Request Access
ACER provides High Performance Computing resources to all university students and faculty. ACER can also enable collaboration from outside of the University of Illinois at Chicago through an external affiliate account. There are two types of accounts, based on eligibility, that a user can request: a PI Account and a General User Account. All General Users must be sponsored by a PI with an active allocation for the project/department. More information about these accounts is provided below.
Account for Principal Investigator (Sponsor): Heading link
All University of Illinois at Chicago Faculty and Research Staff entitled to the Principal Investigator status are eligible for a PI account. A PI account is responsible for the financial oversight for allocation resources and the primary approver of users to a project/allocation. This account is automatically provisioned whenever a new resource option is purchased.
Account for Research User: Heading link
University students and research staff who are ineligible for a PI account may obtain access to High Performance Computing resources through a PI. This would require the user to be associated with a Principal Investigator (who has a valid PI account) for the project/department. The PI account would then need to approve the new user account request before an account is created. A general user can not directly apply for allocation of resources or grant access to other users.
Note: To join an existing allocation, please complete the form and mention the name of the sponsor. Please refer here to find your appropriate allocation.
New HPC Account Request
Account for Academia: Heading link
ACER can provision accounts for students and faculty as part of a special course during a semester or for a semester-wide project. This would require the approval of the Department Head for the respective course/project, given that the specific department has an allocation on one of the clusters. It is suggested that such account requests be made a few weeks before the start of the respective semester. Please send us a mail at acer@uic.edu
Note: For projects consisting of collaborators external to the University of Illinois at Chicago, please refer the section below on External Affiliates
DTN Access Heading link
ACER provides a Data Transfer Node (DTN) service to facilitate large-scale data exchanges between UIC and the Internet2-connected research community. UIC faculty and staff can request access to the DTN on behalf of themselves or sponsored students by filling out the DTN access request form.
Once a user has been granted access to the DTN, they can use the Globus Connect Personal application to transfer files either between their desktop machine and a remote machine such as Extreme or SABER, or between two remote machines for which they have access to a Globus endpoint. Researchers who do not have accounts on any of ACER’s research computing systems can store their data temporarily on our high-performance filesystem for up to 30 days. Detailed instructions for using the Globus Connect Service to transfer files can be found on the Globus Personal Connect Instructions webpage. (Note: access to this page is limited to persons on the UIC Network or connected through the UIC VPN).
Users of the DTN are expected to abide by HPRNet policies and guidelines.
Account for External Users: Heading link
Collaborators who are not associated with the University of Illinois at Chicago can apply for an External Affiliate account to request access to the Research Computing services at ACER. Department Heads or Project Sponsors who are associated with UIC are eligible to approve requests for such external affiliate accounts. A user must have a valid NetID before an account can be processed.
Help and Support: Heading link
Please contact us at acer@uic.edu for any account related questions.