Purdue hosting entry-level research supercomputing workshop series
"“Supercomputing in Plain English,” a workshop series offering an entry point for researchers who want to take advantage of high-performance computing systems such as Purdue’s community cluster research supercomputers, is available at Purdue during the spring semester.
The workshops at 2:30-3:30 p.m. Tuesdays through April 28, are open to faculty and research staff, post-docs and graduate students interested in high-performance computing for computational and data-enabled engineering, science or other research.
There is no fee for the workshops, held in the Envision Center, Stewart Center, Room B001, which is located off the tunnel between the Stewart Center and the Purdue Memorial Union. For more information and to register, contact Stephen Harrell, sharrell@purdue.edu or 49-61560.
Participants need some experience in Fortan, C, C++ or Java. ITaP Research Computing is sponsoring the workshops.
The workshop series is delivered nationwide using two-way video conferencing to allow students to interact in real time with course instructors and to work in person with local colleagues and experts. At Purdue, supercomputing experts from ITaP are on hand, says Harrell, a senior high-performance computing system administrator who coordinates training for ITaP Research Computing.
The workshops cover topics in parallel and also high-throughput computation, multicore optimization, compilers, storage hierarchies, software libraries, scientific visualization, and more.
“Supercomputing in Plain English” is designed especially for people with a solid understanding of their own research discipline, but little or no experience with advanced computing. Instructors use analogies, storytelling and hands-on activities to illustrate key concepts.
The series focus is development of high-performance computing code that’s maintainable, extensible, portable across platforms, and flexible enough to adapt to new technology.