Epoch interest form and board applications for AY26¶
Jump to interest form and applications
What is Epoch?¶
In short, Epoch is IMSA’s AI, high-performance computing and IT operations club. We operate a compute cluster, a set of networked computers which together can offer significant computational resources far beyond what a single consumer machine can provide, such as large amounts of disk space, fast connections between different processors, and advanced GPUs and specialized hardware (note that our cluster does not have all of these features yet, but we intend to add them). These resources are useful for machine learning, certain types of physics simulations, graphics rendering, and other applications.
During the 2022-2023 school year, a lack of commitment to the club from Board members resulted in the cluster eventually becoming inoperable, and while there have been improvements, we have not had the ability to investigate all the remaining technical issues.
In the meantime, Epoch was merged into IMSA.ai, but continuing issues in IMSA.ai’s management eventually resulted in the cluster team being removed from IMSA.ai.
We are currently attempting to revive the club, and have the following goals:
Make the cluster available for students to use
Use the cluster for significant projects, working with students who’d like to use the cluster
Create tools and curriculum to make the cluster easier to use
Educate students about machine learning, IT operations, computer hardware, and high-performance computing
Create sustainable management of the cluster and of the club
Form good relationships with other student organizations
Form good relationships with outside organizations
Acquire new GPU nodes and other nodes that are necessary to support machine learning and other common cluster uses
Epoch members would be able to learn experientially about club management, machine learning, IT operations, hardware building, and software engineering. Students would be able to do machine learning projects, graphics renders, physics simulations, and other computationally intensive projects for SIR, personal projects, or courses such as MSI and CompuSci, and teachers could use the cluster resources for demonstrations in class or for assigned projects.
Interest form¶
If you are interested in being a general member or using the cluster for your own projects, please fill out the interest form:
Board applications¶
Applications are closed.
Contact¶
You may contact the current board at echaroenpitaks@imsa.edu and cdavis@imsa.edu.
You can also join our Discord at https://discord.gg/AN58YQ7ngz - this will likely get you a faster response.