Wednesday, September 30, 2026

Information Technology Services (ITS) continues to make progress on research computing service stability, infrastructure improvements, and support for researchers across campus.

Infrastructure and service improvements

Research computing teams continue to advance several improvements intended to strengthen services and provide clearer support paths for researchers.

  • Research computing staff are working with the ITS Help Desk and Health Care Information Services Help Desk so they can answer some common Large Scale Storage questions directly.
  • Active development and testing are underway for the Argon high-performance computing (HPC) modernization effort, including a base operating system upgrade to Rocky Linux and a transition from the Sun Grid Engine (SGE) scheduler to Slurm. These enhancements are part of ongoing efforts to expand and modernize Argon's computing capabilities in support of computationally intensive research, advanced data analysis, and emerging artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads. ITS will communicate with researchers when the upgraded environment is available for broader use.

Support, teaching, and outreach

The Interactive Data Analytics Service (IDAS) is supporting 21 class sections so far this semester, with 470 students and instructors using the service. Instructors who are interested in setting up IDAS for a classroom can still submit a request.

Research Services is helping customers through weekly open office hours support organized by the Carver College of Medicine and plans to participate in the Office of the Vice President for Research information fair for researchers on Oct. 8.

Machine learning and big data workshop

The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center has organized a national machine learning and big data workshop Oct. 13-14. ITS will host a free satellite site where research computing users can learn about big data analytics and machine learning with Spark, as well as deep learning. Register to attend by 10 a.m. Monday, Oct. 12.

Staffing and coordination

Search committees are making progress on two team leadership positions that will support research computing services. The Research Services and Research Platforms teams have established a monthly meeting to coordinate work across the two groups and continue improving service stability, documentation, and support processes. Melissa Lawrence, associate director of research services, has accepted a position outside the university. Please reach out through the support channels listed below for any questions you would have directed to her.

Share feedback or request help

Research computing users are encouraged to share questions, concerns, and feedback so the team can continue improving services and communication.