Courses in High-performance Computing for Scientists and Engineers

This paper reports our experiences in reimplementing an entry-level graduate course in high-performance parallel computing aimed at physical scientists and engineers. These experiences have directly informed a significant redesign of a junior/senior undergraduate course, Introduction to High-Performance Computing (CS 4225 at Georgia Tech), which we are implementing for the current Spring 2012 semester. Based on feedback from the graduate version, the redesign of the undergraduate course emphasizes peer instruction and hands-on activities during the traditional lecture periods, as well as significant time for end-to-end projects. This paper summarizes our anecdotal findings from the graduate version's exit surveys and briefly outlines our plans for the undergraduate course.