Computer Use Policy

There have been a number of recent complaints about behavior in the fourth floor computer lab and the office machines.  The basic problem appears to be that some students log into a machine and then walk away without logging out.  This effectively locks up the machine for other users who are unwilling to log the person off. 
If these rules do not solve the problem, we have another option we will have to pursue. That is to disable the department computer accounts of users who continue to stay logged in and leave the room. The length of time the account is disabled will increase with the number of times the problem occurs.

Here are some basic rules of etiquette that need to be followed when you are using the computer lab or office computers.

1.  When you leave the computer, save your work and log off.

2.   Do not leave a note on the computer saying you will be back.  If you are not there, the computer is to be available for someone else.

3.   If you have long computational runs (anything more than 15 minutes to execute) use the department unix workstations.  The software is the same as on the PC's and the workstations are designed to handle long runs by multiple users.  The PC's cannot handle multiple users and so putting in a long computational run ties up that resource for others.  ( The only exception to this is that the genetic algorithms toolbox for matlab is not available on the workstations and these jobs must be run on the PC's.  This will be fixed within the next few days.)

4.    If all the computers in the lab are taken but a user is not present, you can log the person off if you need to use a machine.  The right to the machine belongs to the person who is in the room and wants to use it.