This policy is intended for students using the space and equipment in the department's laboratories, meaning Northside 164, 166, 207, 209, 211, and 340.
Students are expected to be familiar with and follow IU’s computer
spaces policy:
https://servicenow.iu.edu/kb?id=kb_article_view&sysparm_article=KB0023979
and IU UITS’ student policy:
https://policies.iu.edu/information-it/index.html
Laboratory Privileges
- All lab machines are shared resources and students must be aware of other students’ usage and needs.
- Lab computers are on a first come first serve basis and they are not normally reserved by students. If a specific computer is needed for a special project, please talk to the lab manager to reserve it. Having faculty support in this helps. Extra lab resources can be requested with faculty sponsorship.
- VR and other specialized equipment can be reserved through the lab manager and used in the computer science labs. A signature and crimson card are required.
- The department owns a 3D printer and a 3D scanner. Requests can be made to the lab manager.
- While students are encouraged and welcome to experiment with any operating system that can be run in a virtual machine, it should not conflict with IU’s IT policies linked above.
Laboratory Regulations
- Students may not install any operating system or upgrade any components on any of the computers in our labs. Doing this is considered an act of vandalism and can have dire consequences. In addition, any such operating system will be removed by our lab manager without further warning, which may result in loss of data for one or more students and an unnecessary burden on department resources.
- Students may not tamper with lab equipment unless properly authorized by the department.
- Students are only allowed to install user-space software that does not violate IU’s IT policies and provided that they have proper licensing. For any other software, please make a request to our lab manager.
- Students may not interfere or tamper with other students’ or faculty data or work stored on any lab computer by any means.
- Students may not power down any computers in the labs. For system reboots, please consult our lab manager.
- Students are not allowed to use university resources for any financial, commercial, or political purposes, and that includes software they run on computer labs and web pages created on the department’s Linux accounts.
- No food or drinks are allowed in close vicinity of any lab equipment that can be damaged by spills. This includes computers, printers, projectors, TV sets, VR equipment and so on.
- Students are expected to close the doors when leaving any lab room empty but not to turn off the lights.
- Any violations to these policies will be reported to the university and can result in loss of access to our lab spaces, resources, and incur other penalties according to the University’s policies.