Computing Resources and Laboratories

Most of the resources on this page are linked directly to the resource. The linked pages may not be from our web site. Report broken links to the MS CIT Webmaster.

Information Technology at Purdue ( ITaP )

Information Technology at Purdue (or ITaP) is the central computing organization on campus. It provides computing resources used by students, faculty and staff in all colleges, schools, and administrative offices. The following specific services (with web links) may be of value to graduate students:

  • Gold Answers is ITaP's self-service knowledgebase to help you solve many common computing services and problems with proven answers.
  • myPurdue is the Purdue web portal for student services. It is used to explore the schedule of classes, register for classes, view your grades, submit your graduate plan of study, and use other shared services. myPurdue requires a login using your Purdue login and password credentials.
  • OnePurdue is the Purdue web portal for employee services. For graduate students, it is only needed if you are employed, full-time or part-time, by the university -- including graduate teaching and research assistants. OnePurdue requires a login using your Purdue login IS and password.
  • Blackboard is Purdue's learning management system, used by instructors to deliver course content and grades to students. Blackboard requires a login using your Purdue login ID and password. If you are a teaching assistant, you may be required to use Blackboard; however, you must first demonstrate your knowledge of FERPA, a U.S. law that protects  the privacy of most student stored data.
  • Qualtrics is a web-based survey software available for use by all Purdue Faculty, Students and Staff to support teaching and research at Purdue. Surveys can be created and distributed by anyone with a career account. Be aware that surveys may require approval from the IRB because they implement research protocols that involve humans.
  • Software Remote provides free access to software from any computer with an internet connection and a web browser. Many software programs are available, including Adobe/Macromedia products, SAS, Microsoft Office, and AutoCAD. The software programs appear to run on your desktop, but are actually running on the Software Remote servers. 
  • The ITaP Customer Service Center is an organization within ITaP that provides a common front door to all ITaP computing services.
  • ITaP Teaching & Learning is an organization within ITaP that provides a wide variety of instructional technology and related services to Purdue instructors.
  • ITaP Research Computing is an organization within ITaP that provides a wide variety of technology and related services to Purdue researchers, including graduate students.

Engineering Computing Network ( ECN )

ECN is a decentralized computing organization that provides technology and services specifically for the College of Engineering, the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, Discovery Park, and the Office of the Executive Vice President for Research & Partnerships (EVPRP).  Its services are used by students, faculty and staff in our college. The following specific services may be of value to graduate students:

  • Purchasing assistance for standard hardware, and consultation for one-off purchases of hardware and software
  • Consultation for interfacing your lab and resources with production ECN and ITaP services
  • Archival-grade file storage services (at a possible cost for backups, depending on the setup and size)
  • The ECN Knowledgebase is a self-service compendium to help you get possible answers to your questions.
  • Submit a Request for Service or Report a Problem  - this page allows you to submit a service request, trouble ticket or general feedback for an ECN-provided service. This includes problems in any ECN-supported instructional computing lab, or hardware warranty support for equipment in our typically supported hardware lines. Please feel free to use this as your first stop for questions about Campus IT resources or contacts.

Other Relevant Computing Services

  • The Statistical Consulting Service (SCS) provides statistical software and design consulting services for the University community – free of charge. The SCS can help you with statistical software problems and data analysis issues. SCS provides assistance with the set up and running of a wide variety of statistical computing programs, including SAS, SPSS, Minitab and S-Plus. Software consulting is available in MATH G175 on a drop-in basis. Services include assistance with all phases of research projects: proposal preparation, design of studies, survey design, data input strategies, data import/export, analysis of data, interpretation of results, presentation of results, and other statistics or probability problems.
  • Purdue University Libraries provides free workshops on topics such as Using Endnote, finding dissertations online, searching online library catalogs, and finding scholarly information on the internet.

Department of Computer and Information Technology Research Laboratories

The following research laboratories are managed by CIT faculty and staff. Some are linked to lab-specific web sites.