A Curriculum Initiative on Parallel and Distributed Computing - Toward Core Topics for Undergraduates

并行和分布式计算课程计划 - 面向本科生核心主题

• 批准号: 1048711
• 负责人: Sushil Prasad
• 金额: $ 6万
• 依托单位: Georgia State University Research Foundation, Inc.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1048711&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Curriculum; Initiative; Parallel; Distributed; Computing

Parallel and Distributed Computing (PDC) now permeates most computing activities. The penetration of this technology in the daily lives has resulted in common users relying on its effectiveness and reliability. The mass marketing of multicores and general-purpose graphics processing units in home and office PCs and laptops has a potential for empowering even common users to become technology contributors. Certainly, it is no longer sufficient for even basic programmers to acquire only the conventional programming skills. All these phenomena point to the need for imparting a broad-based skill set in parallel and distributed computing at various levels, impacting Computer Science (CS) and Computer Engineering (CE) programs and related computational disciplines. However, the rapid change in computing hardware platforms and devices, languages, and supporting programming environments, and the research advances, more than ever challenges the educators in deciding what to teach in any given semester. Students and their future employers face similar challenges on what constitutes basic expertise.Our vision is bringing all stakeholder experts working together and periodically providing guidance on restructuring standard curriculum across various courses and modules related to parallel and distributed computing. Immediate benefit would be providing CS/CE students and their instructors with periodic guidelines on which aspects to cover in which courses. New programs at colleges (nationally and internationally) will receive guidance in setting up courses and/or integrating parallelism in the Computer Science or Engineering or Computational Science curriculum. Employers would have well defined expectations from students on PDC skills. This will similarly help in retraining and certifications of existing professionals. As background preparation, a planning workshop was held in Feb 2010 to explore the state of curriculum in parallel and distributed education, assess the needs, provide action plans and recommend mechanisms for how best to address the curricular needs in both the short and long terms. The planning workshop and its related set of activities have drawn experts from various stakeholders.The primary task is to propose a set of core topics in parallel and distributed computing for undergraduate curriculum for CS/CE students. For various topics in the three sub-areas of Programming, Algorithms, and Architecture, the expected deliverables are (i) learning outcomes, (ii) level of coverage (Bloom's classification), and (iii) examples of how to teach each topic. In summer 2010, we aim to carry out a public release of preliminary curriculum, collect feedback from various stakeholders, and identify and recruit colleagues who will try out aspects the proposed curriculum during fall 2010 and spring 2011. Following these, during these two semesters, the activities will include monitoring and supporting the courses and feedback collection from instructors and students.Our larger goal is to enable students to be fully prepared for their future careers in light of the technological shifts and mass marketing of multicores and GPUs and to make real impact on all the stakeholders including employers, authors, and educators. This curricular guidance and its trajectory, along with periodic feedback and other evaluation data on adoption and use, will also help steer companies hiring students and interns, hardware and software vendors, and, of course, the authors and researchers.

并行和分布式计算（PDC）现在渗透到大多数计算活动中。 这项技术在日常生活中的渗透已导致普通用户依赖其有效性和可靠性。 家庭和办公室个人电脑和笔记本电脑中多核和通用图形处理单元的大规模营销有可能使普通用户成为技术贡献者。 当然，即使是基础程序员仅掌握传统的编程技能也已经不够了。 所有这些现象都表明需要在各个级别上传授广泛的并行和分布式计算技能，这对计算机科学（CS）和计算机工程（CE）项目以及相关计算学科产生了影响。 然而，计算硬件平台和设备、语言和支持编程环境的快速变化以及研究的进步，比以往任何时候都对教育工作者决定在任何特定学期教授什么内容提出了更大的挑战。学生和他们未来的雇主在基本专业知识的构成方面面临着类似的挑战。我们的愿景是让所有利益相关者专家共同努力，并定期提供有关重构与并行和分布式计算相关的各种课程和模块的标准课程的指导。 直接的好处是为 CS/CE 学生及其教师提供定期指导，说明哪些课程涵盖哪些方面。大学（国内和国际）的新课程将在设置课程和/或在计算机科学或工程或计算科学课程中整合并行性方面获得指导。雇主会对学生对 PDC 技能有明确的期望。这同样有助于现有专业人员的再培训和认证。 作为背景准备，2010 年 2 月举行了一次规划研讨会，探讨并行和分布式教育的课程状况、评估需求、提供行动计划并就如何最好地满足短期和长期课程需求提出机制建议。规划研讨会及其相关活动吸引了来自各个利益相关者的专家。首要任务是为 CS/CE 学生的本科课程提出一组并行和分布式计算的核心主题。 对于编程、算法和架构三个子领域的各种主题，预期的交付成果是 (i) 学习成果，(ii) 覆盖范围（布卢姆分类），以及 (iii) 如何教授每个主题的示例。 在 2010 年夏季，我们的目标是公开发布初步课程，收集各利益相关者的反馈，并确定和招募将在 2010 年秋季和 2011 年春季尝试拟议课程的同事。随后，在这两个学期中，这些活动将包括监控和支持课程以及收集教师和学生的反馈。我们更大的目标是让学生根据多核和 GPU 的技术转变和大规模营销为未来的职业做好充分准备，并对包括雇主、作者和教育工作者在内的所有利益相关者产生真正的影响。该课程指导及其轨迹，以及有关采用和使用的定期反馈和其他评估数据，也将有助于引导公司雇用学生和实习生、硬件和软件供应商，当然还有作者和研究人员。