A single-semester introductory course in high performance computing will be offered in the spring of 2011 at the first-year graduate and senior-elective levels by the LSU CS department on-campus and to other participating universities. The goal of the course is to rapidly increase the number and capability of young scientists and engineers contributing to the application and development of high performance computing to address the needs of this nation and the welfare of its citizens through a highly practical treatment of all relevant aspects of the field. The course is interdisciplinary combining critical elements from hardware technology and architecture, system software and tools, and programming models and application algorithms with the cross-cutting theme of performance management and measurement. CSC 7600 provides hands-on experience with strong educational reinforcement through experimental exercises. This course is multi-media enabled for rapid and wide distribution employing state-of-the-art high-definition digital video and high bandwidth internet networking technologies to support enhanced local classroom, geographically distributed real-time lectures, separately conducted classroom courses, and self-scheduled independent studies programs. To facilitate this high-impact college course a new textbook is being developed in conjunction with a web-site for distribution of course material and management of the student learning experience. NSF sponsorship will support the development of an Instructors’ Manual and the creation of the digital video lecture series library for pedagogical reinforcement through repetition and off-site independent studies.

A New College Course in Supercomputing

High Performance Computing (HPC) is an interdisciplinary field having important impact on many areas of science, technology, medicine, commerce, and national security. The graying of the HPC community is in evidence in academia, industry, and national institutions with an inadequate number of new young participants educated in the relevant sub-disciplines entering the field. As an interdisciplinary field, HPC engages talents in the broad areas of hardware architecture and design, system software, programming languages and tools, and parallel algorithms and computational techniques. While many universities offer graduate courses in one or more of these areas, there is a dearth of collegiate level courses presenting an essential balanced treatment across all constituent areas and their critical interrelationships as they contribute in synergy to delivered performance. Only through such an interdisciplinary presentation can students experience the interplay and mutual sensitivities of each conceptual component with the others determining the factors that influence the overall resulting computational capability.

Louisiana State University (LSU) is undertaking to develop such a course entitled “High Performance Computing -Models, Methods, and Means” at the first year graduate level and as a senior level elective. The goal of the new course is to engender a new generation of computer and computational scientists expert in the development, operation, and application of high performance computing systems prepared to address this nation’s future challenges demanding capability and expertise in HPC. The topic areas to be covered by this one semester course include:

1. 1.Introduction and overview of HPC,
   

2. 2.Large scale applications and parallel algorithmic methods,
   

3. 3.Enabling technologies,
   

4. 4.System single node and parallel architectures and commodity clusters,
   

5. 5.Performance metrics, monitoring, measurement, and benchmarking, and
   

6. 6.Programming methods and tools for capacity and capability computing.
   

The course is being developed through multi-media to provide the richest possible educational experience while facilitating the widest possible distribution for maximum impact. Through advanced technology including high definition digital video, web programming, grid remote resource access, and access-grid video broadcast the course lectures, materials, and exercises are being developed for presentation in four distinct learning contexts:

1. •Direct in-class lectures and face-to-face teaching at LSU Baton Rouge campus
   

2. •Remote-site classes at other campuses within Louisiana and out of state with participating universities with real-time lectures distributed live via high speed wide area network (e.g. LONI) and access grid technology
   

3. •Remote-site classes at other campuses taught by other instructors using course materials including an Instructors’ Manual
   

4. •Remote-site classes at other campuses taught directly from digital video series
   

5. •Individual Independent Studies use web resources and the digital video series with credit given by LSU
   

This preparation for this new course will include the necessary infrastructure, examples and exercises, and digital video lecture series.