Topics Map > Engineering Workstations (EWS)
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EWS Labs, Account Policy

This article provides details on who is automatically provisioned access to Engineering Workstations (EWS) resources.

Access to EWS (Engineering Workstations) Resources

Students in a degree program in The Grainger College of Engineering, or a program that has a partnership with The Grainger College of Engineering at Illinois, will automatically be granted access to EWS resources (defined below) as long as they are enrolled in at least one course for the current term.

Those degree programs include:

  • The Grainger College of Engineering at Illinois degree programs
    • Aerospace Engineering
    • Bioengineering
    • Civil and Environmental Engineering
    • Computer Science
    • Electrical and Computer Engineering
    • Industrial Engineering
    • Materials Science and Engineering
    • Mechanical Science and Engineering
    • Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering
    • Physics
    • Systems Engineering and Design
  • Masters in Financial Engineering
  • Computer Science + X degrees
  • Agricultural and Biological Engineering (College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences)
  • Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences)
  • Physics (Specialized Curriculum - College of Liberal Arts and Sciences)

For more detailed info, see: https://courses.grainger.illinois.edu/.

Note: being granted access to EWS resources is sometimes collectively referred to as having an "EWS account". Technically, there is no separate EWS account, and all access is granted based on your university NetID. The term "EWS account" is sometimes used as shorthand across our various public knowledgebase articles.

EWS Resources

Students enrolled in one of the above degree programs will automatically be granted access to a suite of resources as long as they are registered for classes during the current term.

Those resources include:

  • Access to log in to computers in college-hosted EWS computer labs, during open hours
  • Access to log in to computers in select departmentally-hosted EWS computer labs (depending on home department and course enrollment)
  • Access to a remotely-stored home directory with a limited storage quota
    • EWS Home directories are only meant to provide enough space for instructors and students to work on their courses for the current semester. Data will not persist beyond the current semester. For more information on your EWS Home directory quota, see EWS Labs, Home Directory Disk Quota.
    • Note: Access to your home directory may differ depending on whether you access it from EWS Windows computers, EWS Linux computers, or from a personal computer.
  • Access to log in to the EWS Citrix service, where you can run select engineering software titles remotely. Application availability depends on your course enrollments.
    • Note: The EWS Citrix service is different from the Citrix services provided by Illinois AnyWare and WebStore.
  • Access to log in to the EWS FastX service.
  • Access to use all software titles provided across EWS services, in accordance with their instructional-use-only licenses. For more information, please see EWS Labs, Research Computing Policy.

Access timelines and limitations

As noted, students must be currently enrolled in Engineering courses for their EWS access to be be active. Because course registrations happen across a wide time range (even including late into the semester), EWS defines specific timeframes where the list of users with EWS access is updated.

In summary, if you are registered for a course in a given semester, your EWS access:

  • begins 7 days prior to the first day of instruction for that semester (this accounts for accessing course materials in preparation for the semester)
  • ends 14 days after the first day of instruction for the following semester (this accounts for make up work and late grading)

Between these dates, EWS access is updated based on current enrollment data on a daily basis.

Visualization of timeframes when EWS access begins and ends around a given semester transition.

For more detailed information, see Engineering course roster group behavior.

Deactivating of Accounts

When students in the listed programs leave the university, either through graduation or by other means, their EWS account will be deactivated and home directory removed from the EWS storage system. Files in the home directory cannot be restored once they have been removed. The removal will take place in between semester transitions based on the schedule below:
  • Fall to Spring: January 1
  • Spring to Summer: June 1
  • Summer to Fall: August 11
Before leaving the University, students should copy all the files that they need from their home directory before the above dates. 

Students Enrolled in Other Colleges

Students enrolled in degree programs outside of The Grainger College of Engineering will automatically be granted access to EWS resources while they are registered for at least one Engineering course. When the course ends, this course-based EWS account will be deactivated and access to the home directory will be terminated. Students should copy all files they need from their home directory before the last day of the semester. 

Instructor Accounts

Instructors teaching a course with a Grainger College of Engineering unit will automatically be granted access to EWS resources. Please note that the terms of our software licenses prohibit the use of EWS labs for research purposes. For more information, please see EWS Labs, Research Computing Policy.

Short URL for this page: https://go.illinois.edu/ews-account-policy


Keywords:
ews labs account policy 
Doc ID:
81698
Owned by:
Khlaf A. in Engineering IT
Shared Services
Created:
2018-04-19
Updated:
2024-11-05
Sites:
University of Illinois Engineering IT