Introduction: Foundations of Computational Science Dr. Greg Wettstein, Ph.D. Research Support Group Leader Division of Information Technology Adjunct Professor Department of Computer Science North Dakota State University

Background 1987 Ph.D. In Pharmaceutical sciences working in early 'multi-scale' studies. Chief software architect for 'Perceptions' medical information system at Roger Maris Cancer Center. Server group/systems architect NDSU. Research Support Workgroup leader.

Current Responsibilities Manage computational support services to faculty, students, and staff at NDSU. Oversee architecture and deployment of hardware resources for the Center for High Performance Computing. Implement research middleware on supported hardware platforms.

Career Computationalist Definition: A researcher who combines skills in hardware architecture, systems design and software development to create computationally based solutions for problems in various physical disciplines.

Course Goals To turn participants into computationlists.  Provide basic background into hardware issues which affect development of HPC applications.  Acquaint students with tools which accelerate the development of innovative computational solutions.  Provide a skills framework for developing applications which can take advantage of a trend toward massively parallel systems.

Course Framework Self-paced audio/tutorial lectures focusing on the 'code' section of the course. Slides with companion MP3 lectures. Suggestions for self-directed investigation into code fundamentals.

Two Track Model HPC technology concepts.  Develop knowledge framework for making decisions on how to best exploit parallel computing environments. Skills development.  Develop experience and skills for creating applications which can solve computationally based problems.

HPC Technology Track 1) Foundations of computational science. 2) Computer architecture models. 3) Strategies for parallelization. 4) The role of networking in HPC.

Skills Development Track 1) Introduction to the UNIX computational environment. 2) Fundamentals of shell programming. 3) Interpreter based tools development. 4) Resource scheduling and management. 5) Fundamentals of binary application development. 6) Performance measurement and analysis.

Required Resources Willingness to be challenged. Self-motivation. Login on CHPC resources. Basic proficiency in UNIX command-line environment. Basic proficiency in C/C++, FORTRAN if you elect.

Contact Information Office hours  By arrangment in Research 1/Rm 204B, 'ring the bell'. (preferred)  Telephone 

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