Agenda

TCPP/NSF Planning Workshop on Curriculum

Location:

Hilton Arlington

950 North Stafford Street, Arlington, VA 22203

(703) 528-6000 hotel switchboard

Workshop Rooms at Mezzanine Level of Hilton Arlington

• Breakfast, break and lunch: Master's Ballroom
• Sessions: Davinci/Picasso

Schedule/Agenda

Friday, Feb 5:

7:30a.m. Breakfast

8-10a.m. Session 1: Review and Scope

· Review of state of Parallel/Distributed Computing education (Why?)

· Scope of this workshop and that of curriculum initiative (What?)

10-10:15a.m. Break

10:15-12 a.m. Session 2: Mechanism and Processes (How?)

12-1p.m. Lunch

1-3p.m. Session 3:

· Mechanism and Processes (When? Who?)

· What do workshop participants teach and why?

3:3:15p.m. Break

3:15-5p.m. Session 4: Preliminary Curriculum Formulation

· Core Topics in Curriculum(s)

Saturday, Feb 6

7:30a.m. Breakfast

8-10a.m. Session 5: Preliminary Curriculum Formulation

· Introductory Course in Parallel and Distributed Computing, …

8-10a.m. Session 6: Impact Assessment and Evaluation Plan

10-10:15a.m. Break

10:15-12a.m. Session 7: Preliminary Curriculum Formulation

· Advanced Course in Parallel Models and Algorithms, …

10:15-12a.m. Session 8: Follow-up Plans

· Meeting at IPDPS, Atlanta (April)

· TCPP Standards Committee Setup

· Interface with Broader Community

DETAILED AGENDA

Session 1:

1.1 Review of State of Parallel/Distributed Computing Education (Why?)

1. Need and Status Assessment – Sushil Prasad (10 mins)

2. Stakeholders and how to engage them all – How to ensure success of this initiative? – David Padua, Frank Dehne, Mohamed Gouda, Jie Wu, Manish Parashar, Anshul Gupta, Krishna Kant, Almadena Chtchelkanova, Sajal Das, (5 min presentations)

1.2 Scope of this workshop and that of curriculum initiative (What?) - Sushil

· Curriculum

o Which courses/levels/programs?

1. Undergraduate courses

a. Introductory course(s) in parallel and distributed computing

b. Related courses – OS, Architecture, Computational Math/Sciences, Networks, Software Engineering, Simulation, VLSI, Introductory programming courses, etc.

c. Other courses – Database, Graphics, AI, etc.

d. Concentrations, minors

2. Graduate courses

3. Other levels/disciplines (AP Computer Science, IB CS; Computational Thinking across curriculum at k-12, other disciplines -arts, music, business, law, medicine)

o Who are the users?

o How will they use it?

o Can the participants be early adopters?

o Dissemination

o What are the inputs? Who will provide it and how will that be collected?

o What are the outputs?

§ Structure and Content of a curriculum

§ Preliminary Curriculums

· Intro and advanced courses

o Evaluation/Feedback?

· Course Modules

· Tutorials, Lectures

· Textbooks

Session 2: Mechanism and Processes (How?) - Viktor Prasanna

· What are the guiding principles? - David Padua

o Fundamentals skills and knowledge

o Broad based

o Interdisciplinary

o Four year Colleges, availability of resources

o International Needs

o Women, Minority, Cultural Issues?

o Capabilities and skills of a student completing a course/level: related to cognition, practice, transferable skills

· How to catalog Body of Knowledge in an area? - Behrooz Shirazi

o Knowledge areas?

§ Theory

§ Algorithms,

§ Architectures,

§ Programming languages,

§ Hardware and software platforms,

§ Tools?

Input àà| Curriculum Mechanism| àà Curriculum(s) àà Users à Feedback

· How to involve larger community in providing input?

· How perspectives of various stakeholders incorporated? Industry? - Anshul Gupta, Krishna Kant

· How should each component above be carried out?

· What are the processes involved in coming out with a curriculum? Frank Dehne, Yves Robert

· Mechanism for public comments? Consultation Process? - Jie Wu

· How will adoption happen? Need early adopters. - Andrew Lumisdale

· How does one collect feedback from educators? What should be the feedback? Do students participate?

· How to evaluate feedback?

· How to state a curriculum? - Alan Sussman and Yves Robert

o Prerequisites

o Topics

o Strategies for implementation

o Learning objectives

· How to evaluate a curriculum?

· How to produce a course module?

· How would we address larger challenges? - Manish Parashar, Mohamed Gouda

o other courses,

o K-12,

o other computational disciplines

o Concentrations, minors

o Certifications

Session 3:

3.1 Mechanism and Processes (When? Who?) - Sushil Prasad

· Timelines, periodicity

o Curriculum - How often?

o Preliminary release (May-10)?

o Feedback (Dec-Jan 2011)?

o Revisions, Major release (Spring 2011)?

o First course modules?

o How often should curriculum be revised? Are there triggers?

· Who will carry out what processes?

o Role of participants of this workshop - lead coordinators?

§ TCPP Curriculum Committee,

§ IPDPS meeting attendees,

§ Sister TCs, organizations -

o Who will collect input, disseminate output, and collect feedback?

o Who will produce basic curriculum(s)? Graduate? Computational Sciences?

o What about modules, etc?

3.2 What do workshop participants teach and why? - All interested (4-5 mins each)

(This should lead us to formulate core and other topics.)

Session 4: Preliminary Curriculum Formulation - Arnold Rosenberg

• Core Topics in Curriculum(s)
• Formulate basic principles on how to identify/constitute/update a core
• Identify these core topics for a few representative courses

o Intro course on

§ Parallel/distributed computing - Yves Robert, Alan Sussman, Behrooz Shirazi

§ High performance computing - David Padua

o Advanced Course in

§ Parallel Models and Algorithms, … - Joseph JaJa

Session 5: Preliminary Curriculum Formulation - Yves Robert and Behrooz Shirazi

· Introductory Course in Parallel and Distributed Computing, …

Session 6: Impact Assessment and Evaluation Plan - Sartaj Sahni

• Detailed plan for evaluating all aspects of this initiative in the short and long term
• mechanism and process for (a) creating and (b) employing the curriculum.
• the curriculum itself (Its quality, completeness and soundness, relevance, etc.)
• metrics to gauge its effectiveness/impact (on various stake-holders: students, educators, researchers, authors, industry, etc.)
• Mechanism to improve the processes through periodic feedback and evaluations

• How the evaluation and community feedback are (a) processed, and (b) incorporated into next revision.
• What are the triggers and thresholds, apart from duration, which would warrant deliberation by TCPP Curriculum Standards Committee or initiate major curriculum revision

Session 7: Preliminary Curriculum Formulation - Joseph JaJa

· Advanced Course in Parallel Models and Algorithms, …

Session 8: Follow-up Plans - Viktor Prasanna and Sushil Prasad

• Follow up workshop/meeting at IPDPS, Atlanta
• Scope, agenda, format, organization
• TCPP Standards Committee on Curriculum -
• Membership drawn from all stakeholders
• Role, Activities
• Interface with Broader Community