• Lab location
• Lab resources
• Hours of operation
• Getting a CS account
• Tutoring

Lab location

The undergraduate computing lab for the CS Department is located at 730 Commonwealth Avenue on the third floor in room 302. The building is located at the intersections of Commonwealth Avenue and Saint Mary's Street. Radio Shack and CVS occupy the first floor, and the building is commonly referred to as the "Radio Shack building" (it's the location of the first Radio Shack store). BU refers to this building as the Engineering Annex (EMA).

There are three entrances to the building. The first entrance is located next to the Espresso Royale Cafe. The second entrance is located on Saint Mary's Street where the Radio Shack store ends. The third entrance is located on the second floor garage. Elevator access is only available through the entrance next to Espresso Royale.

Lab resources

The undergraduate lab is comprised of 30 Windows workstations and 30 Linux workstations. The Windows machines run Windows XP Professional. The Linux systems run BU Linux.

Also available to students are csa2.bu.edu and csa3.bu.edu. Both of these systems are IBM servers with eight CPUs and 16 gigabytes of memory, running the same BU Linux operating system as the Linux lab machines. These servers are available for remote logins, and can be used for reading e-mail, doing Linux programming assignments, or other general-purpose uses.

 
Hours of operation

During the fall and spring semesters, the undergraduate lab is open during the following hours:

• Monday - Thursday: 8AM - midnight
• Friday: 8AM - 6PM
• Saturday: 10AM - 8PM
• Sunday: 10AM - midnight

During the summer term, the lab is open the following hours:

• Monday - Thursday: 9AM - 8PM
• Friday - Sunday: 10AM - 6PM

The lab is closed during all BU scheduled holidays and snow emergencies. The lab is also closed when classes are not in session.

 
Getting a CS account

CS accounts are available to all students who are taking CS classes through the College of Arts and Sciences, and students majoring or minoring in computer science. In order to get a CS account you will need to go to the CS lab at 730 Commonwealth Avenue. You will need to bring a photo ID with you.

The first step in creating a CS account is to run the CS WebNew application on one of the Linux systems in the lab. The Terminal Assistants on duty will provide instructions for doing this. Once you are done, return to the TA desk and show your photo ID to have them give the final approval of your account. Once this is done, it may take up to five minutes for your account to become active. Once it is active, you will be able to log into one of the Linux machines with your own user account, open a web browser, and visit http://www.bu.edu/computing/accounts/ad/cs to run the Active Directory WebNew application, which will link your existing account to BU's Active Directory environment to enable you to log into the Windows workstations. In either case, you will use your BU kerberos password to log in.

Instructions are available at the Terminal Assistant (TA) desk in the front of the lab. Please see the TAs if you have any problems creating or using your new CS account.

 
Tutoring

The CS department provides tutoring for students needing additional assistance. Below is a schedule of tutoring hours:

• Tutoring provided by Teaching Fellows