A Curriculum Initiative on Parallel and Distributed Computing - Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Computing Education (EduPar-11) and Early Adopter Program

Georgia State University Research Foundation, Inc., Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

CISE/CNS/CSR PEC 7354 Org Code 05050000 $25,000 There is an urgent need for curricular guidance on parallel and distributed computing (PDC) due to rapid technological changes and mass marketing of multicores and general-purpose graphics processing units. Educators struggle to decide the right balance between theory and practice, and to choose from the diverse set of models of computation, languages, software and hardware platforms, and tools. The working group that has participants from various institutions has deliberated upon various topics and subtopics, and released a preliminary version of the curriculum in December 2010. A competition for granting Early Adopters status was held in Spring-11. The proposing instructors will be employing and evaluating the proposed curriculum in their courses. The primary task ahead is to organize a follow-up curriculum workshop (EduPar-11 at IPDPS) to bring together early adopters and other experts, collect feedback from the early adopters and the community, revise the preliminary version of the curriculum, and hold a second round of competition for Fall-11 for early adopter status.