1. 1Training & Education at EPCC Training and Education at EPCC Judy Hardy j.hardy@epcc.ed.ac.uk

2. 2Training & Education at EPCC EPCC Activities  Founded in 1990  Aim: –“To accelerate the effective exploitation of Novel Computing in Industry, Academia, and Commerce”  Vital statistics: –65 staff –£2.7M turnover (almost) all from external sources research councils government agencies industry European Commission Technology Transfer Training & Education Grid Middleware HPC Research Facilities European Programmes

3. 3Training & Education at EPCC  HPC Training: –HPCx users –European visitor programme –UK academia –commercial HPC users  MSc in HPC –one of first in world –significant numbers of overseas students during first 4 years –supported by industry –excellent practical grounding for future careers Training and education Technology Transfer Training & Education Grid Middleware HPC Research Facilities European Programmes

4. 4Training & Education at EPCC Training - history  JISC funding: –Provided seed capital to write some of our courses  HPC services: –Tailor courses to machines  Course development continued: –Application based courses written with JTAP funding  Visitor programmes: –Small training modules  MSc in High Performance Computing  Regular training courses throughout the year

5. 5Training & Education at EPCC Original Courses –Introduction to HPC –Decomposing the Potentially Parallel –MPI Programming –HPF Programming –Scientific Visualisation –Computational Methods in Physical Science –Introduction to Genetic Algorithms –Performance Optimisation on Sun Workstations Courses T3D/T3E Service Courses –Introduction to the Cray T3D –Introduction to the Cray T3E –MPI Programming on the T3D/T3E –HPF Programming on the T3D/T3E –Performance Optimisation for the Cray T3D/T3E Application Based Courses –Simulation for Engineers –Mesh Generation Computer Course –Mesh Decomposition –Modelling in the Geophysical Sciences –Computational Fluid Dynamics –HPC in Business HPCx Courses (EPCC/CCLRC) –Using the HPCx service –The DL_POLY molecular dynamics package –Optimisation techniques for the Power4 processor –Improved Performance Scaling on HPCx MSc Core Courses –Fundamental Concepts of HPC –Practical Software Development –Shared Memory Programming –Message Passing Programming –Parallel Decomposition –Core Topics in HPC and e-Science MSc Advanced Courses –Exploiting the Computational Grid –Applied Numerical Algorithms –Hardware, Compilers and Performance Programming –Object Oriented Programming for HPC –Scientific Visualisation –Advanced Topics in HPC and e-Science

6. 6Training & Education at EPCC Training facilities  Dedicated training room for 26 students –Sun Ray terminals plus Sun Blade 2000 server  UoE HPC service is standard HPC resource –Sun Fire E15K server 52 CPUs @ 900 MHz  HPCx national service – cluster of IBM SMP nodes 1600 POWER4+ processors @ 1.7GHz

7. 7Training & Education at EPCC Training courses  Annual training commitment for HPCx national service:  30 training days  12 different courses  4 locations  HPCx users also have reserved places on EPCC courses –the same content as MSc courses but delivered differently HPCx Courses –Using the HPCx service –The DL_POLY molecular dynamics package –Optimisation techniques for the Power4 processor –Improved Performance Scaling on HPCx

8. 8Training & Education at EPCC MSc in HPC - background  MSc builds on EPCC’s established training history  Initially funded by 5-year Masters Training Package from EPSRC –provides ~ 6 studentships a year plus some development/admin costs  First student intake in 2001, now in it’s fourth year –longer-term support from the School of Physics  Supported by the following companies –Sun –NEC –Rolls Royce –AWE –UK Met Office –and Portland Group, LAM MPI, Quadstone Ltd, Edinburgh Petroleum Services, PALLAS

9. 9Training & Education at EPCC Aims of MSc  To teach practical skills –not just theory  In areas relevant to EPCC’s HPC activities –in academic research –in industry  “ Hidden” aims –to get to know potential EPCC employees have employed an MSc graduate every year of the programme to date –to expand our training activities –to do accredited teaching at a postgraduate level increasing activity in undergraduate teaching in School of Physics have taken a PhD student this year for the first time

10. 10Training & Education at EPCC Structure Physical Sciences Computer Science TheorySimulationPureApplied MSc in HPC Computational Science

11. 11Training & Education at EPCC Format  First three years: –Courses dual use MSc/training MSc students, HPCx users, UK academics, visitors, commercial attendees… –Each course taught as an intensive three-day block  From this year: –Courses dedicated to MSc students –Taught “conventionally” over 10 teaching weeks Each course taught in half-day blocks Six courses in each of two semesters –This allows sharing with different MSc programmes Maths Operational Research MSc Informatics MSc (HPC Specialism)

12. 12Training & Education at EPCC Course design and delivery  Courses designed in half-day blocks –can be delivered in either model: long and thin “semsterised” courses for MSc students 2 or 3 day intensive training courses  Strong practical focus –lectures –supporting practicals –tutorials/group discussions –case studies etc

13. 13Training & Education at EPCC MSc courses MSc Core Courses –Fundamental Concepts of HPC –Practical Software Development –Shared Memory Programming –Message Passing Programming –Parallel Decomposition –Core Topics in HPC and e-Science MSc Advanced Courses –Exploiting the Computational Grid –Applied Numerical Algorithms –Hardware, Compilers and Performance Programming –Object Oriented Programming for HPC –Scientific Visualisation –Advanced Topics in HPC and e-Science

14. 14Training & Education at EPCC Student applications Student numbers (applications/enrolled) Year2001-022002-032003-042004-05 OS 18/0 30/3 40/5 48/5 EU 4/2 7/1 17/4 15/4 UK 10/4 23/4 31/5 43/4 Total 32/6 60/8 88/14 106/13

15. 15Training & Education at EPCC Student destinations First Destinations Students (2002 - 2004) further study25% UK employment35% overseas employment10% overseas student returned 5% seeking employment/study 0% unknown25%

16. 16Training & Education at EPCC Summary Technology Transfer European Coordination HPC Research Facilities Visitor Programme Training & Education  Training is one of EPCC’s key activities  HPC training –supports HPC users throughout UK and Europe  MSc in HPC –practical training for range of careers in academia and industry

17. 17Training & Education at EPCC Overview  HPC Training at EPCC –training courses –facilities  MSc in High Performance Computing –motivation –taught courses –student statistics

18. 18Training & Education at EPCC Programming Languages  C or Fortran –Shared memory programming (OpenMP) –Message passing programming (MPI)  Fortran –Data parallel programming (HPF)  Java –Object-oriented programming (threads, MPJ, JOMP, RMI)

19. 19Training & Education at EPCC Core courses –Fundamental Concepts of HPC hardware, performance, programming paradigms, decomposition techniques –Practical Software Development tools and techniques of software engineering process source code management, software design, software projects –Shared Memory Programming using OpenMP (C or Fortran) –Message Passing Programming using MPI (C or Fortran) –Parallel Decomposition decomposition techniques plus data parallel programming (HPF) –Core Topics in HPC and e-Science Guest Lecture series, languages, tools (CVS, make, ant,…)

20. 20Training & Education at EPCC Advanced courses –Exploiting the Computational Grid Grid and web services, GT3 (4?), OGSA-DAI –Applied Numerical Algorithms numerical methods, standard algorithms/libraries (LAPACK, FFTW) –Hardware, Compilers and Performance Programming H/W architecture, processors, caches, memory, inteconnects compiler optimisation strategies –Object Oriented Programming for HPC OO analysis and design, Java (threads/MPJ/JOMP/RMI) –Scientific Visualisation AVS/Express, VTK –Advanced Topics in HPC and e-Science Guest Lectures, advanced topics (posix threads, FPGAs, single-sided comms, condor, databases…) –No options this year but may include options from other programmes eg computer networks (?) from Informatics