Workshop Overview

Multi­core computers with increasing core counts are here to stay, and distributed cloud computation has become a staple of industry innovation. How can instructors help today's undergraduate computer science (CS) majors to learn the principles and practices of parallel and distributed computing that they need as they begin their careers after college? CSinParallel is an NSF-­funded initiative dedicated to supporting CS programs as they transition to incorporating parallel and distributed computing (PDC) into their undergraduate curricula. CSinParallel modules are brief, flexible, and hands­on, enabling instructors to add a productive day or two of PDC content to almost any undergraduate CS course. By experiencing various facets of PDC in multiple courses or in a larger unit or two in a designated course, students emerge with principles, experiences, and a sense of perspective about the rapidly evolving PDC body of knowledge, as called for in emerging CS curricular recommendations, such as the ACM/IEEE CS2013 Ironman Draft.

Workshop Goals

The first CSinParallel Regional Workshop for the Core Southwest Region, focusing on Arizona and New Mexico, will take place at Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, NM on July 30-­31. Participants in this 1.5 day workshop and related activities can expect:

  • an introduction to the CSinParallel teaching modules and to technologies available for hands­-on teaching with those modules;
  • assistance in planning how to integrate more parallel and distributed computing (PDC) into the participant's individual undergraduate CS curriculum;
  • ongoing support for implementing such a plan after the workshop;
  • making connections with other nearby faculty who are also seeking to add more PDC into their own curricula, towards the formation of a regional (human) network; and
  • optional training for student technical supporters from the participant's own institution, extending a support/research strategy that has been successful at other institutions involved with CSinParallel.

Dates

  • Monday, July 29: 7-9pm, Informal reception
  • Tuesday, July 30: 7:30am-4:45pm, Workshop sessions
  • Wednesday, July 31: 9am-1:30pm, Workshop sessions; optional additional afternoon sessions
  • Thursday, August 1: Optional regional tour

Costs

Travel support is available for participants. Participants must pay their own admission fees for optional regional tour elements.

Application and Selection Criteria

Click here for application form

For More Information

Send any questions to csinparallel@stolaf.edu, or visit csinparallel.org. The CSinParallel leadership for this workshop includes Dick Brown (St. Olaf College), Libby Shoop (Macalester College), Joel Adams (Calvin College), and Tom Murphy (Contra Costa College).