Cloud Trek: The Next Generation

Abstract

Educating the next generation of software engineers is essential with the increased move to an Internet-based society. The need to support big data and data analytics are challenging many of the typical scenarios and paradigms associated with software engineering. In the digital age, data is often messy, distributed and growing exponentially. In this context there are swathes of technologies that are shaping the landscape for dealing with these phenomenon. Cluster and high performance computing has been a core approach for processing larger scale data sets, but Cloud computing has now gained increasing prominence and acceptance. In this context, training and educating the next generation of software engineers to be savvy Cloud application developers is essential. Prof Sinnott has taught Cluster (HPC) and Cloud Computing at the University of Melbourne for 5 years and exposed students to the latest technologies for big data analytics. Many of these efforts are shaped by the portfolio of major projects utilising numerous big data technologies within the Melbourne eResearch Group (www.eresearch.unimelb.edu.au). This presentation covers the pedagogy of the course and describes the way in which it utilizes national cloud and storage resources made available across Australia. Examples of the shaping eResearch projects and the solutions developed by the students are illustrated to demonstrate the practical experiences in developing Cloud-based solutions that focus especially on 'big data' challenges.