Chemistry Computer Facilities
Computer facilities available for chemistry students at the University of Iowa are extensive and have been greatly expanded in recent years in recognition of the critical importance computer technology plays in the practice of modern chemistry. The newly updated Departmental Computer Facility (235 CB) contains 20 desktop computers running a variety of scientific and chemistry related software. Molecular modeling software available in the Facility includes Spartan '02, HyperChem, QChem, Titan, and GAMESS. Packages for statistical data analysis, plotting, chemical structure drawing and manipulation, symbolic and numeric mathematics, NMR data processing, kinetics simulation, program development, and electronic media creation are all currently available. Associated hardware in the Facility includes a laser printer, color printer, scanner, digital camera, laptop computer, CD-ROM tower and a Novell server. A separate Departmental Research Computing Facility (339 CB) was recently established. The Research Facility houses a Silicon Graphics workstation running GAMESS, Gaussian, Sybyl and other theoretical chemistry software. The Research Facility has now added a 20-processor high-speed parallel computer from IBM with a total of 14 GB of RAM and over 200GB of disk space, allowing for state-of-the-art calculations. Computers in both facilities are connected to the internet and can make use of other computer resources at the University and around the world.
The University of Iowa Information Technology Services
(ITS) provides
additional computational resources through the Academic Technologies
(ARCS) group, which can be accessed for chemistry
related applications. ITS has recently upgraded the campus-wide
network,
including the Chemistry
Building network, to accommodate high speed fiber-optic
communication. Blocks of computer time at one of the
National Supercomputer Centers can
also be requested through ITS.
The Department now offers a regularly scheduled course, 4:180 "Introduction to Molecular Modeling" devoted to the theory and practice of computational chemistry.
Through these various resources graduate students at the University of Iowa can receive valuable and vital training in the use of computer technology in chemistry.
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