Parallel Computing and the Computer Science Curriculum

["P.H.Welch" <P.H.Welch@xxxxxxxxx>]

Forwarding from Nan Schaller ...

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Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2002 12:10:59 -0400 (EDT)
From: Nan C Schaller <ncs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: Nan C Schaller <ncs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Parallel Computing and the Computer Science Curriculum
To: java-threads@xxxxxxxxx


I have just returned from the 2002 International Parallel and Distributed 
Processing Symposium (www.ippsxx.org) that was held last week in Fort 
Lauderdale, Florida.  With the growth of the web, distributed computing
has grown in popularity, so much so that distributed algorithms but not
parallel ones are part of the core of Computing Curriculum 2001. (See 
http://www.computer.org/education/cc2001/index.htm) All of this has caused
me to ponder the continued role and viability of parallel computing courses
in the computer science curriculum.  I personally feel that all computer
scientists should have exposure to both distributed and parallel computing,
but would like your input.

Now, I should say that I view cluster/NOW computing using languages such as 
linda, MPI, and PVM as parallel computing rather than distributed computing
even though the platform is distributed. I view distributed computing as
using lower level constructs. You may disagree with this categorization,
but please use this terminology if you choose to respond to my short survey
below.

I would greatly appreciate you taking the time to respond and will gladly
summarize the responses I receive.

Thank you.

Nan Schaller
================================================================================

1. What is the name of your department?

2. Does your department offer any parallel computing courses?
   If no, please go to question 4.

3. a. What are the titles of your department's parallel computing course(s)? 
   URLs?

   b. Are these courses available to undergraduate students? graduate students?
      both?
   
   c. What are the central themes of your department's parallel computing 
      courses?
   
   d. What language(s) do you use in teaching these courses?
   
4. Does your department offer any distributed computing courses?
   If no, please go to question 6.

5. a. What are the titles of your department's distributed computing course(s)? 
      URLs?

   b. Are these courses available to undergraduate students? graduate students?
      both?
   
   c. What are the central themes of your department's distributed computing 
      courses?
   
   d. What language(s) do you use in teaching these courses?

6. Does your department offer any computational science courses?
   If no, please go to question 8.


7. a. What are the titles of your department's computational science course(s)? 
      URLs?

   b. Are these courses available to undergraduate students? graduate students?
      both?
   
   c. What are the central themes of your department's computational science 
      courses?
   
   d. What language(s) do you use in teaching these courses?
   
   e. What role does parallel or distributed computing play in these courses?
   
8. Any further comments?

____________________________________________________________________________

Nan C. Schaller 				Phone: +1.585.475.2139
Rochester Institute of Technology		Fax:   +1.585.475.7100
Computer Science Department			Internet:  ncs@xxxxxxxxxx 
102 Lomb Memorial Dr. 				OR         ncsics@xxxxxxx
Rochester, NY 14623-5608			
URL: http://www.cs.rit.edu/~ncs/