1. Results of the Research Computing Survey – Dec 2008 sent to all faculty via genfac email list after Thanksgiving 40 responses as of Tuesday, Dec 9, 2008 ITCC Retreat Dec 10, 2008

2. Role of computing for the research mission of the campus (30) Research computing is crucial, should be supported with high priority. ( 4) Should be supported as long as it is not interfering with other IT responsibilities. ( 3) Research computing is responsibility of the individual investigators Characterize the role computing plays in your own research? (17) My research is largely computational. (14) I am using computing regularly (but it is not my main research tool). ( 3) I am occasionally using computing in my research. ( 2) Other (please explain)

3. Have you used the campus NIC cluster? ( 3) No, I do not know about it. ( 9) No, I do not need a large parallel cluster. ( 8) No, I am using my own dedicated hardware. (17) Yes. What hardware should be available for research computing? [16] General purpose workstations [22] A large (parallel) cluster like the current NIC cluster. Do you need extra storage space for your research computing? ( 9) No, the space on my general purpose account (DFS) is sufficient. (13) Yes, I need extra network space (few GByte – 1 TByte) How important would it be for the extra space to be backed up by IT? ( ) Not important, I only need scratch space. ( 9) Would be nice to have, but not essential. (16) A regular backup plan is an essential part of my storage needs.

4. Currently, campus support is strongly focused on Microsoft Windows. Is this sufficient for your research computing needs? ( 8) Yes, I am not dependent on a particular operating system. ( 6) Yes, Windows is what I need for my research computing. (21) No, my research requires a different operating system (Linux 19, MacOS 4) Do you need network connectivity beyond the regular connections maintained by IT? [14] networking on campus (high-speed, low-latency) [ 8] off-campus connections General reliability concerns

5. Has the Helpdesk system been sufficient to support your research computing needs? ( 5) I have never used IT support for my research computing. (11) The Helpdesk has handled my support needs adequately. (17) I've had problems with the Helpdesk. No Unix/Linux support What type of support infrastructure would best fulfill your needs? ( 6) Helpdesk like the current one. (21) Campus-wide research computing support group within IT. (16) Dedicated computing support personnel in the departments.

6. Support is worse for the “heavy users”! (Focus on those doing largely computational research) Has the Helpdesk system been sufficient to support your research computing needs? ( 2) I have never used IT support for my research computing. ( 2) The Helpdesk has handled my support needs adequately. (10) I've had problems with the support provided by the Helpdesk What type of support infrastructure would best fulfill your needs? ( 6) Helpdesk like the current one (23) A campus-wide research computing support group within IT. (31) Dedicated computing support personnel in the departments. (these numbers are from ranking the three options)

7. Conclusions Status quo of research computing at Missouri S&T: crucial for campus mission, should be supported with high priority current infrastructure at Missouri S&T is insufficient research computing support is currently lacking Highest priority should be awarded to: hardware upgrades (make the NIC cluster fully functional, deploy a number of general purpose Linux workstations) research computing support personnel either in the departments or as a dedicated research computing support group campus support for the Linux/Unix operating system