Developing High Performance Computing Resources for Teaching Cluster and Grid Computing Courses

Abstract

High-Performance Computing (HPC) and the ability to process large amounts of data are of paramount importance for UK business and economy as outlined by Rt Hon David Willetts MP at the HPC and Big Data conference in February 2014. However there is a shortage of skills and available training in HPC to prepare and expand the workforce for the HPC and Big Data research and development. Currently, HPC skills are acquired mainly by students and staff taking part in HPC-related research projects, MSc courses, and at the dedicated training centres such as Edinburgh Universitys EPCC. There are few UK universities teaching the HPC, Clusters and Grid Computing courses at the undergraduate level. To address the issue of skills shortages in the HPC it is essential to provide teaching and training as part of both postgraduate and undergraduate courses. The design and development of such courses is challenging since the technologies and software in the fields of large scale distributed systems such as Cluster, Cloud and Grid computing are undergoing continuous change. The students completing the HPC courses should be proficient in these evolving technologies and equipped with practical and theoretical skills for future jobs in this fast developing area.In this paper we present our experience in developing the HPC, Cluster and Grid modules including a review of existing HPC courses offered at the UK universities. The topics covered in the modules are described, as well as the coursework project based on practical laboratory work. We conclude with an evaluation based on our experience over the last ten years in developing and delivering the HPC modules on the undergraduate courses, with suggestions for future work.

The Case for a Cost-Effective General-Purpose Computer Cluster for Small Colleges

“…The danger of teaching Computer Science and Engineering courses, without hardware access, is to educate professional coders who lack a comprehensive vision of the technology [4]. Every piece of technology is an integrated object in which the hardware, the firmware, and the software work together, albeit at different levels.…”

Teaching high-performance service in a cluster computing course

“…In [4], [8], [13] and [19], those clusters are implemented using real hardware while [31] and [34] choose virtualization. In general, most courses build the clusters pursuing two goals.…”

“…First, it allows the students learning how to make and test an HPC cluster [8], [19]. Moreover, in second place, many courses take advantage of the cluster built to run parallel programs [4], [13], [31], [34].…”

High Performance Computing in Resource Poor Settings: An Approach based on Volunteer Computing

“…Despite the processing capacity and the speed of calculation of these computers, they do not offer the commodity price advantage, especially for small businesses and academics [13], [16]. Then, the following solutions were proposed : HPC Clusters [17], [18], [19], HPC Cloud [20], [21], and HPC Grid [19], [22]. HPC Cluster is a system composed of computers connected to a local area network, while HPC Cloud is a system involving computers connected in a private or public network.…”