The purposes of the CSC faculty partnership program are to:
- Help individual researchers leverage the facilities and expertise of the center to more efficiently use their research funding;
- Provide a mechanism for the continued growth and renewal of SMU’s research computing infrastructure.
Faculty partners will enter into agreements with the Director of the CSC for the purchase, maintenance, and use of hardware and software. The details of these agreements in any individual case will be spelled out in a Memorandum of Understanding which can be executed either at the time of submission of a grant proposal or at the time of purchase. A typical agreement would entail the purchase of compute nodes and an acceptable warranty agreement using an individual’s research funds. The center would agree to install and operate the equipment over a specified time period, bearing all power, cooling, networking, administration and similar costs. In addition, the faculty member and any other users he/she designates would have priority access to these or an equivalent number of nodes. When not in use by the preferred users, they would be accessible to all faculty and student users.
Faculty who might be interested in becoming partners with the CSC are encouraged to contact the Director, leaving sufficient time to develop an agreement on the details of the arrangement before any proposal is due.