Researchers

Welcome to Duke!

data

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) has flexible computing resources of interest to researchers, from virtual computing labs, specialized software, and access to the high-performance Duke Computer Cluster. The Research Computing team is available throughout your Duke career to provide support and consultation. Also note, many schools and departments already provide computational and storage resources for researchers, be sure to check with your local IT (use this link: https://itac.duke.edu/it-groups-duke) for access and guidance. 

General Duke IT Resources 

Duke virtual and physical computing labs are available to all Duke faculty, students, and staff. Virtual resources have renewable semester long reservations.

Software is available to download from a library of more than 100 software packages for free or at a steep discount. 

Websites can be self-published using WordPress. Sites@Duke is Duke’s no-charge WordPress website service for Duke faculty, staff and students. Sakai is a course management tool for faculty and students. Note: fee based services are also available for advanced site design and support. 

Collaboration and Communication are offered to support the Duke community:  surveys using Qualtrics (or REDCap), file sharing and storage using Box, and conferencing through Zoom and Webex. 

The Innovation Co-Lab offers technical training through the Roots program and studio space for digital modeling and fabrication on West Campus and at the Ruby. 

Researcher quick tips for using general IT resources:

·         Use Research Toolkits to create and define online groups for use of IT resources for groups or projects (avoids personally ‘owning’ the resource)

·         Request a Sponsored Account for external collaborators that may need access to some of your Duke resources
 

Research Computing Services    

Virtual Machines for Research, called RAPID VMs, are provided to Duke faculty (or designees) automatically with an allocation of 4 CPU cores, 40GB of RAM, and 200GB of storage. VMs are self-service and managed through a web interface. 

Duke Computer Cluster is a high throughput, high performance LINUX cluster for research support. At present, there are over 20,000 CPU cores, and 350 GPUs.  Access is provided by the University for common use and researchers can purchase dedicated nodes for their research. Storage is provided for data under analysis. 

Data Commons storage can be used in conjunction with Research Computing services or stand-alone as archival storage of research data. It is $80 per TB per year.

The Research Computing team provides support and consultation including: training, grant support, and partners with researchers to develop new tools. Email rescomputing@duke.edu for more information.

 

Research with Sensitive Data

Review Duke security policies and data security standards. Engage the Campus Institutional Review Board for protocol review and approval for human subject research.

 

Duke's Protected Research Data Network is a resource for analysis and storage of sensitive research data.  Fees may apply, consulting can be engaged through your school and/or SSRI to create appropriate data protection plans for research.

 Researcher quick tips for data security:

For more information about working with sensitive data, contact the Duke IT Security office at security@duke.edu, or the Campus IRB at campusirb@duke.edu.