Math/CS Labratory Facilities

Computing Resources

The department is located in the Olin/Rice Science Complex. We have 10,000 square feet of space, which includes 4 computer labs, 6 classrooms, a lounge, seminar rooms, and a student reading and tutorial center.

In the last few years, the math and computer science program at Macalester has been the recipient of grants from both the National Science Foundation and the Keck Foundation. These awards, along with internal funds from the college's capital budget, have supported the purchase of high-performance computing equipment and allowed us to establish state-of-the-art departmental laboratory facilities. The department has two open laboratories available to all students approximately 16 hours a day as well as a robotics research lab and a data exploration and bioinformatics research lab open to students via card access.

The Introductory (PC) Laboratory (258 Olin/Rice)

This laboratory is used primarily in introductory computer science courses and other courses in mathematics, statistics, and computer science. It contains 28 Pentium 4 computers running Windows XP Professional. They are connected by the campus 100 Mb/sec Fast Ethernet network, and able to access all of the college's electronic resources, including the internet, campus servers, and Internet2. The systems are configured with a range of interpreters, compilers and software packages including Python, Perl, Smalltalk, Scheme, Java, Mathematica, MatLab, and R.

The Macintosh Laboratory (256 Olin/Rice)

This laboratory is used primarily in the core and elective courses of computer science. It is also utilized for many senior capstone research projects. It contains 15 Intel Dual Core iMac systems, each with 512 MB of memory running OS X (Tiger). They are interconnected by our 100-MB/sec Ethernet network which connects them to campus resources and also to our Internet2 connection. The systems are configured with a range of interpreters, compilers and software packages including Eclipse, Java, Scheme, Mathematica, and R.

The Robotics Research Laboratory (257 Olin/Rice)

This laboratory is used for student and faculty research projects in robotics and artificial intelligence and by students in the Artificial Intelligence course. The lab was funded originally by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Currently the lab contains a collection of Lego-based parts and controllers and two research-grade robots: Pioneer 2 DX robots from ActivMedia.

The Lego robot collection includes eight Handyboard robot controllers, two Lego Mindstorm controllers, along with many Lego components and sensors. The Pioneer robots include vision software, onboard Linux computers, and wireless Ethernet communications. Current and recent research projects have involved machine learning, and hybrid robot control for navigating Olin-Rice hall.

Data Exploration Laboratory (259 Olin/Rice)

The Data Exploration lab, located in 259 Olin/Rice, contains one Sun E250 Server that serves three functions: 1) as an Oracle database server, 2) as a server for SunRay Net appliances, and 3) as a web/application server. Students will be able to use any of 8 SunRay net appliances or 1 Sun Ultra 60 graphics workstation. These machines are connected to the E250 server, where various types of data will be stored in the Oracle database. The lab also contains a second Sun Sunfire V250 server which is an alternate Oracle database server for research projects.

There are also 3 Apple Macintosh G5 towers being used as servers for bioinformatics data and as development platforms for data visualization software.

The main purposes for the lab are 1) as a place for students to learn how to use a database management system (DBMS) while taking the database systems course, and 2) for students to conduct data exploration research or capstone projects, using the java programming language and the Oracle DBMS. Data exploration tools are typically web-based applications that enable users to access distributed databases and visualize the information in these databases in novel and empowering ways. Students working in the lab will design and build databases and web-based programs for exploring data in distributed data warehouses. These projects may be related to bioinformatics, but also could be for other types of scientific or business data. This lab is potentially available to students from other departments who might be interested in database or web programming projects.

Campus Resources

In addition to departmental machines, the central computing facilities of the college are also available to all math and computer science students. Computing and Information Technology (CIT) is the group which supplies and coordinates the centralized computing resources of the college, both academic and administrative. The central academic server is connected to both the Internet and the World Wide Web. Every dormitory room has a 10 Mb/sec Ethernet connection. Every student is given an email address when they arrive at Macalester and encouraged to use it throughout their four-year stay at the school. There is no separate charge for computing, and an account will be set up for any registered student when they first arrive on campus.

During the semester ITS presents a number of free "short courses" which describe the computing resources available on campus and how to use them. In addition, ITS runs a "computer store" where students may purchase computer systems at reduced rates.

Finally, ITS maintains a number of 24-hour public microcomputer laboratories for use by students on campus. These labs, which contain about 80 Macintosh and PC-compatible systems, are configured with a range of productivity software, including word processors, spreadsheets, databases, Web browsers, and electronic mail.