research-article

Breadth in depth: a 1st year introduction to parallel programming

Author:

Thomas R. GrossAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '11: Proceedings of the 42nd ACM technical symposium on Computer science education

Pages 435 - 440

https://doi.org/10.1145/1953163.1953291

Published: 09 March 2011 Publication History

Abstract

There is a debate on when and how to teach parallel programming in the undergraduate curriculum. We try to structure the debate along a number of dimensions and then present the solution that we adopted for an engineering-oriented curriculum. We added an introduction to parallel programming to the list of mandatory classes in the 2nd semester. The class exposes students to three styles of parallel programming: threads with shared memory, CSP-style message passing, and OpenMP-based parallel programming. Within these models, the class aims to focus the student's attention on communication as the key issue in parallel programs. Explicit communication (or their absence) causes correctness problems, implicit communication (e.g., when accessing shared data in different threads) forces the student to understand when updates are globally visible. An introductory class early in the undergraduate curriculum has a number of benefits and disadvantages, which are discussed in this paper. A preliminary evaluation after two editions of this course indicates that the design goals are met but also points to several issues that other institutions may want to consider.

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Cited By

Čerňanský M(2023)Teaching Synchronization in Parallel Computing2023 21st International Conference on Emerging eLearning Technologies and Applications (ICETA)10.1109/ICETA61311.2023.10344164(99-104)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICETA61311.2023.10344164
Raj RRomanowski CImpagliazzo JAly SBecker BChen JGhafoor SGiacaman NGordon SIzu CRahimi SRobson MThota NRößling GKrogstie BGiannakos MSindre GLuxton-Reilly ADivitini M(2020)High Performance Computing EducationProceedings of the Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3437800.3439203(51-74)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3437800.3439203
Vasconcelos LSoares FPenna PMachado MGóes LMartins CFreitas H(2020)Teaching Parallel Programming to Freshmen in an Undergraduate Computer Science Program2019 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE43999.2019.9028566(1-8)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/FIE43999.2019.9028566
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Breadth in depth: a 1st year introduction to parallel programming

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cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCSE '11: Proceedings of the 42nd ACM technical symposium on Computer science education

March 2011

754 pages

ISBN:9781450305006

DOI:10.1145/1953163

General Chairs:
Thomas J. Cortina
Carnegie Mellon University
,
Ellen L. Walker
Hiram College
,
Program Chairs:
Laurie Smith King
College of the Holy Cross
,
David R. Musicant
Carleton College

Copyright © 2011 ACM.

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Published: 09 March 2011

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SIGCSE '11: The 42nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

March 9 - 12, 2011

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SIGCSE '11 Paper Acceptance Rate 107 of 315 submissions, 34%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

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Cited By

Čerňanský M(2023)Teaching Synchronization in Parallel Computing2023 21st International Conference on Emerging eLearning Technologies and Applications (ICETA)10.1109/ICETA61311.2023.10344164(99-104)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICETA61311.2023.10344164
Raj RRomanowski CImpagliazzo JAly SBecker BChen JGhafoor SGiacaman NGordon SIzu CRahimi SRobson MThota NRößling GKrogstie BGiannakos MSindre GLuxton-Reilly ADivitini M(2020)High Performance Computing EducationProceedings of the Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3437800.3439203(51-74)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3437800.3439203
Vasconcelos LSoares FPenna PMachado MGóes LMartins CFreitas H(2020)Teaching Parallel Programming to Freshmen in an Undergraduate Computer Science Program2019 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE43999.2019.9028566(1-8)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/FIE43999.2019.9028566
Jamieson PHerbordt MKinsy M(2019)A Case Study: Undergraduate Self-Learning in HPC Including OpenMP, MPI, OpenCL, and FPGAs2019 International Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence (CSCI)10.1109/CSCI49370.2019.00149(782-787)Online publication date: Dec-2019
https://doi.org/10.1109/CSCI49370.2019.00149
Hawrylak PHale JPapa MHart D(2017)Undergraduate Educational Pathways for Developing a High-Performance Computing WorkforcePractice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing 2017: Sustainability, Success and Impact10.1145/3093338.3093355(1-4)Online publication date: 9-Jul-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3093338.3093355
Scatalon LBarbosa EGarcia R(2017)Challenges to integrate software testing into introductory programming courses2017 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE.2017.8190557(1-9)Online publication date: 18-Oct-2017
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Ziwisky MPersohn KBrylow D(2013)A down-to-earth educational operating system for up-in-the-cloud many-core architecturesACM Transactions on Computing Education10.1145/2414446.241445013:1(1-12)Online publication date: 7-Feb-2013
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2414446.2414450
de Freitas H(2012)Introducing parallel programming to traditional undergraduate coursesProceedings of the 2012 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE.2012.6462263(1-6)Online publication date: 3-Oct-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/FIE.2012.6462263
Capodieci NCabri GPagani GAiello M(2012)Adaptive game-based agent negotiation in deregulated energy markets2012 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS)10.1109/CTS.2012.6261067(300-307)Online publication date: May-2012
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von Praun CHind MSaraswat V(2011)Parallel programmingProceedings of the 2011 ACM SIGPLAN X10 Workshop10.1145/2212736.2212738(1-6)Online publication date: 4-Jun-2011
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2212736.2212738
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