Research

Welcome to Research Hub

Your gateway to research funding, training, and compute resources at CSUB—built to garner interest in future research projects on campus and make it easy for anyone interested in research to reach out and get started.

Whether you’re preparing a grant proposal, standing up infrastructure for a pilot, or seeking collaborators, this page curates the people, platforms, and how-to guides to move your work forward.

How to get help with Resources

Contact the Research Support Team for hands-on assistance launching a research project, from scoping to deployment. Fill out a ticket via ServiceNow (SNOW) so we can triage your request and track progress. You can also reach out to the GRASP department for funding strategy, compliance guidance, and research support.

What to include in your request:

  • Project goals and target outcomes (e.g., pilot, publication, proposal)
  • Anticipated datasets, storage needs, and security/compliance considerations
  • Compute requirements (CPU/GPU, interactive vs. batch, persistent storage)
  • Desired timeline and key deadlines (proposal due dates, course start dates)
  • Any collaborator or sponsor requirements (NSF/DOE/NIH, industry partners)

Typical ways we help:

  • Budgeting infrastructure for proposals; drafting facilities/instrumentation text
  • Standing up JupyterHub/Coder workspaces; containerizing apps for Kubernetes
  • Data management planning; connecting to shared platforms (NRP, Cal-ICOR)
  • Right-sizing resources across NRP, Cal-ICOR, and CSUB HPC (beta)

Training Resources (how to)

Get up to speed fast with curated, vendor-neutral documentation and CSUB knowledge base articles.

Kubernetes

Kubernetes is an open-source orchestration engine for deploying, scaling, and managing containerized applications. Learn core concepts, deployments, Services, and storage.

NRP (National Research Platform)

The National Research Platform (NRP) is a partnership of over 50 institutions that provides researchers and educators with access to high-performance computing resources, such as GPUs and AI tools, and a distributed data storage network. Its primary goal is to accelerate scientific discovery by offering a shared, community-owned platform for data-intensive research, which is supported by institutions including UC San Diego, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and federal agencies like the National Science Foundation. 

Additional documentation, guides using NRP-hosted, and custom resources (JupyterHub, Coder, Kubernetes) can be found here.

For additional resources on how to connect to the National Research Platform or how to deploy JupyterHub to an existing Namespace, see the CSUB Knowledge Base.

Cal-ICOR

Browser-based computing environments for data/computer science courses using JupyterHub (JupyterLab, VS Code, Shiny, RStudio). For additional documentation on using Cal-ICOR at CSUB, see the Cal-ICOR Documentation Page.

Docker

Docker streamlines building, testing, and deploying applications with portable containers. It is an open platform that enables developers to build, ship, and run applications within isolated environments called containers. It achieves this by providing a standardized way to package an application and all its dependencies (libraries, system tools, code, and runtime) into a single, self-contained unit.

Project Spotlights

Explore current efforts leveraging shared platforms and modern tooling.

Birdcall Analysis and Airbase Disruptions

Biology research assessing how proximity to California air bases affects native bird populations. This project makes use of BirdNET, Raven, and CSUB servers for high volume computing and data analysis. Impact: informs conservation and environmental planning.

National Electric Codes Validation (NEC Validator)

Eng/Comp Sci web application that validates NEC electrical designs, supporting NSF/DOE SBIR pursuits and VC conversations. Built on Nautilus nodes and Kubernetes; frontend, processing, database, and storage deployed as containers under the CSUB namespace. Impact: accelerates compliant design and proposal readiness.

LLM Chatbot

Mathematics project training compact local LLMs (e.g., Mistral 7B, DeepSeek 7B) on course materials. Runs on Nautilus/Kubernetes with persistent storage. Impact: personalized tutoring and content retrieval for math courses.

Resources Links

A quick launchpad to the services you’ll use most.

Research Resources Overview

Choose the right platform based on collaboration, curriculum, and compute needs.

NRP

A community-owned research and education platform connecting researchers and educators with AI/HPC, data storage, and networking. Ideal for scalable, containerized workloads and cross-institution collaboration.

Cal-ICOR

Free, browser-based computing for California higher-ed, supporting JupyterLab, VS Code, Shiny, and RStudio—excellent for teaching, prototyping, and reproducible workflows.

Coder

A JupyterHub-like, browser-based experience on the NRP Nautilus cluster, enabling code execution without deep Kubernetes knowledge. Great for fast starts and lightweight dev.

CSUB HPC

On-premises high-performance computing for research and classroom education, available to current CSUB students and faculty in CS and Math. Best for local projects requiring campus-controlled resources.

How CSUB is Contributing

Local Nautilus Node - CSUB is adding an HPC node to the Nautilus ecosystem, contributing resources for community use while providing CSUB research priority access when deploying apps through the platform. This strengthens regional HPC capacity and shortens time-to-compute for CSUB projects.

Funding & Proposal Support

Start your project today! Not sure where to start? The GRASP team can help you identify opportunities (e.g., NSF/DOE programs, educational innovation funds), shape a competitive scope, and align compute/storage needs with NRP, Cal-ICOR, or CSUB HPC. We can also supply:

  • Facilities & resources text for proposals (platform descriptions, node specs, storage tiers)
  • Data Management & Sharing templates tailored to your workflow
  • Compliance guidance (IRB/IACUC, human subjects, data security)
  • Letters of collaboration/support coordinated with platform stakeholders

Call to action: Contact the Research Support Team using a ServiceNow ticket to kick off technical planning, then coordinate with GRASP on funding strategy and deadlines.