CAE accounts are granted to the numerous people affiliated with the UW-Madison College of Engineering. The bulk of these are granted automatically to anyone enrolling in an Engineering class for the current semester (Student accounts), or who is on payroll within the College of Engineering (Staff, Faculty, or Student Staff accounts). 

You can activate your account following the newuser procedure in this article. You must already have your UW photo ID (Wiscard) and either be enrolled or in the payroll database in order to run newuser. Do note, CAE's user database automatically updates to reflect campus records at 8:30am every Monday through Friday, so if your enrollment or appointment has not been processed before 8:30 on a given day, you'll need to wait until the next weekday morning (see below for exceptions).

In the event that you require an unusual type of account or there is an urgent need that can't wait for payroll or enrollment processing, CoE staff and faculty can contact CAE to request an account. CAE offers a variety of account types, with different permissions and access to resources. Most can be requested via the CAE My Account webpage under the Account Management subsection. If you can't find a type of account that meets your needs, please contact the CAE Helpdesk for assistance.

The various types of accounts are:

• Student: A UW-Madison student that needs access to CAE resources for instructional purposes. Students who are enrolled in class or are paid through the College of Engineering should be eligible for an account, but a request for this account type can be used to set up an account before the student's status is reflected in campus systems. This type of account should only be requested when there was a failure in the enrollment system and the student won't be able to open their account before the first day of classes.
• Staff/Faculty: A College of Engineering employee that needs access to CAE resources before official campus systems reflect their new position. This may also be used for a UW employee outside of Engineering that needs access to CAE resources. This type of account should be requested when there was a failure in the payroll system and staff/faculty member won't be able to open their account before their start date.
• Student Staff: A student that needs access to CAE resources as a student hourly employee. To note, this does not have to be a UW-Madison student. Any student enrolled in an academic credit at an accredited educational institution (see HR's page on this) is potentially eligible for student employment in the CoE. Students who are paid through the College of Engineering should be eligible for an account, though the permissions granted will very based on the position. This type of account should only be requested when there was a failure in the payroll system and they won't be able to open their account before their start date.
• Student Org member: A UW-Madison student that needs access to CAE resources as a student organization member. This account needs to be renewed regularly to stay active, so the account holder should monitor email regarding the account. The request must come from staff at Student Organization Services, a subgroup within Engineering Student Development.
• Collaborator: An individual account that only grants passage through the College of Engineering firewall to access a research group's resources housed within the College. This account does not grant access to CAE lab workstations or licensed software. New collaborator accounts do not have filespace by default, but an account that was converted to collaborator may have a token amount of filespace. The person who requests the account will be responsible for renewing it once yearly.
• Windows Only account: A UW-Madison student or teaching staff who is not part of the College of Engineering, but has a class in one of the CAE labs (most frequently Computer Science courses) is eligible for a login to our Windows machines. However, these accounts will not have access to Engineering-licensed software.
• Temporary: These are accounts that are active for generally no more than a week, and usually associated with a program or workshop. They aren't one of the listed account types on the Account Request form because temporary accounts are usually only requested when a CAE lab is reserved. If you are not reserving a CAE lab, contact the CAE Helpdesk with your request, including the number of accounts, date or dates needed, activity, and who is sponsoring the activity.
• Other: Does not fit in the other categories and does NOT have a UW ID. If you're requesting an account using this button on the Provide a brief explanation for the need in the Comments section.
• Pseudoaccount: this account subtype is made to accomplish a specific set of tasks, and doesn't represent an actual person's full account. It will always be tied to a linked personal account that is responsible for it. Some pseudoaccounts are used by multiple people, an exception to the no credentials sharing policy (due to it not being a personal account). A pseudoaccount can have almost any set of access privileges, including mimicking the other account types listed before. For example, there may be a pseudoaccount for a CAE staff member to test how a utility looks when viewed with only student access privileges, rather than CAE staff privileges.

There are also a number of CAE-specific account types, including CAE Consulting Staff (Helpdesk), CAE Permanent Staff (any salaried staff), and less common now: CAE Unix (student) Staff, CAE Windows (student) Staff, and CAE Hardware (student) Staff.