Parallel Programming

Instructors: Kenneth D. Jordan (jordan@pitt.edu), Kim F. Wong (kimwong@pitt.edu) and Revati Kumar (rek34@pitt.edu)

Course Number, CRN Number: TBA

Term: Spring 2009

Day, Time, Location: TBA

Credits: 1

Prerequisites: Be familiar with Unix/Linux.  Prior programming helpful.

Grading: Credit/No Credit

Required Textbook: None.

Course Description:
This course will provide hands-on experience with code development within shared and distributed memory architectures, particularly within the OpenMP and MPI parallelization models. While the content and style of the course will appeal to scientists and engineers with interests in molecular modeling, students from other disciplines will benefit from the interactive problem solving aspect. Simulation techniques from molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo methods will be used to illustrate many of the computation issues encountered in the physical sciences. 

The student should already be comfortable navigating within a Unix/Linux environment and understand the procedures for compiling source code. Prior programming experience will be advantageous but not required. However, a willingness to actively participate within the class discussion will go a long way.  By the end of the course, students will have a set of MD and MC codes at  their disposal, some experience for extending these codes to other systems and references for seeking out additional resources in parallel computing.