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Compute Resources

Spark! has several compute resources available for student projects. Student’s should not be creating hosted resources on their own personal accounts(AWS, GCP etc) instead they should use the Spark! accounts unless specifically told otherwise by Spark! staff.

Resources Offered

Google Cloud Platform(GCP)

We can help you get setup with a paid account on GCP to leverage any service offered.

AWS Resources

We do not offer AWS services in general. If a comparable resource is not offered by Google Cloud Platform then we permit it on a one off basis.

Github Pages

If you just need to deploy your static website Github pages is the simplest option.

Shared Computing Cluster (SCC)

The SCC is a service offered by BU that gives you access to a GPUs and CPUs for running long running tasks such as machine learning or other data intensive projects. Want to know more about the SCC? Check out their site and their docs.

For Data Science and Machine Learning related projects, this is the preferred environment.

Website Hosting

The need to host your website is common and needed by almost all projects. We have a few different ways in which we can support you in this endeavor. Below is a list of options, requesting access follows the same procedures as all other resources.

  1. Google Firebase – Offers static site hosting and serverless functions
  2. Cloudflare – Offers static site hosting and serverless functions
  3. Google Cloud Run – Hosting for both static and dynamic websites.

Backend (API) Hosting

If you need to host your API for a Spark! project you can and should do so on a Spark! owned account. Below is a list of options for hosting your API.

  1. Google Cloud Platform – GCP offers everything needed to host an API. Including severless, containzered and traditional APIs.
  2. Something else – In special cases we will approve something else. Reach out if you don’t think your project will work on one of the other options.

Other

We do have some other random resources. If you don’t see what you need, reach out to us and we can help you out!

How to request access

In order to request access to resources please do the following:

  1. Open an issue on your project’s Github Repository with the following structure:

    Title:

     Request for Spark! Tech Resources for [your project name]

    Content:

     - Names + emails of all team members who need access
 - Detailed list of resources needed
 - A complete description on how you plan to use the resources
 - List any relevant course deadlines
  2. Assign the appropriate person to the issue:
    • For Software Engineering related projects
      • Assign the created issue to @IanSaucy on Github
      • Send an email to with a link to the Github Issue. You should copy both your PM and course instructor on this email as well. This email is required.
    • For Data Science or Machine Learning related projects
      • Assign the created issue to @mvoong18 on Github
      • Send an email to with a link to the Github Issue. You should copy both your PM and course instructor on this email as well. This email is required.
  3. Future correspondence should happen through the Github Issue
  4. If you don’t hear an update within 4 days, bump on Github or via email.