Math 447/627 - Introduction to Parallel Computing

Fall 2021 - Matthias K. Gobbert

Detailed Schedule - Last Updated 08/24/21

The synchronous class meetings are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 01:00-02:15, please see the detailed schedule below for more information.
This schedule is designed to give you an overview of the material to be covered and is tentative in nature. This is a living document and will be updated throughout the semester.
The chapter numbers refer to Peter S. Pacheco, Parallel Programming with MPI, Morgan Kaufmann, 1997.
The numbers HW1a, HW1b, HW2a, etc. in the Class column indicate homeworks "HW" due as PDF upload to Blackboard on that day.
The numbers BQ0a, BQ0b, etc. in the Main Topic column indicate online Blackboard quizzes "BQ" due before that class.
The numbers GQ0a, GQ2a, GQ2b, etc. in the Main Topic column indicate in-class group quizzes "GQ" during that class due as PDF upload.
These numbers in the detailed schedule are designed to show the teaching philosophy and learning techniques associated with each class meeting.
See the Assignments area of the Blackboard site for our course for the precise due dates and times.

Class	Date	Main Topic
1, HW1a	Tu 08/31	Module 1: Motivation for parallel computing and overview, BQ0a, BQ0b, IQ0, HW1a, GQ0a, IQ0b
2	Th 09/02	Module 1: Linux and serial ANSI-C "Hello, world!" on the HPCF cluster
3, HW1b	Tu 09/07	Module 1: Parallel "Hello, world!" and running jobs on the HPCF cluster
4	Th 09/09	Module 2: Chapter 3: Greetings!
5, HW2a	Tu 09/14	Module 2: Chapter 4: An Application: Numerical Integration
6	Th 09/16	Module 2: Chapter 4: An Application: Numerical Integration, GQ2a
7	Tu 09/21	Module 2: Chapter 9: Debugging Your Program
8, HW2b	Th 09/23	Module 2: Scientific computing: numerical error vs. accumulated round-off, GQ2b
9	Tu 09/28	Module 3: Chapter 5: Collective Communication
10	Th 09/30	Module 3: Scientific computing tools: Make utility, matrix representation
11, HW3a	Tu 10/05	Module 3: Chapter 5: Collective Communication
12	Th 10/07	Module 3: Chapter 5: Collective Communication
13	Tu 10/12	Module 3: Chapter 10: Design and Coding of Parallel Programs (power method)
14	Th 10/14	Module 3: Chapter 11: Performance
15, HW3b	Tu 10/19	Module 3: Chapter 11: Performance
16	Th 10/21	Module 4: Scientific computing tools: BLAS, LAPACK, BLACS, ScaLAPACK, PETSc (Chapter 15)
17, HW4a	Tu 10/26	Report on project background, GQ4a
18	Th 10/28	Module 4: Scientific computing tools: BLAS
19, HW4b	Tu 11/02	Module 4: Scientific computing tools: BLAS
20	Th 11/04	Module 5: Chapter 10: Design and Coding of Parallel Programs (CG method)
21, HW5a	Tu 11/09	Module 5: Chapter 13: Advanced Point-to-Point Communication
22, HW5b	Th 11/11	Module 5: Chapter 13: Advanced Point-to-Point Communication
23, HW5c	Tu 11/16	Module 5: Chapter 12: More on Performance
24	Th 11/18	Module 5: Chapter 12: More on Performance
25	Tu 11/23	Update on project work
	Th 11/25	Thanksgiving Holiday
26, HW5d	Tu 11/30	Module 6: OpenMP Multi-Threading in Parallel Computing
27	Th 12/02	Module 6: Chapters 2, 10 (Sorting), 6, Appendix A
28	Tu 12/07	Module 6: IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic
29	Th 12/09	Update on project work
	Tu 12/21	01:00 p.m. Project Presentations; note the date and time!