Call for Proposals - Volume 2

Background: The first volume (https://tcpp.cs.gsu.edu/curriculum/?q=cedr_book) has evolved organically based on contributions received in response to two calls for book chapters, in 2013 and 2014; all contributions have been rigorously reviewed. We would like to invite proposals for chapters on parallel and distributed computing topics, for either instructors or students, for a subsequent volume of this book. More specifically, we are interested in chapters on topics from the current TCPP/CDER curriculum guidelines for introductory courses that have not been addressed by the chapters in this volume. Examples of such topics include memory hierarchy issues, SIMD architectures (such as accelerators) and programming models for them, parallel versions of common algorithms and their analysis, etc.

Note: There have been a lot of community interest in writing chapters on teaching parallel and distributed computing topics for higher level elective courses toward the CDER book project. To address this, we are extending the scope of volume II to both lower-level core courses and the more advanced, specialized topics in parallel and distributed computing that are targeted at students in upper level classes.

Motivation and Goals: While the community as well as the CS2013 ACM/IEEE Computer Science Curriculum Joint Task Force has recognized the need to integrate topics in parallel and distributed computing (PDC) in the early core courses in the computer science and computer engineering curriculum, both instructors and students need suitable textual material to effectively carry this out. The project's goal is to address the lack of suitable textbooks to integrate PDC topics into the lower level core courses (CS0 - Computer Literacy/Principles course, typically for non-CS majors, CS1, CS2, Systems, Discrete Maths, Data Structures and Algorithms, Logic Design, Intro to Data Science, Intro to Computational Science, etc.). The NSF/TCPP working group on PDC curriculum for undergraduates has proposed a set of core PDC topics and their level of coverage. This is organized into four tables of architecture, programming, algorithm, and cross-cutting topics - see https://tcpp.cs.gsu.edu/curriculum. This edited book will cover all these proposed topics and will be freely available on the Web. The book will have two parts.

Part I: For instructors - Basic concepts and references on (i) what and (ii) how to teach PDC topics in the context of the existing topics in various core courses.

Part 2: For students - Supplemental textual material for core courses which students can rely on for learning and exercises.

Resources:

1. NSF/IEEE-TCPP Curriculum on Parallel and Distributed Computing – Core Topics for Undergraduates.
2. Curriculum’s Appendix 2 has brief suggestions on how to teach proposed PDC topics.
3. To discuss this book’s plan with the early adopters of PDC curriculum and others, a teleconference was held on June 17, 2013: see slides employed, audio recording, and its meeting minutes.
4. Author Instructions for Chapters

What to submit? Submit a 1⁄2-1 page informal proposal specifying your goals and a brief outline of your proposed chapter addressing how it would be usable, complete, and adaptable at EasyChair website https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cderbook15. Employ keywords specifying the core/advanced course(s) that is the primary target of your chapter and the PDC topics covered. Multiple author teams are welcome.

We ask you to clearly insert the relevant PDC topics and subtopics, and if possible the appropriate Bloom level to indicate depth of coverage, as keywords that your writeup will address from the NSF/TCPP Curriculum. For example, for a "Parallel Programming paradigms and Notations" writeup, you may have "SIMD (K), Shared-Memory: Compiler directives/pragmas (C), Synchronization: Producer-consumer (A), Synchronization: Monitors (K), etc." A brief skeleton (section/subsections) of the proposed writeup will help.

The proposals will be reviewed by the CDER center investigators: Anshul Gupta, Sushil Prasad, Arny Rosenberg, Alan Sussman, and Chip Weems. The chapter write-ups will be reviewed by the NSF/TCPP curriculum working group and other experts.

Contact: Sushil K Prasad (sprasad at gsu dot edu).

Deadlines:

Proposal submission (required): Jan 30
Proposal notification: March 1
Chapter submission: April 30
Author notification: June 30

First round Call