Cornell University CLASSE

Cornell’s Laboratory for Accelerator-based ScienceS and Education (CLASSE) was looking to streamline its software delivery process both on and off-campus. Thanks to the implementation of AppsAnywhere, CLASSE was able to enhance its user experience and improve IT efficiency.

This case study will cover:

• Limitations of earlier technologies
• Meeting researcher’s demands
• Remote access during COVID-19
• Looking ahead at Cornell

Watch the Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based ScienceS & Education (CLASSE) interview

James Pulver, Consultant and Advisor Sr., Marlin Guest, IT Support, and Werner Sun, Director of IT, CLASSE at Cornell University share how they improved IT efficiency at Cornell University, CLASSE.

Learn how the Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based ScienceS & Education (CLASSE), at Cornell University, optimized their IT experience for their researchers and improved the overall IT efficiency on and off-campus.

Cornell University is well known around the world as a member of the American Ivy League, a prestigious group of long-established universities with high academic and social stature. Founded back in 1865, Cornell is often described as the first truly American university due to its founders' revolutionarily egalitarian and practical vision of higher education. Fast forward to the present and those visions are still deeply ingrained into campus life.

Cornell’s modern-day mission is to discover, preserve and disseminate knowledge, to educate the next generation of global citizens, and to promote a culture of broad inquiry throughout and beyond the Cornell community.

This can clearly be seen at Cornell’s Laboratory for Accelerator-based ScienceS and Education (CLASSE). Situated beneath the Cornell playing fields, CLASSE houses some of the most impressive technology in the world including CHESS, a circular particle accelerator. Some of the brightest minds study the world and universe here, using x-rays, high-energy electrons and proton beams. These studies have advanced the frontiers of beam science and developed the technology needed to produce and accelerate ultra-bright, high-power beams for research, medicine and industry.

“We study the behavior of very compact beams using the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR), develop high power electron sources, and advance the superconducting technology that accelerates particles to near light speed. This research will increase the scientific reach of future accelerators and open new doors for industry. Much of our work is directed at an Energy Recovery Linac, a special kind of accelerator invented at Cornell that would produce x-ray beams 1000 times brighter than those at today's synchrotron sources.”

Challenges at CLASSE

Researchers from all over the world flock to CLASSE to use their specialist state-of-the-art equipment, however they also bring some challenges with them.

Every time that they needed software, they would have to request it from the IT department. Which meant a large amount of time to get the application, actually get it installed, get it tested and then get it out there.

Timing wasn’t just an issue in terms of getting software ready to use. With the technology being so specific, people would have to book timeslots which could be as little as four hours. CLASSE had to ensure that researchers were not being held up by a computer which wasn’t sufficiently set up for them.

"Our usual ways of installing software just weren’t working, and it was very hard for us to make computers interchangeable. We began looking to virtualizing solutions but then one of my team members came across a mention of AppsAnywhere."

AppsAnywhere in Action

Once AppsAnywhere was implemented, CLASSE noticed an immediate change. It allowed the IT department to focus more on base images that were uniform across the lab, meaning users could do the installations themselves. It also freed up enough time within the IT department that they now have the ability and resources to expand their catalog on the portal, and incorporate much larger software suites.

A Look to the Future

As a school of the sciences, it makes sense that CLASSE are continually looking into the future as well as the past. They remain true to their founders' revolutionary vision of higher education, whilst simultaneously ensuring their students and researchers have the state of the art equipment needed to further the advancement of science.

The use of AppsAnywhere has given their researchers the flexibility they needed, and staff the tools they required to continually provide quality programming, teaching, and support.

Working with AppsAnywhere is a long term commitment for us. We have gotten so much support and so much value out of the experts at AppsAnywhere that they are really partners with us for deploying our IT services.

We are incredibly proud to work alongside this wonderful university and cannot wait to marvel in the scientific advancements to come.