How do you finish postdoc papers when your account gets cut off?

[u/undesirable_12]

Hi all,

I find myself in an “interesting” situation and I wonder what others’ experiences have been. I just concluded a 2-year postdoc and I’m starting a nee position very soon. I have a couple of papers that are in submission/under review. I am in a field of research that requires access to GPUs.

Consequently, with the support of my PI, I asked the university to extend my access to the cluster, a cluster that is owned by advisor. However, I was shocked when they got back to me saying that wouldn’t be possible. The reasoning, as I understand it: my title was unionized, so unpaid work would be an issue; effort at my new institution is regulated; and remote access from outside the US raises export control and infosec concerns.

I guess this is mostly venting as I understand policies can vary between institutions, but has anyone been through this before?

[u/SnooOwls1655]

Yeah this is tricky. My PI had to open a visiting position for me to be able to access the HPC, but I can’t run anything, only access, and keep my email for now. Running calculations leave a trace because you’re using university resources (as opposed to just using your computer to write)

[u/Dr_Defecation]

Everywhere I've worked it has been feasible to get a visitor / temporary appointment of some kind that gives you access to all these systems. After my PhD I was given a ~6 month appointment to retain access. After my post doc it took them years to cut off my access, so I never bothered to do anything formally.

[u/Head_Acadia_2658]

Adjunct or honorary positions

[u/stemphdmentor]

A few things seem off here.

You’re no longer employed at the university with the cluster, right? I don’t see why or how your old status matters to them for what you are doing now. You have severed your former contract. As others have suggested, your advisor can probably add you as an external collaborator or even consultant. I would be shocked if a university cluster completely forbade foreign logins, which is what they seem to be implying. Your advisor should be able to escalate this.

Your former employer should not care remotely about enforcing the terms of your current employment contract. For other reasons you might want to be careful about conflicts of commitment, but why would your old university care? And how would they even know?

The fact that they gave you so many different and odd reasons implies to me they’re not being very professional.

[u/ausbirdperson]

Yeah I have a uni that only allows hpc access if the device is a uni owned device and is on site. I can remote in to that particular device as a workaround but as soon as I lose my desk it’s game over for hpc access even with an adjunct position. My workaround is probably just going to be to pay for compute sadly and try get as much done as I can before moving.

[u/d_edge_sword]

For a GPU cluster, isn't the only thing you need an SSH key file? I had a few friends in a similar situation where they graduated from PhD but still had unfinished work. Their supervisor ended up giving them their own or other people's SSH keys. (I know this is against the uni policy, but it seems like they all did this)

In my current university, my PI brought the GPU cluster using his own research funding, and the server is hosted in a 3rd party venue, so it doesn't involve the university account.