Teaching parallel computing with higher-level languages and activity-based laboratories

This project sought to promote effective techniques for teaching parallel programing based on (i) higher-level parallel programming languages so students can focus on concepts and (ii) compelling examples with appeal beyond the scientific computing community that has traditionally practiced parallel computing. This project was a collaboration between PIs David Bunde at Knox College and Jens Mache at Lewis & Clark College.

Materials created

So far in this project, we have looked at and created materials for the following languages and libraries:

• Chapel
• Java's Executor framework
• Habanero Java (HJ)
• CUDA
• Cilk

Publications and presentations

• Modules for introducing threads.
  Included as Chapter 4 in Prasad, Gupta, Sussman, and Weems ed. Topics in parallel and distributed computing: Introducing concurrency in undergraduate courses, Morgan Kaufmann, 2015.

• Flipping a parallel programming class.
  Poster presented at the 5th NSF/TCPP Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Computing Education (EduPar), 2015.

• Using wrappers to simplify task parallel programming.
  Written with Michael Graf (Knox `15).
  Proceedings of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Midwestern conference (CCSC-MW), pages 73-79, 2014.

• Adding parallel Haskell to the undergraduate programming language course.
  Written with Jens Mache and Peter Drake.
  Proceedings of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Northwestern conference (CCSC-NW), pages 181-189, 2014.

• Poster Accessible parallel programming in Java.
  Written with Michael Graf (Knox `15).
  Presented at the 4th NSF/TCPP Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Computing Education (EduPar), 2014.

• Using Chapel to teach parallel concepts.
  Tutorial presented at CCSC-CP 2014

• Chapel: A Versatile Tool for Teaching Undergraduates Parallel Programming.
  Presented with Kyle Burke.
  Tutorial presented at SIGCSE 2014

• Parallel programming paradigms illustrated.
  Poster written with Michael Graf (Knox `15), Deyu Han (Knox `16), and Jens Mache.
  Presented at SIGCSE 2014.

• High-level parallel programming using Chapel.
  Presented with Kyle Burke.
  Educator program session at SC 2013.

• An educator's toolbox for CUDA.
  Presented with Karen Karavanic and Jens Mache. Educator program session at SC 2013.

• Short modules for introducing parallel concepts.
  Tutorial presented at the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Midwestern conference (CCSC-MW), 2013.

• Adding GPU computing to computer organization courses.
  Written with Karen L. Karavanic, Jens Mache, and Chris T. Michell.
  Proceedings of the 3rd NSF/TCPP workshop on parallel and distributed computing education (EduPar), 2013.

• Selecting and using a parallel programming language.
  Poster written with M. Graf (Knox `15), D. Ely, D. Lucas (Knox `13), J. Mache, C. Mitchell, A. Papancea (Knox `13), M. Robinson, and B. White.
  Presented at the 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2013.

• Collaborative Research: Responding to Manycore: Teaching parallel computing with higher-level languages and activity-based laboratories.
  Poster presented at the TUES/CCLI PI Conference, 2013.

• High-level parallel programming using Chapel.
  Presented with Kyle Burke. Educator program session at SC 2012.

• An educator's toolbox for CUDA.
  Presented with Karen Karavanic, Jens Mache, and Barry Wilkinson. Educator program session at SC 2012.

• Introduction to Habanero Java (HJ) Presented with Jaime Spacco and Casey Samoore. Pre-conference workshop at the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges Midwestern conference (CCSC-MW), 2012.

• Adding parallelism to AP CS Principles.
  Invited talk at CS4EDU Workshop 2012.

• A stratified view of programming language parallelism for undergraduate CS education.
  Panel presentation with Dick Brown, Joel C. Adams, Jens Mache, and Libby Shoop. Presented at 43rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2012

• Teaching Parallel Computing with Higher-Level Languages and Compelling Examples.
  Poster written with Jens Mache, Casey Samoore (Knox `12), Sung Joo Lee (Knox `13), Johnathan Ebbers (Knox `13), Christopher T. Mitchell, Julian H. Dale. Presented at 43rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE), 2012

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grants DUE-1044299 and DUE-1044932.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.