DIR Resources

Coding Environments

  • The Jupyter project allows users to run complex workflows (known as notebooks) on one’s computer and/or in the cloud via any browser. Along with online services such as Github and Binder, Jupyter can be used to carry out collaborative data intensive research work.
  • Jupyter allows to run Python, R and several other open source languages with extensive libraries to support statistical, data science and machine learning work.

Computing Resources

  • Cloud computing companies offer limited “free-tier” access to professional tools such as Google Colaboratory (for code development and execution) and Google Data Studio (for data reporting and visualization).
  • The UWC Meerkat Cluster managed by the eResearch Office supports data-intensive research for UWC faculty, research staff, postdocs and postgraduate students. Meerkat consists of about 1000 cores and 5 TB of RAM and relies on the Slurm Workload Manager to assign resources to different users in a dynamic fashion, thus enabling their optimal use.
  • The Ilifu (isiXhosa word for cloud) consortium brings together six partner institutions to run a data-intensive research cloud, the ilifu facility, supporting research in astronomy and bioinformatics.
  • The CHPC (Centre for High Performance Computing) is South Africa’s main national initiative to develop strong high-performance computing capabilities and support large-scale computational science projects. UWC researchers can submit proposals to apply for access to the CHPC computing resources via their web site.