Brad Armosky, TACC Shawn T. Brown, PSC Scott Lathrop, UC/ANL Laura McGinnis, PSC TeraGrid’08 Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada June 11, 2008

What is HPC University? Assess learning and workforce development needs Assess requirements of a large and diverse computing community of practice Define a roadmap for acquiring HPC competencies according to needs and requirements. Provide a catalog of high quality, peer-reviewed training and education resources Provide a calendar of live and synchronous events Identify gaps to drive development of new EOT resources Open a forum for community sharing Incorporate HPC across all disciplines A Virtual Organization of people and institutions committed to preparing knowledgeable & skilled HPC professionals, researchers, educators, and students.

Who is Involved? TeraGrid Resource Providers Open Science Grid Department of Energy HPC Centers State and regional HPC Centers Current and potential HPC community of practitioners We welcome contributions and participation by all interested organizations

A Brief History HPC University RAT Charter: The HPC Training RAT will identify successful paths to creating qualified, effective HPC professionals, capable of exploiting current terascale and upcoming petascale technologies for the advancement of scientific research. Gaps in training materials and delivery methods will be identified, and recommendations for filling these gaps will be presented. Report Topics: Catalog Map Topics Mastery Levels Quality Assurance Delivery Methodologies Target Populations Demographics Disciplines Scaling & Dissemination Getting to Petascale Key Issues Identified: Gaps – Identifying and plugging gaps is a critical and ongoing requirement for viability Persistence - Are the materials available when users need them? Quality assurance – Do the materials provide a validated, verifiable experience for the users? Delivery methods – Are the materials available to the users independent of geography or temporality? Scaling the training – Are good trainers and training practices being identified and made available to new trainers? Petascale Preparation – Effective use of petascale resources require proactive efforts now and into the future The RAT Report will be on hpcuniv.org shortly.

Report Recommendations (1/3) Catalog Map –Complete the verification and validation process for all entries in the catalog –Develop a mechanism for the continual update of the catalog to identify new sources of training materials –Make the catalog readily available to the HPC community in a persistent way Quality Assurance –Formal VV&A review process. –Resource Management; i.e. identify a “primary editor” –Broadening Community Involvement

Report Recommendations (2/3) Delivery Methodologies –Plug the holes - provide a variety of teaching methods for each topic area –Redesign course materials to produce effective interactive online learning experiences –Utilize efficient multi-disciplinary teams –Incorporate metacognitive* skills development into all training methods Population Analysis –Proactively support efforts to Broaden Participation across under-served demographics and fields of science –Broaden delivery methods to eliminate geographic and temporal boundaries

Report Recommendations (3/3) Scaling and Dissemination –Identify and promote Best Practices for content development and delivery –Provide active support to HPC trainers –Simplify training accounts procedures on TeraGrid –Provide a Web Portal for users new to HPC that provides a roadmap of training to lead them to their goals Getting to Petascale –Engage scaling and PetaApps experts for guidance –Collaborate with petascale system vendors to provide tools that make it easier to use their machines –Include petascale applications and scaling experiences in case study libraries

Implementation Infrastructure Expand the and of HPC University offerings for the community Verification Validation & Accreditation Roadmap Catalog

Implementation Competencies Computational Science Needs Community & Users Catalog New & Improved Materials & Content New & Improved Materials & Content V V & A Science Gateway

Roadmap Catalog Implementation Competencies Computational Science Needs Community & Users New & Improved Materials & Content New & Improved Materials & Content V V & A Evaluation & Assessment Data Science Gateway NEW IMPROVED MORE Petascale Increased Participation FORTIFIED

Sampling of Training HPC Computing –Introduction to Parallel Computing –Toward Multicore Petascale Applications –Scaling Workshop - Scaling to Petaflops –Effective Use of Multi-core Technology –“TeraGrid-wide” BlueGene Applications –Introduction to Using SDSC Systems –Introduction to the Cray XT3 at PSC –Introduction to & Optimization for SDSC Systems –Parallel Computing on Ranger & Lonestar Domain-specific Sessions –Petascale Computing in the Biosciences –Workshop on Infectious Disease Informatics at NCSA Visualization –Introduction to Scientific Visualization –Intermediate Visualization at TACC –Remote/Collaborative TeraScale Visualization on the TeraGrid

HPC University: On-Line Access Goal is to reach significantly larger audiences - Through just-in-time training - To reach people that can’t attend live sessions Synchronous sessions - Launching quarterly new user training sessions - Planning science/technology seminar series - Planning education seminar series Over 30 on-line asynchronous tutorials - CI-Tutor launched to expand access - 4,570 accesses in 2007 Examples of new content in development - Introductory Multi-core Performance Issues - Getting Started Using TG Resources - Porting code to the TeraGrid - Audience: MSIs, new TeraGrid users - Petascale applications development

DevelopmentPractical Programming Languages Serial Programming Languages C/C++, FORTRAN, Scripting Languages Parallel Programming Languages Development Tools Compilers Development environments Building Tools Debuggers Code Management Software Engineering Code optimization Canned (Third-Party) Codes Workflow Management Data Management Grid Technology Queuing systems Machine Interface SSH Unix Gateways Visualization Allocations process How-to’s Grant writing guidelines Support Technology Processor Multi-core Network Routers Network Topologies Memory Parallel Architectures Fault Tolerance Parallel I/O Performance Analysis Serial Performance Parallel Performance Performance Modeling Verification and Validation Mathematical Precision Numerical Stability of Algorithms

Extreme Scalability Working Group Petascale Computing Parallel Architectures Multi (many)-core performance Parallel Programming Models Debugging Procedures and Tools Performance Analysis Visualization and Data Analysis

Getting to Petascale Petascale Training is occurring right now in the TeraGrid and many other organizations!!! –Check your local listings Creating Petascale competencies –Similar to the Ralph Regula School (OSC) –More than just scalable programming What more is needed? Collecting Training materials –Building upon the catalog developed from the RAT, soliciting RP’s and others for new materials

Short-Term Activities Establish resource archive – make training materials persistent –Can’t just take face-to-face materials and make it on-line training Provide training for instructors to help them be more effective –Train the Trainers workshop: August, Pittsburgh Establish mentoring program –Identify mentors who can make the commitment Identify reviewers who can verify/validate existing offerings –Begin VVA process Develop and deploy formative evaluation and assessment tools for rapid feedback on community needs

Long-Term Activities Commit to an iterative process that identifies and plugs holes in content and delivery Use evaluation and assessment to identify longitudinal effects of training efforts Pursue funding for sustained, viable presence in HPC community Contact professional societies to investigate aspects of program accreditation

Parallel Activities TeraGrid Activities –Campus Champions –TeraGrid Pathways –Extreme Scalability Working Group –User Services –Science Gateways NSF Opportunities –PetaApps and Petascale Workshops –Track 1 and Track 2 User Support –SDCI program Department of Energy –SciDAC

Brad Armosky - Shawn Brown - Scott Lathrop - Laura F McGinnis - For Additional Information