Use of HiPerGator by faculty and researchers at other colleges and universities
As part of the AI Initiative, the University of Florida is making its HiPerGator supercomputer available for faculty and students at other colleges and universities. This page describes the policies governing that sharing and the procedures to obtain authorization to use HiPerGator. There are two major classes of universities, with different modalities of use. Colleges and universities in the State of Florida State University System (SUS) can use HiPerGator for teaching and research whereas Southeast Conference (SEC) universities can only use HiPerGator for teaching.
Universities in the Florida State University System (SUS)
The University of Florida has reached an agreement with the Board of Governors of the State University System (SUS) of Florida that all faculty at universities in the State of Florida can use HiPerGator, which includes HiPerGator 3.0, HiPerGator AI, and HiPerGator-RV under the same policies and procedures as faculty at the University of Florida. That allows faculty to use HiPerGator for teaching and for research. Note that the teaching use has no cost associated with it, but the use for research, including graduate student research, does require purchasing resources at the subsidized rates published. SUS institutions are able to purchase all resources and services offered to UF faculty.
Universities in the Southeast Conference (SEC)
The Provost of the University of Florida has invited all member institutions of the SEC to use HiPerGator for teaching only at no cost. The SEC members are not eligible to use HiPerGator for research, including graduate student research.
Use of HiPerGator for Teaching
Standing allocation for course preparation
Each partner institution will receive a standing allocation of 32 NCUs, 2TiB Blue storage, and 4 NGUs. This allocation is meant to be used to prepare courses, and must be renewed yearly. The IT point of contact at the partner institution will be the custodian of this allocation, and is responsible for ensuring proper use of the allocation for its intended purpose as well as the adherence to HiPerGator policies.
Course number limits
Teaching access to HiPerGator is limited to three courses per partner institution per semester. It is up to the IT unit at the partner institution to select the three courses that will use HiPerGator for each semester. See the information on the teaching support page for details and timeline.
Research Investments
Faculty at SUS institutions wishing to make investments for research must establish a group on HiPerGator and make investments using the UFRC purchase request forms. Teaching resources cannot be used for research.
User Support model
The staff supporting HiPerGator at the University of Florida are organized in the Research Computing unit of UF Information Technology. The scale of staff is insufficient to support the faculty at all partner universities. The front-line support for faculty at any partner university comes from a local unit supporting research computing or IT. Which unit performs this role at each university is established at the beginning of the partnership between UFIT and the partner university. The respective local support unit will contact UFIT Research Computing staff for support request escalation when necessary on behalf of their users.
Authentication and authorization
Authentication of students and faculty needing access to HiPerGator works through InCommon Federation using the credentials of each partner institution. UF requires that the partner institution have multi-factor authentication and that their InCommon identity provider pass on the MFA confirmation in the certificate sent to the service provider.
Training
All users, including students, faculty, and staff, are required to take the HiPerGator Account training. Students and faculty should review the additional information for courses.