Engineering Computing Facility (ECF)

Note: ECF labs are open to all U of T Engineering students, staff, and faculty with TCard access, as long as the labs are not booked for scheduled classes. While labs are open 24/7, access to the labs will be impacted by nightly and weekend building closures.

Reminder: remote access to ECF labs is always available to U of T Engineering undergraduates.

The Engineering Computer Facilities (ECF) provides a variety of computing services for teaching and research within the Faculty, as well as offering support for departmental computers and computer communication.

ECF has numerous networks accessible to the Faculty from hundreds of Windows workstations. Every undergraduate and graduate student in the Faculty is entitled to an ECF account. Relatively few constraints are placed on the usage of the system. The intention is to have the systems used as often as a student requires for his or her studies, just as one might use a library or other communal resource.

ECF operates four Windows labs and three Linux labs totaling 368 workstations. In addition, there are over 630 Windows workstations accessible from departmental labs in various buildings. Remote access is provided for both Windows and Linux so that students can access ECF software and their files from off campus.

 ECF Student Services Website

The ECF Student Services website is a secure website where you can:

  • Find out your ECF username
  • Activate your ECF account
  • Change your ECF password, or set a new one if you have forgotten your current one
  • View your ECF print quota and printing history
  • View the status and schedules for ECF labs
  • Access ECF Windows remote desktop computers
  • If your ECF account has been suspended, find out the reason
  • Pay amounts owning if you exceeded your print quota for the current term or a previous term

To use most features of the ECF Student Services Website, you must log in using your ECF username and password.  If you are an undergrad and do not remember your password, click on the corresponding link from the login page, and you will be asked to authenticate yourself using your UTORid.

ECF Student Services can also be accessed from any workstation in the ECF Labs by logging in with the username and password "account."

What's New at ECF

The Engineering Computing Facility (ECF) is pleased to announce the upgrade of its ECF Linux workstations, which are located in rooms SF1012, SF1013, and SF1106. These computers replace the Dell Optiplex 9020s.

The new Linux hardware configuration is as follows:

Model: Dell Optiplex 7070 Small Form Factor
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-9700 CPU @ 3.00GHz - 8 cores
RAM: 16GB
Hard drive: 500GB NVME Solid State Drive
Operating system: AlmaLinux 8

The timesharing server remote.ecf.utoronto.ca has also been upgraded to AlmaLinux 8.