CAEN > Faculty Computing at Michigan Engineering

Faculty Computing at Michigan Engineering

Welcome to Michigan Engineering! Several computing and information technology (IT) services are provided to you as a Michigan Engineering faculty member, designed to support your instructional and research success. There are three main campus IT providers you may work with:

  • Your Departmental IT Support Staff are available to assist you with the daily desktop and IT support needs within your department.
  • Information and Technology Services (ITS) is the University of Michigan’s central IT organization, which offers a standard set of computing services to all U-M faculty.
  • CAEN – Michigan Engineering’s central IT group, providing instructional technology and research computing support to all Engineering faculty.

Click a link below to jump to a particular topic, and find out more about the services offered on campus:

Faculty and staff participate in a College training workshop
 

Your Computing Access

As a Michigan Engineering faculty member, you are eligible and automatically enrolled for CAEN Access, which provides a set of Engineering-specific computing services, such as the ability to log in at CAEN computer labs or access your CAEN online file storage allocation.

Your CAEN Access should be active within a week after your start date. If you require access prior to that date, your departmental IT support staff may submit an early access request on your behalf. If you arrive on campus and have any problems logging in, contact CAEN for immediate assistance.

All U-M faculty receive access to a standard set of computing services from ITS, including your University login ID (also known as your U-M uniqname). You will use your uniqname and corresponding UMICH password to log in and access the majority of computing and online services at U-M.

Connecting to the Network

Wi-Fi network access is available to all faculty in University buildings. MWireless allows you to securely connect your devices to the Internet. Eduroam is also available on the University of Michigan campus. Eduroam allows students, faculty, and staff from other participating institutions to connect to the internet securely when visiting other institutions. It requires credentials from either the institution you are visiting or alternately the University of Michigan. If you have visitors or guests on campus, a network called MGuest allows them to easily connect and receive basic internet connectivity.

Wired (Ethernet) access is also available in all Michigan Engineering buildings, which is especially important if you work from a desktop computer. Your departmental IT support staff can assist you with connecting your office and research lab computers to the wired network.

The University also offers a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to all Michigan Engineering students, faculty, and staff which will make sure you have a secure computing experience when accessing a U-M network from a remote location.

Virtual Private Network (VPN) Access

The U-M Virtual Private Network (VPN) is available to all Michigan Engineering faculty. It provides a secure computing experience when accessing a U-M network from a remote location, and may be required to access certain campus services that are restricted by location. Information on using the U-M VPN service can be found at:

Classroom & Instructional Technology

Many resources are available throughout Michigan Engineering to support faculty instruction, including classroom presentation systems, a lecture recording service, live-streaming stations, and a campus-wide LMS (learning management system) for publishing course materials online.

CAEN Staff are also available to assist with any questions you have about including technology in your instruction. Reach out to CAEN and a CAEN consultant will be in touch to find out more about your needs.

Classroom Technology For Michigan Engineering Instructors – Handout Version (pdf)

Research Computing

The U-M Advanced Research Computing (ARC) group provides access to Great Lakes, a Linux-based high-performance computing (HPC) cluster available to all researchers at the University. Other ARC services include very large working-set data storage, a broad range of applications and development tools, and basic consulting services.

The U-M Research Computing Package (UMRCP) provided by ITS includes 80,000 CPU hours per year, 10TB of active storage, and 100TB of archive storage at no cost to faculty.

Michigan Engineering also cost-shares a portion of the use of the Great Lakes cluster for sponsored research conducted by Michigan Engineering researchers.

CAEN research computing consultants can work with you to understand the cost of resources and help to provide the resources that fit your needs. Contact them via email at coe-research-computing@umich.edu.

Research Computing Support at Michigan Engineering – Handout Version (pdf)

Software

The software library available in CAEN computer labs includes a large set of engineering-specific applications covering a wide range of disciplines, as well as productivity applications. Michigan Engineering faculty have access to this library for use in instructional activities. In addition, a number of applications are also licensed for research use.

ITS provides a set of widely used software applications for all U-M faculty to access from campus computing sites.

CAEN consultants are available to assist faculty who are interested in exploring how software can be integrated into their courses or research.

Online File Storage

As an Engineering faculty member, you have multiple online file storage options, including a large amount of cloud storage from U-M DropBox and U-M Google Drive. CAEN also provides you with an additional allocation that can be easily accessed for storing and working with files on CAEN lab computers.

There are other campus storage/backup services available to faculty, including MiStorage which provides an option for storing large amounts of data. These options are backed up regularly to protect your important files and are recommended over using external media which can be broken, lost, or stolen. Faculty should speak with their departmental IT support staff, or contact CAEN, for assistance with determining the best option for their work.

Website Hosting & Publishing

Engineering faculty are eligible to host and publish website(s) using CAEN’s WordPress web publishing service. This service can not only be used for a personal profile website, but also for a site dedicated to your research group, lab, or center. In order to use the service, a standard Michigan Engineering theme is required on the site, but faculty have complete control over the content they publish (CAEN consultants are also available to assist with content updates).

Information Technology Security

IT security is a shared responsibility, and every member of the U-M community has an important role to play. It can be especially important for faculty who work with research data. CAEN works with representatives from across the University to coordinate and leverage information technology activities to meet unit requirements and support the College’s mission.

If you need to know which U-M supported software tools can be used with your sensitive data, please check the Sensitive Data Guide.

Leading Innovation

CAEN works closely with others on campus including CRLT-Engin and Mosaic to find new and innovative ways to heighten institutional agility, increase collaboration, and conserve faculty time. A number of these initiatives are currently being worked on, and several are in the pilot phase. If you would like to learn more about any of these initiatives, give feedback on what you think is important, or be a part of this change, let us know. Current projects include: 

Questions or Problems?

Additional details on the topics described above, and more, are available via the CAEN Knowledge Base. Consultants are also available to answer specific questions about CAEN services, or your local departmental IT resources.

 

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