2024 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Research Computing Services (RCS) team within Information Technology Services (ITS). RCS provides the Carleton University research community a broad range of supports, and works closely with researchers to develop purpose-built software that furthers their research programs. RCS assists Carleton research projects that address some of today’s most pressing global environmental and social problems, and the support it provides for faculty members is rare among Canadian universities.
It would not be possible without a close collaborative effort between the Office of the Vice-President (Research and International) and ITS.
RCS was founded in 2014. That year, Sylvain Pitre joined ITS as the department’s first manager with the aim of developing and leading the emerging team while providing researchers with the support, expertise and resources necessary to conduct research computing at Carleton. Sadly, Pitre passed away in 2019.
“Sylvain Pitre made significant contributions to RCS,” said Andrew Schoenrock, Manager of RCS. “He oversaw what became a reliable single contact point for research-related inquiries to ITS. His vision and dedication to research computing have left a lasting impact on the department and the broader research community at Carleton University.”
Research Computing and Development Cloud
One early achievement for RCS was the Research Computing and Development Cloud (RCDC). RCDC allows researchers access to data science and analytics tools and provides a development environment in which researchers can create their own applications before transitioning to larger compute platforms.
RCDC’s compute capability has been expanded over the years, notably with the recent acquisition of new research-ready GPUs. Altogether, RCDC’s fleet now numbers 42 GPUs across six servers.
Another important service, RCS Sharefile, is a secure, online file sharing platform for researchers to store their data and collaborate with Carleton faculty and students, as well as external collaborators.
Developing Bespoke Code for Research Projects
The RCS Research Software Development team has a strong history of collaborating with faculty members from diverse disciplines to develop code that supports their research projects.
In support of a project lead by Prof. Leanne Keddie of the Sprott School of Business, RCS used large language models (LLMs) to analyze thousands of corporate Proxy Statements–a document provided to the Security and Exchange Commission by corporate entities– to identify trends and changes in the corporate governance practices of S&P 500 companies.
Given the extensive volume of text in a single Proxy Statement, let alone the thousands released annually, analyzing them manually can be daunting. RCS developed a web app that uses supervised topic modeling to enable researchers to make informed assessments about different companies, gaining insights into executive compensation, board composition, commitments to greenhouse gas emissions reduction or workplace safety targets. The web app can be used by researchers to gather and transform data in a fraction of the time and cost typically associated with the manual method.
Other projects tackle similarly important issues. A project with Civil and Environmental Engineering Prof. Scott Bucking uses machine learning to estimate building energy consumption, helping speed up the estimation of energy consumption and allowing energy providers to better adapt to client demands.
And a project with Prof. Merlyna Lim from the School of Journalism and Communication worked to develop a series of free-to-use social media monitoring tools that comply with newly imposed API restrictions after many platforms introduced fees for API usage. The resulting web app will enable researchers to continue to monitor the way thoughts and ideas are expressed or repressed through social media, a growing area of academic research.
RCS is a vital resource for researchers and students alike, providing the necessary tools and support to advance computational research across various disciplines. RCS is dedicated to fostering a collaborative environment where innovative research can thrive, leveraging advanced computing technologies to solve complex problems and drive innovation.