University, the University of Wisconsin Madison, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Raytheon BBN Technologies, and US Ignite. CloudLab provides a testbed for the development of novel cloud architectures and cloud-based applications. CloudLab uses Emulab and GENI to deploy clusters on bare-metal resources. More information about the technology of CloudLab can be found at the CloudLab Technology webpage. If you are interested in using CloudLab please submit a help request to set up a consultation.