EduPar-21: 11th NSF/TCPP Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Computing Education

EduPar-21: 11th NSF/TCPP Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Computing Education
In conjunction with 35th IEEE International Parallel & Distributed Processing Symposium,
May 17, 2021
Virtual event

Parallel and Distributed Computing (PDC) permeates most computing activities - the “explicit” ones, in which a person works directly on programming a computing device, and the “implicit” ones, in which a person uses everyday tools that incorporate PDC below the user’s view. The penetration of PDC into the daily lives of both “explicit” and “implicit” users makes it imperative that users are able to depend on the effectiveness, efficiency, and reliability of this technology. The pervasiveness of PDC is evident in today’s general-purpose computing devices such as PCs, laptops and handheld devices that contain multiple cores and graphics processing units (GPUs). It is also seen in the increasing reliance on web and cloud services, and in the growing need for parallel and distributed solutions to data-intensive problems associated with Big Data from a wide range of disciplines. The growing ubiquity of parallel and distributed computing, and the increasing reliance on parallel and distributed technology, make PDC topics an essential, and core, part of computing curricula. The rapid changes in computing hardware platforms and devices, in languages and programming environments, and in applications of PDC present additional and on-going challenges in deciding what to include in the curriculum and how to incorporate PDC into existing and new course curricula in order to prepare students for careers that are increasingly likely to involve PDC.

The EduPar workshop is designed in coordination with the NSF/TCPP curriculum initiative on Parallel and Distributed Computing (http://tcpp.cs.gsu.edu/curriculum) and the Center for Parallel and Distributed Curriculum Development and Educational Resources (CDER). Held in conjunction with IPDPS (www.ipdps.org), EduPar brings together individuals from academia, industry, and other educational and research institutes to explore new ideas, challenges, and experiences related to PDC pedagogy and curricula.

EduPar invites unpublished manuscripts from individuals or teams from academia, industry, and other educational and research institutes from all over the world on topics pertaining to the teaching of PDC topics in the Computer Science and Computer Engineering curriculum as well as in domain-specific computational and data science and engineering curricula. We strongly encourage manuscripts to include a systematic evaluation and analysis of the impact and performance of the work.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

Emerging PDC topics to inform TCPP and related curricular efforts.
Curriculum design and models for incorporating PDC topics in CS/CE core curricula.
Pedagogical issues with incorporating PDC topics in CS/CE courses.
Experience incorporating PDC topics into core CS/CE courses.
Experience incorporating PDC topics into new CS/CE curricula/courses, or other applications.
Pedagogical tools, programming environments, infrastructures, languages and projects for PDC.
Novel ways of teaching PDC topics, including informal learning environments.
Employers’ experiences and expectations of the PDC proficiency among new graduates.
Educational resources based on higher level programming languages such as X10, Chapel, Haskell, Python, Cilk, CUDA, OpenCL, OpenACC, Hadoop and Spark.
Educational resources for e-Learning, e-Laboratory, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), Small Private Online Courses (SPOC).
PDC experiences at non-university levels; secondary school, postgraduate, industry, diffusion of PDC.
Parallel and distributed models of programming/computation suitable for teaching, learning and workforce development.
Issues and experiences related to addressing diversity and broadening participation of underrepresented groups.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: We are accepting submissions for Full Papers (6-8 pages), Posters (2-page abstract), and Peachy Parallel Assignments (2-page abstract). Please see the details below for each category of submission.

If accepted, regular papers will be published in the workshop proceedings, and authors will present their work at a conference session. Summary papers of all accepted posters and of all accepted Peachy Assignments will be published in the workshop proceedings. Summary papers will be written by the poster and Peachy Assignments chairs and will include, as co-authors, all poster and Peachy Assignment authors. Authors of accepted posters and Peachy Assignments will present their work during the conference’s poster session. In addition, all individual abstracts, posters, and papers will be published on the EduPar-21 website.

Papers: Authors are asked to submit 6-8 page papers in pdf format through the Linklings submission site here. Submissions should be formatted as single spaced, double-column pages following the IEEE format (https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html), including figures, tables, and references.

Submissions will be reviewed based on the novelty of contributions, impact on broader undergraduate curriculum, particularly on core curriculum, relevance to the goals of the workshop, and, for experience papers, the results of their evaluation and the evaluation methodology. Proceedings of the workshops are distributed at the conference and will be included in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library after the conference.

Authors of accepted papers will submit a 6-8 page camera ready version of their paper, and present their work at a workshop technical session. Accepted papers will be published in the workshop proceedings and included in the IEEE Xplore digital library. Additionally, accepted papers will be published to the EduPar-21 webpage.

Posters: High-quality poster presentations are an integral part of EduPar. We seek posters describing recent or ongoing research. Authors are asked to submit 2 page poster abstract in pdf format through the Linklings submission site here. Submissions should be formatted as single spaced, double-column pages following the IEEE format (https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html), including figures, tables, and references.

If accepted, authors will be asked to prepare a poster to be presented at EduPar. Poster authors will be co-authors with the poster chair on a poster summary paper published in the workshop proceedings and included in the IEEE Xplore digital library. Additionally, accepted posters and poster abstracts will be published to the EduPar-21 webpage.

Peachy Parallel Assignments: Course assignments are integral to student learning and also play an important role in student perceptions of the field. EduPar will include a session showcasing "Peachy Parallel Assignments" - high-quality assignments, previously-tested in class, that are readily adoptable by other educators teaching topics in parallel and distributed computing. Assignments may be previously published, but the author must have the right to publish a description of it and share all supporting materials. We are seeking assignments that are:

Tested - All submitted assignments should have been used successfully in a class.
Adoptable - Preference will be given to assignments that are widely applicable and easy to adopt. Traits of such assignments include coverage of widely-taught concepts, using common parallel languages and widely-available hardware, having few prerequisites, and (with variations) being appropriate for different levels of students.
Cool and inspirational - We want assignments that excite students and encourage them to spend time with the material. Ideally, they would be things that students want to show off to their roommate.

Assignments can cover any topics in Parallel and Distributed Computing. Preference will be given to assignments aimed at students in the early courses.

Authors are asked to submit 2 page poster abstract in pdf format through the Linklings submission site here. Submissions should be formatted as single spaced, double-column pages following the IEEE format (https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html), including figures, tables, and references. Submissions should describe the assignment and its context of use, and include a link to a web page containing the complete set of files actually given to students (assignment description, supporting code, etc.). The document should cover the following items: What is the main idea of the assignment? What concepts are covered? Who are its targeted students? In what context have you used it? What prerequisite material does it assume they have seen? What are its strengths and weaknesses? Are there any variations that may be of interest?

If accepted, authors will be asked to prepare a poster to be presented at EduPar. Peachy assignment authors will be co-authors with the Peachy Assignments chair on a summary paper published in the workshop proceedings and included in the IEEE Xplore digital library. Additionally, accepted peachy assignment posters, abstracts and course materials will be published to the EduPar’20 webpage and the CDER website (https://tcpp.cs.gsu.edu/curriculum/?q=peachy).

Reminder about IPDPS 2021 registration: All papers in the workshop must have one author registered at full (non-student) fee. It is assumed that all attendees to the workshop will be registered with IPDPS 2021 to give access to the proceedings and to all live events and recorded sessions of the conference.

IMPORTANT DATES

February 15, 2021: Papers due (extended deadline)
February 15, 2021: Posters due (extended deadline)
February 15, 2021: Peachy Assignments due (extended deadline)
March 1, 2021: Poster and Peachy Author Notification
March 8, 2021: Paper Author Notification
March 8, 2021: Final versions of Poster abstracts and Peachy Assignments due
March 15, 2021: Camera-ready papers due

Best Paper Award: All submitted papers will be peer-reviewed and considered for Best Paper Award.

KEYNOTE: There will be one keynote address:
David Albonesi, Using Smartphones to Teach Parallelism to First Year Students

POSTER SESSION: There will be a poster session of accepted posters.

COMMITTEES

Program committee

Dorian C. Arnold, Emory University
Mohammed Azhar, BMCC, The City University of New York
Michael Bane, University of Liverpool
P. Chitra, Thiagarajar College of Engineering
Vitaly Ford, Arcadia University
Eric Freudenthal, University of Texas at El Paso
Arturo González, Universidad de Valladolid
Anshul Gupta, IBM Corporation
William Johnson, Georgia State University
Sandeep Kumar, IIT Roorkee
Vitus J. Leung, Sandia National Laboratories
Preeti Malakar, IIT Kanpur
Grace Mirsky, Benedictine University
Charlie Peck, Earlham College
Joel Sommers, Colgate University
John Stratton, Whitman College
Alan Sussman, University of Maryland
Denis Trystram, Grenoble Institute of Technology
Voevodin Vladimir, Moscow State University

Conference committee

Workshop Chair: Sushil Prasad (University of Texas at San Antonio)
Program Chair: David Bunde (Knox College)
Program Vice-Chair: David Brown (Elmhurst University)
Poster Chair: Martina Barnas (Indiana University)
Proceedings Chair: Satish Puri (Marquette University)
Past Program Chair: Tia Newhall (Swarthmore College)

Contact
Questions about submissions: email David Bunde (dbunde@knox.edu)
Questions about Peachy Assignment submissions: email David Bunde (dbunde@knox.edu)
Questions about poster submissions: email Martina Barnas (Martina.barnas@gmail.com)

Sponsors

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EduPar-21: 11th NSF/TCPP Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Computing Education

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