Source: Microsoft
The Louisiana State University Center for Computation & Technology (CCT) is working to address the decline in the number of undergraduate students choosing computer science as a field of study. At its HPC Boot Camp, CCT used Dell HPC solutions based on Windows® Compute Cluster Server 2003 to educate students from Louisiana high schools on how high-performance computing (HPC) applications can be used to solve real-world problems, thereby opening students’ minds to a career option and exposing them to HPC technology that is rapidly being adopted in the corporate world. Teachers from the schools were given the knowledge, course materials, and technology needed to introduce additional students to HPC, while CCT faculty and staff had the opportunity to share their passions, promote the HPC industry, and help educate the young people who may eventually follow in their footsteps.
Situation
The Louisiana State University (LSU) Center for Computation & Technology (CCT) is an interdisciplinary research center located on the university’s campus in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. CCT employs more than 30 faculty members, all of whom have joint appointments in other departments and colleges at LSU, as well as some 80 graduate and undergraduate students. CCT’s mission extends beyond university-level research to include furthering the field of computational science as a whole, promoting economic development of the state, and serving the community.
One issue that CCT is working to address is the “graying of the scientific community,” a term describing the increase in the average age of participants in the IT and computer science fields—and the decline in the number of undergraduate students choosing those areas of study. “Today’s youth are not aware of the range of choices they have,” says Katie Lea, Education Outreach Manager for CCT. “They can’t picture themselves working in the IT or computer science fields because they haven’t been exposed to—or don’t understand—the opportunities.”
In early 2007, Lea came up with the idea for a hands-on workshop in which high-school students and teachers could be exposed to and inspired by high-performance computing (HPC) technologies and applications. “We wanted to provide the basic knowledge and skills needed to build a small HPC cluster, to understand the basics of parallel programming, and to appreciate the broad range of applications that exploit HPC,” says Lea.
To help pull together the required resources, Lea enlisted the aid of Thomas Sterling, Ph.D., Professor of Computer Science at LSU and inventor of the Beowulf cluster—that is, a group of commodity PCs that have been combined into a unified HPC system through software and networking. In turn, Sterling turned to his contacts at Dell.
“CCT had the structure and concepts for the workshop but didn’t know how to obtain the products that were needed,” says John Mullen, Vice President of Sales at Dell. “In helping assemble those resources, we knew that whatever was provided had to enable the students to work with the technology in a hands-on way, so that the workshop would be intrinsically exciting, fun, and interesting. We had to make sure that students had a positive experience and came away excited, empowered, and aware that they have choices.”
Solution
At its first annual HPC Boot Camp, CCT used the Windows® Compute Cluster Server 2003 operating system running on Dell server computers to expose students and teachers from five Louisiana high schools to the world of high-performance computing. During the intensive, four-day workshop, four students and one teacher from each school had the opportunity to learn about high-performance computing, including building their own compute nodes, connecting the compute nodes together to form small HPC clusters, and running simple codes on the clusters. After the event, the HPC clusters assembled by the students were given to their respective high schools for continued use.
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Dell donated all of the required hardware for the Boot Camp, including four 5-node HPC systems comprising Dell PowerEdge SC1435 servers and the necessary monitors, input devices, KVM (keyboard, video, and mouse) switches, network switches, and network cables. For operating system software, Dell recommended that CCT use Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 and helped arrange its donation by Microsoft.
“Dell offers HPC solutions based on both Red Hat Linux and Windows,” says Mullen. “The Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 environment is a ‘natural primer’ for this training. Windows is familiar to most students, and Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 is an extension of that environment, allowing students to explore the world of HPC without the layers of complexity that are typically associated with the industry and technology. Linux would have presented a much steeper learning curve and would have made it harder for the participating schools to utilize, support, and integrate the donated systems into their existing IT infrastructures after the Boot Camp was over.”
Intensive, Hands-on Introduction to HPC
The first HPC Boot Camp took place over a four-day period starting July 30, 2007, and was held in the Frey Computing Services Center on the LSU campus. More than 20 LSU faculty, researchers, technicians, and administrative personnel assisted with the event. Participating schools included the Baton Rouge Magnet High School, Glen Oaks High School, Istrouma High School, Tara High School, and LSU’s University Laboratory School.
Day one, a Monday, began with an introduction by Seidel. Next, Sterling presented an introduction to supercomputing and a preview of what students would be learning over the next four days. After a short presentation on how to assemble a compute node, students had a hands-on session in which they set up the donated hardware and installed Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. Students and teachers were divided into five teams, with each team building an HPC cluster consisting of a head node and four compute nodes.
Day two began with another hands-on session, in which students configured the head node and compute nodes for the clusters. Sterling then presented an introduction to parallelism, in which he demonstrated the concept by having students stand up, use calculators, pass paper, and synchronize by voice to solve a simple problem. Following that, students had another hands-on session in which they learned to log on to the systems and execute commands. Showcasing LONI, its own Dell-based HPC solution, LSU also provided students with real-time demonstrations of parallel applications for coastal modeling, black hole collisions, and computational fluid dynamics. The day ended with another hands-on session in which students used WaveToy to examine a weak-scaling problem.
Day three started with an introduction to the Python programming language. Then, Sterling gave a presentation on cooperative computing and the different forms of parallelism, in which he explained the two ends of the spectrum: capacity computing and capability computing. (Capability computing is typically thought of as using the maximum computing power to solve a large problem in the shortest amount of time; often the problem is so large or complex that no other computer can solve it. Capacity computing typically refers to the use of smaller, less expensive HPC systems to run parallel problems with more modest computational requirements.) The day ended with presentations on the Python Message Passing Interface (MPI) and its use in parallel-computing applications.
Day four started with more instruction on the Python MPI, followed by another hands-on session in which students were able to put what they had learned to use. They were given simple cooperative codes and used Python to distribute the work to run those codes across the nodes of the cluster. The day ended with a closing banquet, to which parents also were invited.
Continuing Momentum
The HPC Boot Camp experience did not end on the last day of camp. To maintain and nurture the high-school students’ and teachers’ enthusiasm for HPC, CCT donated the clusters built by the students to their respective schools. “Teachers were very pleased to be able to take the equipment back to their classrooms,” says Lea. “The clusters will provide a continued learning resource for kids who were inspired by the camp—and help expose additional students to the capabilities and real-world applications of HPC.”
To further the student interest generated during the Boot Camp, CCT created a Web site to help students and teachers think of different ways to use the clusters in their classrooms. Currently in development, the Web site will include a collaborative forum and wiki with tutorials, manuals, and HPC-related projects that can be completed throughout the school year. “By providing ongoing resources, we hope to facilitate changes to computer science curriculum in the classrooms that own, operate, and maintain the HPC resources,” says Lea.
Benefits
The HPC Boot Camp gave students an in-depth introduction to the world of high-performance computing. It educated them on how HPC applications can be used to solve real-world problems, opened their minds to a career option, and exposed them to new technology that is rapidly gaining acceptance in the corporate world. Students returned to their classrooms not only with what they had learned during the four-day event, but also with the machines they had built and the basic technical skills to continue learning. High-school teachers were given the knowledge, course curriculum and materials, and technology needed to introduce their other students to HPC, while CCT faculty and staff were given the opportunity to share their passions, promote the HPC industry, and help educate the young people who may follow in their footsteps.
“I’ve seen the dramatic effects that computers and technology can have on high-school students, and I know the effect it had on me,” says Sterling. “I would never have been able to create the Beowulf cluster if I hadn’t had the opportunity to become excited about computers in the first place. This program can help create a passion to shape the future of high-performance computing.”
Awareness of New Career Possibilities for Students
Through the HPC Boot Camp, high-school students gained an awareness of HPC and how it can be used to solve complex, real-world problems—from predicting natural disasters to discovering a cure for cancer. “Students absolutely loved it,” says Jennifer Bevill, M.Ed., who teaches several classes on information technology at University Laboratory School and attended with four of her students. “They learned a lot, and some have asked if they can go again next year.”
The innovative, hands-on approach taken by the CCT team helped ensure that students were engaged and remained so throughout the four-day event. “I selected a cross-section of students to attend the Boot Camp, not just those in advanced or honors classes, and we all showed up with no idea what to expect,” says Bevill. “Within a short time, the presenters had captured our attention and had us all interested. With all the hands-on activities, there was no question as to whether the students were paying attention.”
Bevill can attest to the impact that the event has had on her students, including those who may never have considered such a career before. “In the past, HPC was an abstract concept that students couldn’t comprehend or envision themselves participating in,” says Bevill. “Not all of them will pursue a career in HPC, but at least they now know that it’s within their range of options.”
Another student who attended the Boot Camp is taking advantage of the HPC cluster donated to Bevill’s class to further an interest in HPC. “One student has really taken to programming and is using the Python language to write and run simple programs on his own,” says Bevill. “He has even gone out on his own to find challenges and solve them, which is great to see as a teacher.”
What’s more, students are sharing their excitement about HPC—and the impact that it may have on their academic and professional careers—with their peers. “The students love to bring their friends into the class, turn on the HPC cluster, and show it to their friends,” says Bevill. “Word travels fast around here, and the students are discovering that HPC is not all that intimidating.”
Exposure to the Business Tools of the Future
Because HPC is rapidly gaining traction outside of academia, the concepts learned at the Boot Camp are more applicable to students’ potential career paths than one might think at first. “By exposing students to technologies like Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 now, we’re giving kids an early look at tools that they’ll encounter in the corporate workplace,” says Mullen. “Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 is an emerging technology in the enterprise market now, but will be widely used by the time these kids graduate from college. It’s important to expose students to something that they typically envision being useful only in a university setting. They immediately understand the value of opportunities like this when you can point out that, for example, a good computational scientist working on Wall Street earns $350,000 per year.”
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New Course Material and Classroom Equipment for Teachers
Teachers who accompanied the students to the Boot Camp also benefited in several ways, including gaining an education in—and appreciation of—an important trend in computer technology. Furthermore, they returned to their classrooms with course materials and hardware from the Boot Camp, which they are using to educate other students in their schools about HPC.
“I teach a wide range of courses, and there’s never enough time to learn everything that I want to teach my students,” says Bevill. “The HPC Boot Camp gave me a solid understanding of HPC today, as well as the importance that it will likely play in the future careers of my students.”
Bevill is putting the course materials and hardware from the Boot Camp to good use. “I’ve already added concepts and course materials from the Boot Camp into two of my classes,” she says. “I spend a day on the topic in my Computer Architecture class, and HPC is an even larger component of my Information Technology in Global Society class. Reusing the class materials provided by CCT, we essentially repeated the entire Boot Camp experience—setting up the hardware, creating user accounts and permissions, and so on. The LSU graduate students have been very helpful in that many have made additional reference materials available to us on their personal Web sites.”
Bevill also is working to find additional teaching uses for the HPC cluster. “I’m talking to the head of our science department about how we may be able to use the hardware to further our science curriculum,” she says. “In addition, I also teach a multimedia production class and am exploring how we could use the cluster for movie rendering and animation.”
Rewarding Experience for CCT Faculty and Staff
CCT faculty and staff who participated in the Boot Camp gained the opportunity to help educate high-school students and teachers about academic or professional careers in HPC. In addition, through their participation, the graduate students were able to develop and refine their own teaching abilities, influence the development and demand for future secondary and university computer science curriculum, and ultimately help reverse the “graying” of the IT community and help the United States remain competitive in the global technology market.
“To boost the nation’s competitive strength in industry and build a stronger, HPC-enabled work force, awareness of collaborative, multidisciplinary networks that utilize cutting-edge HPC technology must begin during the supple early years,” says Lea. “Cultivating interest in HPC within the high-school population will spark student demand, which in turn will motivate higher education to develop and incorporate a more rigorous HPC curriculum. Student demand for progressive technology courses and higher education’s provision of such courses ultimately produce technologically savvy graduates who enter the industrial environment prepared to deliver the HPC knowledge necessary to gain the competitive edge in industry.”
Adds Sterling, “The Boot Camp was a unique opportunity for the students and teachers who attended, but it was a life-changing experience for us as well. It took some effort, but it was all worth it because we were able to make a difference. I received one letter from a parent who said that, before the Boot Camp, her son was not terribly interested in even attending college. Now he wants to attend college and study computer science.”
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Publish Date:
04-25-2008
