Facilities
Jim Hall Design and Prototyping Lab
The lab is a 5854 square foot facility fully equipped with small and large machine tools, hand tools, and a variety of materials for fabrication. The primary function of the Jim Hall Design and Prototyping Lab is that of a teaching
facility. The lab and its personnel function as a full support facility
for such academic courses as ME 72 (Engineering Design Laboratory). It provides support for
the fabrication of research apparatus for the Division of Engineering and Applied
Science, as well as other divisions on the Caltech campus.
It serves as a facility where students, faculty, and staff may fabricate
their own devices and projects for approved research programs.
The lab is open to the entire Caltech community. There are, however, a few restrictions. ME 13/113 must have been completed prior to using any of the machine tools in the lab.
Since this is the Mechanical Engineering lab, ME students, faculty, and staff will have priority on the machines. This priority applies to time on the machines and to the completion of projects by the lab staff. Others will be accommodated as availability and time permit. When classes are in session (such as ME 14 or ME 72), the lab will be occupied heavily by students from these classes. These students will have priority over all other lab users when their class is in session. If a class is meeting in the lab for lecture or lab, the lab will be closed to all others until the class is over.
Paul Stovall, Supervisor, manages the lab and is available for consultation. Please see the lab Wiki-site for daily hours of operation, the lab is closed on weekends and holidays. The lab is located in the sub-basement of Spalding Lab, Building 41, in B224. Stairwells are located on both ends of the building, with the western stairwell coming directly into the lab. An elevator is available in the center of the building.
Learn more at the Jim Hall Design & Prototyping Lab Website
High-Performance Computing Facility
Located in the sub-basement of Thomas Laboratories, the High-Performance Computing Facility hosts multiple computing clusters.
Garuda Cluster
The Garuda Cluster is a high-performance computing cluster for earthquake engineering simulations. It is comprised of Dell hardware, Rocks Software, Qlogic Infiniband equipment, and MOAB/Torque scheduler.
Learn more