AImageLab-HPC

Terms of Use v1.0

In force since October 27, 2026.

These Terms of Use apply to everyone who uses the AImageLab-HPC facility of the Dipartimento di Ingegneria “Enzo Ferrari”, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia. AImageLab-HPC may change them at any time; when they change, users must accept the new version before submitting new requests, and users who do not accept may stop using the facility.

1. Definitions

  • User: an individual who has been given a personal username on the facility.
  • PI: the person responsible for a Project.
  • Project: the unit through which resources (compute budget, storage, QoS) are allocated for a defined period.
  • Resources: compute nodes, GPUs, storage areas (/homes, /work, /dres) and the services provided by AImageLab-HPC.

2. General use

  1. Usernames are strictly personal and may not be shared or transferred.
  2. Resources may be used only for the purpose of the Project they were allocated to, and within its budget, for research, teaching or institutional activities.
  3. Users must keep their enrolment data accurate and report changes in affiliation or role.
  4. The right to use the facility ends when the account expires, or when the User leaves the organisation that made them eligible. The PI decides whether collaborators may continue; PIs may add and remove members of their Projects.
  5. The facility is provided “as is”. AImageLab-HPC gives no guarantee of availability, fitness for purpose or data durability, and excludes liability to the extent permitted by law.

3. Data and storage

  1. No storage area (/homes, /work, /dres) is backed up. /work is permanently deleted, with no recovery possible, on the expiry date of its allocation; reminders are sent beforehand. Use /dres for data that must outlive a Project, keeping your own copy of anything you cannot afford to lose.
  2. Users are responsible for copying their data elsewhere before their Project or account ends. Data stored on the facility belongs to the User or Project that produced it.
  3. Users must not copy, access or remove other users’ data without their permission.
  4. Personal data in datasets. Datasets containing personal data may be processed only where a valid legal basis exists (for example, a dataset licence permitting research use, or an ethics approval). The PI is responsible for this. Special categories of data (health, biometric, genetic) and any non-public personal data require written notice to AImageLab-HPC before they are uploaded, so that appropriate protections can be agreed.
  5. Users must respect the licences of datasets, models and software, and must not store or distribute material in breach of copyright or licence terms.

4. Unacceptable use

Unacceptable use includes, but is not limited to:

  • any activity that is illegal under Italian, EU or international law;
  • any attempt to breach or circumvent security or administrative controls, including circumventing Slurm scheduling, accounting or quotas, and running heavy computation on login nodes;
  • any use prohibited by the EU AI Act;
  • cryptocurrency mining, or using the Resources for unrelated commercial gain;
  • any activity that damages or degrades the facility, or interferes with other users;
  • any activity that compromises the privacy of other users;
  • for services run under production or inference Projects: exposing endpoints publicly without approval, or serving content you are not authorised to distribute.

5. Security

  1. Users must protect their credentials, including passwords and SSH private keys, and must never use another user’s account.
  2. Users must keep the machines they connect from patched and secure.
  3. Users must not introduce malicious software, and must remove any they find immediately.
  4. Users must report malfunctions, suspected compromise of their account, and any misuse they become aware of to aimagelab-srv-support@unimore.it immediately.
  5. AImageLab-HPC may terminate jobs, suspend accounts or block software that endangers the facility. Administrators may inspect jobs, processes and file metadata for operational, accounting and security purposes.

6. Projects, proposals and industrial research

  1. Proposal contents and Project usage data are disclosed to the assigned reviewers and to the evaluation panel.
  2. For industrial Projects, the PI must ensure that confidentiality and intellectual property obligations towards industrial partners allow the work to be carried out on a shared facility.

7. Sanctions

Violations will be notified to the User in writing. If they persist, or if their seriousness justifies it, AImageLab-HPC may revoke access and report the matter to the University. Users are liable for damage resulting from violations of these Terms, except in cases of simple negligence.