About the eLab¶
The eLab gives you a research desktop in your browser — a Linux workspace with analysis tools, CPU or GPU, that you start when you need it and stop when you're done. It exists to solve two problems that ordinary laptops and shared servers solve badly.
The problems it addresses¶
Working with sensitive data safely. Some research data cannot be handled on personal machines: it must stay inside a controlled environment, with governed routes in and out and a record of everything that happens. In its secure (SDE) configuration the eLab is that environment — analysis happens inside the desktop, the desktop lives inside a locked-down boundary, and the only way data crosses that boundary is the reviewed airlock.
Giving classes and projects real compute without giving everyone a machine. Teaching a deep-learning course or running a project team means providing consistent, ready-to-use desktops — often with GPUs — to many people at once, without runaway cost. The eLab provides them on demand from a shared pool, with budgets tracked per project and enforced automatically.
Two configurations¶
- Secure Data Environment (SDE) mode — for sensitive data. Internet access from desktops is blocked, clipboard and file transfer are disabled, sign-in requires two-factor authentication, and the airlock is the only way to move data in or out.
- Teaching mode — for coursework and open data. The same desktops without the data-boundary restrictions.
Your operator will tell you which configuration your eLab runs.
Key design considerations¶
- Browser-only. Desktops are used entirely through a web browser — nothing to install, and in SDE mode no research data ever lands on your own device.
- Desktops are disposable; your home directory is not. A desktop is created for your session and cleaned up afterwards; your home directory persists across sessions. This keeps desktops consistent and patchable while your work is safe.
- One account everywhere. The portal, your desktop, and the airlock share a single sign-on, provided by the platform the eLab runs on.
- The airlock is the only data path (SDE). Imports and exports each go through human review — exports through two independent reviews — and every step is recorded in an audit trail. See Importing & Exporting Data.
- Budgets are enforced, not just reported. Desktop hours draw down a project budget shown in the portal; when it is exhausted, new desktops cannot start.
- Shared, warmed capacity. GPUs are shared across users, and administrators can warm capacity ahead of a class so desktops start instantly when the session begins — see Administering the eLab.
Where it runs¶
The eLab is a module on the Atrium platform, which provides the secure entry point, sign-on, and governance foundations it builds on.