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

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

2. HPC Research Facilities Technology Transfer Training & Education Grid Middleware European Programmes 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 Training & Education at EPCC

3. HPC Research Facilities Technology Transfer Training &Education Grid Middleware European Programmes Training and education • 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 & Education at EPCC

4. 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 Training & Education at EPCC

5. Courses • 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 • 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 Training & Education at EPCC

6. 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 Training & Education at EPCC

7. 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 MSccourses 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 Training & Education at EPCC

8. 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 Training & Education at EPCC

9. 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 Training & Education at EPCC

10. MSc in HPC Structure Computational Science Physical Sciences Computer Science Theory Simulation Applied Pure Training & Education at EPCC

11. 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) Training & Education at EPCC

12. 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 Training & Education at EPCC

13. 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 Training & Education at EPCC

14. Student applications Year 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 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 Student numbers (applications/enrolled) Training & Education at EPCC

15. Student destinations First Destinations Students (2002 - 2004) further study 25% UK employment 35% overseas employment 10% overseas student returned 5% seeking employment/study 0% unknown 25% Training & Education at EPCC

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