A Three-Semester, Interdisciplinary Approach to Parallel Programming in a Liberal Arts University Setting

Abstract

We describe a successful addition of high performance computing (HPC) into a traditional computer science curriculum at a liberal arts university. The approach incorporated a three-semester sequence of courses emphasizing parallel programming techniques, with the final course focusing on a research-level mathematical project that was executed on a TOP500 supercomputer. A group of students with varied programming backgrounds participated in the program. Emphasis was placed on utilizing the Open MPI and CUDA libraries along with parallel algorithm and file I/O analysis.