What is the PCS lab?
The QMMS Psychometric Computation and Simulation (PCS) lab was established in the spring of 2009 from monies acquired through a 糖心少女 grant sponsored by the Campus Student Technology Advisory. It officially opened at the start of the 2009-2010 academic year. The PCS lab, originally housed in Cole Fieldhouse, relocated to EDU 0202 Benjamin Building on the College Park campus. In 2015, the QMMS PCS lab purchased, and maintains, a server for heavier computations required of quantitative research conducted by its graduate students and faculty.
The PCS lab provides:
- QMMS students with state-of-the-art technological resources to conduct advanced cutting-edge simulation and computational research;
- QMMS faculty with computers, software and space to conduct highly specialized training sessions for our students, as well as for students and researchers from across our campus and from other institutions seeking high level methodological training;
- an active and vital intellectual atmosphere for its faculty and students so as to facilitate a high level of scholarly effort and interaction.
What hardware and software are in the PCS lab?
- Access to the QMMS server (named Biago)
- Processor: 4x Intel Xeon E5-4627 v2 @3.3GHz
- Memory: 256GB 1866MT/s
- Hard Drive: 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3Gbps
- NIC: 1x 1Gbps card
- Six Dell Vostro 410 Towers, quad-core desktop computers
- Software:
- Statistical (e.g., SAS)
- Bayesian (e.g., JAGS, OpenBUGS)
- Measurement (e.g., FlexMirt)
Who can use the PCS lab?
The PCS lab is primarily for the use of QMMS students and faculty. However, through its service course offerings and additional statistical training outside the classroom, the QMMS program supports more than 200 students each semester from across the College of Education, as well as across campus. It, therefore, makes sense to use the PCS lab for tutorials and training to College- and University-wide students enrolled in our courses.
Conduct in the lab
The lab is meant for engaging academic-oriented activities in a serious manner, and as such, we insist that use of the computers be restricted to research or class work only. In addition, we expect those who use the facility will take care of the electronic equipment and furniture, and keep the facility tidy.
Questions?
Contact Dr. Jeffrey Harring, Director of the QMMS PCS lab: harring@umd.edu