Research Computing Consultation Services
Northwestern Information Technology (IT) Research Computing consultants collaborate with research faculty, postdocs, staff, and students to overcome technical obstacles, advance skills, and effectively use computational resources. Support is provided for all skill levels and for all areas of research within the University.
Key areas of support are described below. Please do not hesitate to contact us if your needs do not fall in the areas listed on this page.
Cost
General research computing consulting services are offered to Northwestern researchers, faculty, students, and staff typically at no cost. Longer term consulting, as part of a specialized project or formal commitments in support of grant awards, could be subject to a charge.
Research Computing Resources
- Match computing, software, and data storage resources to your research needs, including local and cloud-based solutions
- Help you get started using the University computing clusters
- Show you how to turn interactive programs and scripts into batch jobs
- Advise on the development, porting, debugging, or optimization of HPC code and applications
- Assist in integrating computational components into a study to best address research questions
- Connect you with XSEDE resources
Visualization
- Create custom images, movies, or interactive visualizations for publication and exploratory analysis
- Design innovative visualizations of novel datasets
- Improve the clarity and impact of publication graphics, tables, and charts
- Explore alternative ways to visualize your data and results
Assistance with Grant Proposals
Research Computing Services supports the preparation of research proposals by the following methods:
- Determining technical specifications and budgeting for research grant proposals
- Preparing technical information on infrastructure and computing resources available to Northwestern researchers
- Designing and budgeting for computational elements, visualization, data management plans, cloud resources, and informatics protocols
- Providing letters of commitment or support upon request
- Writing computing components of grant applications
Data Management and Workflow Services
Research data is getting larger and more complex than ever before. Research Computing Services has staff that can help you with data management topics such as:
- Planning for your data throughout the research lifecycle
- Choosing appropriate storage options
- Describing and organizing your data
- Building research data storage and transfer workflows
- Deciding where to archive data at the end of your project.
Bioinformatics
- Help create bioinformatics pipelines for processing DNA-, RNA-, and/or Chip- sequencing data
- Provide post-processing statistical analysis
- Develop efficient data workflows, write scripts, install software, and provide training for use of either general or high-performance computing facilities
Research Data Services
Consultations and project support services to help you work with your research data more effectively and efficiently:- Data science support
- Data visualization
- Programming and software development
- Data analysis
- Research databases
Cloud Computing Services
- Collaborate with you to design and create scalable and secure cloud computing environments tailored to your research needs
- Provide training and consultation on cloud services, tools, and practices
- Provide access to cloud-based computational resources and software to run your analysis at scale
- Assist in architecting software and data pipelines for efficient cloud resource usage, including Docker containers, object storage, automation, and other best practices
- Create custom, cloud-based applications for collecting, storing, and analyzing research data
Training
Research Computing Services conducts workshops on high-performance computing, statistical software, computer programming, computing tools for researchers, research replicability, data visualization, and data analysis. Workshops are offered for both the University community and specific departments or groups.
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Request a Consultation
Please use the links above to get in touch with the correct group or service directly. For general questions or topics not covered above, please email consultant@northwestern.edu and include the following information:
- Name
- Contact information
- A request to be put in touch with Research Computing Services
- Brief description of your research project, including the timeframe
IT Support Needs
For technical assistance and general service or system support questions, contact the IT Support Center at 847-491-4357 (1-HELP) or submit your question or issue via e-mail to consultant@northwestern.edu.
Last Updated: 8 June 2022
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