Dealing with Large and/or Complex Datasets

At some point, you’re likely to find yourself working with datasets that are larger than what you’re used to or have the resources to handle easily. If you’re working with datasets that are larger than what your local system can easily handle, it can make sense to work with your data on one of the systems hosted by Research Computing. 

If you’re new to working with Princeton Research Computing resources, their Getting Started and FAQ pages are a great place to start; you can find information that will help you pick which system is right for your work, find definitions of commonly used terms, and answers to specific technical questions. 

There is also a wide array of educational and training resources available for research computing, supported by PICSciE, OIT, the Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics (PACM), and individual departments. Through these programs and workshops, you can get training in how to use resources like Matlab, R, Python, and Globus, and how to work with Geographical Information Systems (GIS), among many other things. 

Research Computing also hosts weekly help sessions, which are like office hours -- no appointment required.  They can help you with all kinds of questions, including how to get started with their systems, installing and compiling software, improving performance, and transferring and storing data.