Support for Students and Faculty

Research Computing Support (RCS) offers University of Tennessee, Knoxville-area students, faculty, and staff the following support at no additional charge:

• Faculty/Staff: RCS offers faculty and staff up to 50 hours of research computing assistance per year.
• Students: RCS offers students up to 15 hours of research computing assistance per semester. RCS typically helps students with research manuscripts, thesis, dissertations, and capstone research projects. RCS does not assist students with coursework without prior approval from the course instructor or projects related to internships with outside organizations that do not result in academic research publications.

Support Topics

RCS supports students, faculty, and staff from almost every department on campus. We provide assistance with the following topics using OIT supported research software:

• Statistical Consulting
• Machine Learning
• Qualitative Analysis
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• Web Survey Design
• Software Licensing and Installation

Research Support Levels

RCS can provide support either as a consultant or research collaborator.

• As a consultant, we provide technical assistance if you need advice on what analysis to perform or just need help getting the computer to do it using OIT supported research software.
• As a collaborator, we can we can provide manuscript co-authorship, help decide which analysis is appropriate to address your research questions, assist with writing or editing your the research methods and results sections, and help with responding to reviewer comments.

Support for Grants

Research consultants may be included in grants at a 2-3%/yr FTE allocation where the team member is considered either a collaborator, or consultant and listed as a senior/key personnel as defined by the NIH or the appropriate granting agency.

Software Support Levels

Each OIT research software is classified either fully or minimally supported by RCS.

• Full Support means that we support both the software and its related research methods. We test new releases thoroughly, teach its use through workshops or one-on-one tutorials, and usually have more than one knowledgeable consultant available to assist you with it. OIT is a customer-driven organization, so fully supported software is typically in use by at least 500 people in a broad range of departments.
• Minimal Support means we can only assist you with installing it on your computer or starting it on our computers; we can point you towards tutorials and documentation, and we may be able to help with importing or exporting data. Minimally supported software is still of high quality. However, our resources do not currently allow us to provide Full Support for them. Minimally supported software is usually in use by fewer than 500 people on campus, or it is used mostly in a single department or college.

How to get Help

Assistance is available by appointment by contacting the HelpDesk. During busy times of the semester it may take over a week to get an appointment, so please plan ahead. You may also register for training workshops each semester.