On Friday June 21, 2024, we held our second annual review of the subMIT project. We are grateful to the Basic Computing Service Steering Committee for their hard work and their insightful comments and questions in reviewing the project. The subMIT project has come along way since its inception in the Summer of 2021 and its inauguration shortly after, in December.

The subMIT system has seen a rapid increase in users as shown in the graph (Matt’s slides, page 2). The number of registered users has more than doubled since last year’s review, due in part to significant increase of in-classroom usage. The step functions thus occur at the beginning of the new semester.

While the general review agenda followed a format similar to that of last year’s review, there was so much new to discuss. From the recent operating system upgrade (Alma 9), the consolidation of the system in the basement of building 24, to the upcoming large filesystem upgrade, a thoughtful look was taken at the hardware of the system. To improve performance and stability, the subMIT mass storage system will be migrated to CephFS. After moving the remaining hardware from Bates to campus this past year, the subMIT hardware will soon move once again to a new and further improved more steady on-campus location. On the topic of outreach and community engagement, follow-ups to previous surveys and requests as well as new outreach efforts were discussed.

The subMIT user base was surveyed in the System Usage section. While the absolute number of users in all categories has significantly increased since last year, undergraduate research (UROP) users represent our fastest-growing demographic. Undergraduate students, not including classroom-only users, now represent twice the percentage of our user base than at last year’s review. If classroom-only users were to be included in this tally, this percentage would be significantly larger still.

User support was examined both at a broad population level, aided by statistics from our new ticketing system, as well as a personal level via specific user cases and feedback. Overall, subMIT has transitioned from a startup phase into a more steady state of operations. We look forward to incorporating new feedback as we tirelessly work to improve the system, services, and support we provide.