Math 447/627 - Introduction to Parallel Computing

Fall 2025 - Matthias K. Gobbert

Detailed Schedule - Last Updated 03/27/2025

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, IQ0b, etc. in the Main Topic column indicate online quizzes due before that class.
The numbers GQ0a, GQ0b, GQ2a, GQ2b, etc. in the Main Topic column indicate in-class group quizzes "GQ" during that class.
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	Th 08/28	Module 1: Motivation for parallel computing and overview, BQ0a, GQ0a, pre-assessment
2	Tu 09/02	Module 1: Linux and serial ANSI-C "Hello, world!" on the HPCF cluster, IQ0b
3, HW1b	Th 09/04	Module 1: Parallel "Hello, world!" and running jobs on the HPCF cluster, GQ0b
4	Tu 09/09	Module 2: Chapter 3: Greetings!
5, HW2a	Th 09/11	Module 2: Chapter 9: Debugging Your Program - deadlock
6	Tu 09/16	Module 2: Chapter 4: An Application: Numerical Integration, GQ2a
7	Th 09/18	Module 2: Chapter 9: Debugging Your Program - load-balancing
8	Tu 09/23	Module 2: Scientific computing: numerical error vs. accumulated round-off, GQ2b
9, HW2b	Th 09/25	Module 2: Chapter 11: Performance of trapezoidal rule
10	Tu 09/30	Module 3: Chapter 5: Collective Communication
11	Th 10/02	Module 3: Scientific computing tools: Make utility, matrix representation
12, HW3a	Tu 10/07	Module 3: Chapter 5: Collective Communication
13	Th 10/09	Module 3: Chapter 10: Design and Coding of Parallel Programs (power method)
14	Tu 10/14	Module 3: Chapter 11: Performance of power method
15, HW3b	Th 10/16	Module 3: Chapter 11: Performance of power method
16	Tu 10/21	Module 4: Scientific computing tools: BLAS, LAPACK, BLACS, ScaLAPACK, PETSc (Chapter 15)
17, HW4a	Th 10/23	Report on project background, presentations on entrepreneurship, GQ4a
18	Tu 10/28	Module 4: Scientific computing tools: BLAS
19, HW4b	Th 10/30	Module 4: Scientific computing tools: BLAS
20	Tu 11/04	Module 5: Chapter 10: Design and Coding of Parallel Programs (CG method)
21, HW5a	Th 11/06	Module 5: Chapter 13: Advanced Point-to-Point Communication
22, HW5b	Tu 11/11	Module 5: Chapter 13: Advanced Point-to-Point Communication
23, HW5c	Th 11/13	Update on project work, presentations on entrepreneurship
24	Tu 11/18	Module 5: Chapter 12: More on Performance
25	Th 11/20	Module 6: OpenMP Multi-Threading in Parallel Computing
26, HW5d	Tu 11/25	History of High-Performance Computing, IQ9a
	Th 11/27	Thanksgiving Holiday
27	Tu 12/02	Module 6: Chapters 2, 10 (Sorting), 6, Appendix A
28	Th 12/04	Module 6: IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic
29, Project	Tu 12/09	Update on project work, post-assessment
	Tu 12/16	01:00-03:00 Project Presentations; note the date and time!