Faculty Information

Some specific information for faculty (especially new faculty).

Computer Accounts

Both the math department and the college (through CIS) offer computing accounts. These accounts give you access to different sets of access; in most cases, you'll need both.

Mathematics Cluster Accounts

Accounts on the mathematics cluster (machines maintained by the department's systems administrator) are available by filling out the department's account request form (PDF) and submitting the form to the department's systems administrator. Account policies are the same for all users.

CIS Accounts

CIS runs the college's Windows and Macintosh computer labs and maintains the college's networking infrastructure. They administer the accounts for their systems. The CIS account-request form allows you to select what systems you need access to.

Consulting these descriptions of some of the CIS servers may help you choose which types of accounts you need.

Wireless Connectivity

The Claremont Colleges run a campuswide wireless network called CINE. Access is restricted to machines whose “MAC” addresses have been registered.

A MAC address is a set of six two-digit hexadecimal numbers, usually separated with hyphens or colons, as in 01:23:45:67:89:ab. You can find this information in different places depending on your operating system.

For Windows, the MAC address for your wireless card can be found in the the Network Connections Explorer window (which can usually be reached from the Start menu). Select your wireless network interface, then right-click on it and choose Status... from the pop-up menu. Then click to select the Support tab, and then click the Details button. Your wireless card's MAC address is listed as “Physical Address”, with dashes instead of colons.

On a Mac, you can get the MAC address by going to the Network preferences pane, selecting AirPort in the left pane, then selecting the Ethernet tab and copying the Ethernet ID. You can also get the address through a Terminal session, but running

networksetup -getmacaddress AirPort

or by running ifconfig and looking at the results. (The AirPort card is usually en1, but it might have a different name depending on what other network devices you might have in use or have used in the past.)

Once you have the MAC address, you can enter it in CIS's wireless request form (available from the CINE page) or send it to the department's system administrator for handling.

Amber Cluster Accounts

If you need access to the math and CS department's shared cluster, Amber, please let me know. Check our Amber pages for details on the application process, machine configuration, available software, and so forth.

Hex Accounts

If you need access to hex, our 16-way, 32 GB machine, please let me know. Check our hex pages for details on the application process, machine configuration, available software, and so forth.

Web Sites

The department runs its own web server (hint: you're looking at it). Faculty can have their own websites under their usernames, with URLs like

http://www.math.hmc.edu/~username/

The files for these websites are stored in a public_html directory at the top level of your home directory on the math cluster. Note that the permissions on files and directories within the website as well as on the public_html directory and your home directory must be set properly; our Unix permissions tutorial describes the correct settings.

Special Directories

For faculty, we provide the ability to restrict access to materials to machines within the hmc.edu domain or within the Claremont Colleges network. You can create the directories ~/public_html/hmc-only/ and ~/public_html/cuc-only/ to take advantage of these restrictions.

Keep in mind that the wireless network is shared by all the colleges, and that anything you want students to be able to access from their laptops will have to go into the cuc-only directory. As this directory also allows non-HMC students to access your materials, it's probably the best place for class-related materials that you don't want people off campus to be able to see.

Desktop and Laptop Machines

If you're not purchasing equipment out of your startup funds or as part of your startup deal, you may want to consider requesting a laptop or desktop system from CIS's PCs for Faculty Program.

Each semester, CIS sends out a call for applications that includes several preconfigured machines to choose from, generally a Dell laptop and desktop machine running Windows XP Professional and an Apple laptop and desktop running Mac OS X. Once we have the machine, we can wipe it and install whatever OS we like on it, so if one of the standard configurations works for you, then we can go with that.

If none of the preconfigured machines does quite what you want, PCs for Faculty program will provide around $2000–$2200 (the exact amount may vary each semester; these amounts are from fall, 2005) towards the purchase of a nonstandard system.

In either case, I encourage you to talk to me about what you want to do so that we can figure out the best solution together. Because CIS “takes back” any PCs for Faculty funded machine (even ones that have been partially funded), it may be worth considering whether some peripherals should be purchased outside the program so that they may be retained when that machine is replaced.

Shared Resources

The department maintains a number of shared resources for use by faculty.

Printers

The department has an HP Color LaserJet 5550dtn and shares a Canon imageRunner 8070 with the other departments in Olin. Both of these machines can duplex (print on both sides of a sheet of paper).

gaspode is a color laser printer, suitable for printing reasonably detailed color documents. If you want to print photographs, you're probably better off taking them to a drugstore or other store with photo-printing equipment, or buying your own inkjet printer.

wuffles is a digital copier, and can produce multipage documents (such as exams or class handouts) that are printed duplex, stapled, and even three-hole punched.

Poster Printing

Through the generosity of Hewlett Packard and the tenacity of Mike Raugh, the department also has scraps, an HP DesignJet 1055cm. scraps can print posters that are 36" on one dimension. We have more information about printing posters available, including templates, college logos, and other material.

Computers

The department has additional, shared computers that you can use. These include:

sacharissa
A dual-processor Apple Power Macintosh G5 running Mac OS X 10.4. Located in the Publications Room, Olin B-143A (small room off the scientific-computing lab). Has a very nice color scanner and Adobe's Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat Professional) and can be used to create PDF files from scanned pages.
ponder
ponder is a 3.06 GHz dual-Xeon machine with 12 GB of RAM. It can be used for computations requiring a large amount of local memory or for long-running processes. ponder was purchased by Darryl Yong out of his startup funds; he has generously shared it with the rest of the department.

Software

MATLAB

The college has two types of licenses for MATLAB—classroom licenses, for use only for instructional use in classroom labs, and a more general use (including research) license that includes fewer products.

MATLAB can also be purchased for individual or group use on laptops and home machines. Consult their price list for details.

Standalone Use

At present (July, 2009), the college does not have a license agreement in effect that allows standalone use of MATLAB and its toolboxes on laptops, home machines, or other machines that are not owned or operated by the college on the campus.

It is possible to install a version of MATLAB that will authenticate to the college's license servers, but that software will require you to have an active network connection and to foward ports back to HMC's network to work. See our page on setting up a VPN via SSH (for Mac OS X). CIS also has VPN options.

Desk Copy Option

MathWorks also has a faculty program where they will grant a faculty member a six-month “desk copy” license for the student version of MATLAB for classroom preparation only (not for research). They will want details about your class, the textbook(s) you're using, how you will be using MATLAB in the class, and so forth. If you choose to use MATLAB in your class, they will extend the license to one year, but be warned—they will contact you to see how your class is going.

Maple

Maplesoft's Maple Adoption Program is a bit less rigid, although its requirements are similar to MathWorks's requirements (you have to be using/recommending the use of Maple for a class). Once you have the software, however, you may use it for research as well as classroom prep.

Mathematica

We now have a Claremont Colleges-wide license for Mathematica, which includes support for home and laptop use for faculty and staff.

For college-owned laptops, please see me about getting the necessary software (ideally, I can install it for you while I'm installing other software). CIS has requested that we use standalone installs for all laptops.

For your home system, you have to fill out a form at Wolfram's site. You can then download the software or request a set of CDs to be sent to you.

You will need the Colleges' license number to complete the form. The number was sent to all faculty by Elizabeth Hodas in the summer of 2006; if you don't have that message, let me know and I'll send you the information.

Other Software

If you have questions about particular software packages, please feel free to ask the department's systems staff for more information.

More (Local) Information

More information about our support for various software packages is available from our support site. Quick links to specific packages:

Other Services

Other services provided by other departments include the following.

Audio/Visual

CIS provides audio/visual services, such as arranging for projectors, cameras, microphones, or other equipment for classrooms, seminar rooms, or meetings. Requests should be made at least 24 hours before the service will be needed through their online form