High Performance Computing (HPC) Facility
Usage Policy
The usage policies are developed by the Research committee of the ITSC. The policies may amend time to time as required.
Usage and Access to the facility
The facility will be open to any permanent academic staff member affiliated to the Faculty of Science, University of Colombo hereafter termed as “internal”. The user accounts can be obtained by requesting to the HPC management committee. Requests of undergraduate and postgraduate research students should be submitted with the recommendation from the “internal” supervisor.
Scientific Collaboration and Affiliates
The facility is open for collaborative research groups which may include external researchers. Collaborators will be able to conceive research ideas, mentor research students, involve in the research design and execution of experiments, or disseminate findings in the form of scholarly works.
A collaboration should consist of at least one “internal” member from the Faculty of Science, University of Colombo, and he/she is responsible to report to the faculty on any related matter requiring formal approval from the Faculty Board of the Faculty of Science, University of Colombo or any other matter deemed necessary by the Dean.
Collaborators outside the Faculty of Science, University of Colombo requiring independent access to Computing research facilities (known as ‘affiliates’ herein) will be nominated to the HPC management committee through the “internal” representative of the respective collaboration.
All scientific collaborations under the HPC facility requiring the usage of facilities at the faculty will need to be declared to the HPC management committee. All collaborative research utilizing any resource of the faculty should commit sufficient resources for the maintenance of related facilities as decided by the HPC management committee. Outcomes of each collaborative project will be monitored annually for scientific progress and financial progress.
Approval of nominations for affiliates will be at the discretion of the HPC management committee. All approved affiliates will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the ITSC, Faculty of Science, University of Colombo and will be given the right to be affiliated to the HPC facility, Faculty of Science, University of Colombo. Affiliates will be subjected to annual review and upon the recommendation of the chairperson of the HPC management committee may decide to either continue or to cease such affiliations. The constitution of the ITSC, Faculty of Science, University of Colombo will be subjected to implement the above changes and will be forwarded for approval from the faculty board.
Cost
Access to the HPC facility is completely free of charge for the “internal” members (i.e. permanent academic staff members of the faculty of Science) and the undergraduate students of the Faculty of Science who are supervised by the internal members.
Postgraduate students affiliated to the Faculty of Science and supervised by an internal member will have access to the facility for a subsidized rate. The subscription will be valid for one year from the date of commencement of the project and will have to be renewed annually.
External collaborators will have to pay a subscription fee to maintain their user login to the HPC facility. The subscription needs to be renewed annually.
Scientific Output and Dissemination
Access to the HPC facility is completely free of charge for the “internal” members (i.e. permanent academic staff members of the faculty of Science) and the undergraduate students of the Faculty of Science who are supervised by the internal members.
Postgraduate students affiliated to the Faculty of Science and supervised by an internal member will have access to the facility for a subsidized rate. The subscription will be valid for one year from the date of commencement of the project and will have to be renewed annually.
External collaborators will have to pay a subscription fee to maintain their user login to the HPC facility. The subscription needs to be renewed annually.
Acknowledging the HPC facility in research outputs
You should acknowledge any contribution made by the HPC facility or support services in your publications. We suggest using the following statement:
Computational resources and services used in this work were provided by the HPC facility of the Faculty of Science, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Including HPC in Proposals
Approval from HPC management committee is not required to include general use of HPC resources in proposals. The following specifications can be used for in-kind costing:
- Processing – $0.5 / core / hour with 8 GB RAM
- GPU – $3 / GPU / hour
- Storage – $3 / TB data stored / 7 days