Library Facilities: GIGA Lab

What is the GIGA Lab?

Located on the first floor of the Library, the GIGA Lab provides:

  • 12 computers with greater memory, processing speed, and graphics rendering capacity than standard Information Commons (IC) Lab computers
  • Specialized software that is unavailable in the IC lab

The GIGA Lab is open all the hours that the Library is open.

Who can use the GIGA Lab?

In order to increase the availability of the GIGA Lab for applications that really need it, logons are limited to students enrolled in courses that faculty have identified as needing access to high performance computing, and/or specialized software.

Faculty can request that their courses be added to the list for GIGA Lab access by using the Faculty Course Request form. Students can request individual access using the Student Request Form.

On this page

  1. Hardware and software
  2. Equipment for checkout
  3. Courses currently cleared for GIGA Lab access for Spring 2025
  4. Faculty course request form
  5. Student request form

Hardware and software

What hardware and software is available in the GIGA Lab?

Hardware

·   Seven DELL 3650 Windows computers with Octa Core i9 5.3GHz processors, 16GB RAM, 512GB hard drives, and NVIDIA T1000 4GB(12GB shared) graphics boards

·       Five Mac Studio computers with 2 - 27" 2560x1440 monitors, M1 Pro Max processors, integrated Apple G13X graphics cards. 32GB RAM, 512 GB SSD storage 

Software

Available on both Windows and Mac:

·       Adobe Creative Cloud — Photo, video, and publication editing (also available in main IC Lab)

·       Antidote — Text & grammar correction software

·       Blender  — 3D drawing and painting

·       Chrome — Web browser

·       Corel Painter  — Digital painting

·       Microsoft Visual Studio Code – Java software development

·       Node.js – JavaScript runtime environment

·       Firefox — Web browser

·       Lightwright — Stage lighting electrical power calculator

·       MatLab R — Mathematics (also available in main IC Lab)

·       Python (Anaconda distribution)  — software library used by GIS software

·       R version and Rstudio version  — Statistics

·       Schlumberger Simulation  — Geo-engineering simulator

·       Google Earth

·       SketchUp Pro — 3D modeling

·       SPSS — Statistical analysis and graphing (also available in main IC Lab)

·       Tableau Desktop — Data visualization

·       VectorWorks — 3D CAD drafting and visualization software

·       VLC – Video LAN

·       Zoom – conferencing software

Available on Mac only:

·       Auralia —  Ear training software

·       Apple Xcode SDK

Available on Windows only:

·         AGi32, Lighting Analyst — Lighting calculation software

·         ArcGIS Pro (ESRI) — Geo-information systems, mapping (also available in main IC Lab)

·         Autodesk (Autocad) — Computer-aided design (also available in main IC Lab)

·         ENVI (Excelis) — Image processing and geo-spatial analysis

·         GAUSSIAN  Computational chemistry software

·         GCD Kit  — Architectural design and building layouts

·         GeoDa  — Geo-spatial analysis

·         IHS Kingdom Software — Oil and gas field analysis

·         Inventor — Autodesk Inventor 3D CAD software is used for product design, rendering and simulation.

·. Kaledo Knit, Kaledo Print, Kaledo Style - Fashion design

·         Kinovea — Video player with functionality to slow down, study, comment on technique of subject in the videos

·         LTSpice  — SPICE (Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis) simulator

·         Microsoft Power BI  — Data visualization

·         NI LabVIEW — Software development

·         Petra — Oil and gas field analysis

·         Rockware — Geological modeling

·         SAS and JMP (SAS component) — Principle components analysis add on for SAS (base SAS package is available in the main IC Lab )

·         Stata — Statistical analysis and graphing

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Equipment for Checkout

What media equipment does the Library have for checkout?

Borrowing information

Find loan information, overdue finds, and replacement costs for equipment such as laptops, chargers, calculators, headphones, study and editing room keys, microphones, cameras, and tripods in this LibAnswer.

Headphones

The library has several pair of Koss headphones available, as well as one pair of AKG K240 Professional headphones. All headphones have the standard 3.5mm audio jack, and are available for checkout for in library use only. All items can be checked out at the Library Services desk located on the second floor.

 

DLSR Cameras

  • Can leave the library
  • 3 day checkout
  • Contains:
    • Canon EOS Rebel T7 DSLR Camera with 18-55mm
    • Canon EOS Rebel T7 charger
    • Canon EOS Rebel T7 battery
    • SanDisk Ultra 256GB SD card
    • USB-C to HDMI connector

2 x tripods available upon request at check-out.

Camera Kit 1 (Pelican 1520 Hard Case)

  • Can leave the library
  • 2 day checkout
  • Contains:
    • JVC Everio R - 4K camcorder
    • JVC Everio R charger
    • SanDisk Ultra 32GB SD card
    • Joby "GorillaPod" small flexible tripod

Camera Kit 2 (Pelican 1200 Hard Case)

  • Can leave the library
  • 2 day checkout
  • Contains:
    • JVC Everio R - HD camcorder
    • JVC Everio R charger
    • SanDisk Ultra 32GB SD Card
    • No tripod included

2 x full-sized Manfrotto BeFree Video Tripod with Fluid Head available upon request at checkout.

 

Microphone kit 

  • Must remain in the library
  • 4 hour checkout
  • Contains:
    • Blue Snowball microphone
    • Auray reflection filter

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Courses currently cleared for GIGA Lab access for Spring 2025

ARGD 20301 - Prof Dev for Graph Designers
ARLD 40513 - Senior Thesis Lighting
ARST 60970 - Studio Art - Special Problems
BIOL 70950 - Assigned Problems in Biology
CHEM 40200 - Chemistry - Undergraduate Research
DCDA 40833 - Digital Culture & Data Analytics Capstone
ECON 40313 - Econometrics
ECON 40970 - Data Science & Economics
FAME 30273 - Digital Design
FAME 30293 - Product Development
FAME 40253 - Textile Test and Analysis
FREN 20063 - Fourth Semester College French
FREN 40183 - Advanced Writing & Culture
GEOL 40970 - Geology - Special Problems
GEOL 50523 - Geographic Info Systems
GEOL 50963 - GIS Internship
INDE 30493 - Interior Design III
INDE 40473 - Interior Design V
MATH 40000 - Undergraduate Research - Honors

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Faculty course request form

Please enter your TCU ID

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Student request form

Please enter your TCU ID

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Hours

The GIGA Lab is open all the hours the Library is open.

This week's hours. See the Library hours page for additional hours.
Sunday, Mar 30:11am - 12am
Monday, Mar 31:24 Hours
Tuesday, Apr 1:24 Hours
Wednesday, Apr 2:24 Hours
Thursday, Apr 3:24 Hours
Friday, Apr 4:12am - 5pm
Saturday, Apr 5:10am - 6pm
Contact

Location: on the first floor of the Library. (Map)

If you have any questions about the GIGA Lab, you may Ask a Librarian.

Ask a Librarian