Introduction: Foundations of Computational Science

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

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. HPC Technology Track • Foundations of computational science. • Computer architecture models. • Strategies for parallelization. • The role of networking in HPC.

9. Skills Development Track • Introduction to the UNIX computational environment. • Fundamentals of shell programming. • Interpreter based tools development. • Resource scheduling and management. • Fundamentals of binary application development. • Performance measurement and analysis.

10. 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.

11. Contact Information • Office hours • By arrangment in Research 1/Rm 204B, 'ring the bell'. • Email (preferred) • dr.gregory.h.wettstein.phd@ndsu.edu • Telephone • 701-231-6320

12. goto technology_lecture1;