Faculty of Computer Science

Technical Services

Here to support you

The CS Help desk, located on the first floor of the Goldberg Computer Science Building can also be reached via phone at 902-494-2593 or email at cshelp@cs.dal.ca.  

What are we here for?

  • Software installation and setup assistance 
  • Operating system troubleshooting (Windows, MAC-OS, and Linux)
  • IT Consultation & A/V assistance
  • Printing
  • Equipment loaning
  • CS Accounts, passwords and access
  • Procurement of equipment
  • RFP process support
  • Building management

For all new faculty and staff, an orientation session with the Manager of Technical Services will be scheduled in your first few weeks at the faculty.  For a copy of that presentation on our technical services and information architecture click here.

Equip yourself with tools & resources

Laptop recommendations

To help you in your decision-making, we've put together a list of recommended laptop specs.

In most cases, the base specifications will suffice for your time as an undergraduate student.

Personal web & database hosting

All students, faculty, and staff are entitled to webspace on the faculty personal webhosting server. Usage is restricted to academic and personal (e.g. non-commerical) use.

Go to https://web.cs.dal.ca for more information.

Academic compute environment

Computer Science provides several solutions for use in our academic courses. This ensures students are getting the latest in technology environments to ensure the best learning experience.

GitLab Enterprise Hosting

Git project hosting is provided for all students, faculty, and staff at git.cs.dal.ca. This is an Enterprise version of Gitlab for academic use only.  Please email cshelp@cs.dal.ca with any requirements for your upcoming semester at least 4 weeks before start of semester. The CS technical team will assist you with setting up your GitLab environment.

For information on our instance of Gitlab click here.

OpenStack Private cloud environment

Computer Sciences uses an OpenStack private cloud environment for courses that require it. Your instructor will inform you if you will require access to it for your coursework. Please email cshelp@cs.dal.ca with any requirements for your upcoming semester at least 4 weeks before start of semester. The CS technical team will assist you with setting up your OpenStack environment.

For information on our OpenStack environment click here.

Coursework storage space

Timberlea.cs.dal.ca is the general use compute environment for student’s coursework.  You can login with your CSID and password via SSH.

GPU Processing

brookside.research.cs.dal.ca:8000 and calvert.research.cs.dal.ca:8000 are equipped with a GeForce RTX 2080 card. These systems run JupyterHub which will allow students to run Python Jupyter notebooks. You can login with your CSID and password via SSH.

Recording room for online lecture recordings

For all booking inquiries, please go to the Campus Bookings Website and log in via the top right Login button or read the Booking Process for Lecture Recordings.

**This recording room is currently unavailable for bookings.** 
The faculty provides a recording room for instructors needing to record their lectures for online teaching. This room includes a PC with a 1080p web cam, Blue Yeti mic, a document camera, and white board.  This room can be booked in 3 hour intervals between 10 am and 4 pm Monday through Friday. 

Research compute environments

Computer Science operates several computer systems that its researchers can use to run their jobs. Choice of systems to use would be based on historical usage/over-usage patterns and appropriateness to your particular task (ie match compute-bound jobs to fast CPUs, and memory-bound processes to large memory machines). For advice on which system to use, please reach out to the Technical Services team.

Your network mounted storage can be found in /remote, and local storage in /local. Use your CSID and password to login via SSH.

Available research systems include:

There are also systems located outside the FCS that may be available for your use. Please check with the Technical Services team for guidance on this.

For the current status of the systems, you can consult monitoring pages from Nagios or Munin.(These pages will only load when accessed from Dalhousie's network or with Dalhousie VPN from outside campus)

CS research network

Graduate students and faculty wishing to register their computers for access to the research network can use the network registration form.

Dalhousie ITS resources

ITS Services

As a student at Dalhousie, you have access to several services to support your technology needs. These services are provided by the Dalhousie IT Services group (ITS). For information on this please click here

These services include:

ITS Software

ITS provides a number of software packages for general university use. Specific packages available depend on your account type (student, faculty, staff, etc.)

ITS Networks and Systems

For student, staff, and faculty with existing access, there are a number of tools made available by ITS Networks and Systems.

Azure Dev Tools for Teaching

Azure Dev Tools for Teaching is a program offered by Microsoft that supplies software and services to eligible students for academic purposes. Students registered in DalFCS Undergraduate programs or DalFCS Graduate programs are eligible to access the program.

Microsoft makes the software available through the Azure Dev Tools for Teaching portal, which you can access using your Dalhousie email address as your Microsoft Account.

New students are automatically enrolled in the program.  To access these tools please click here.

Usage policies

                      > Next: Faculty Navigator