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Parallel Programming Workshop (Train the Trainer)

Research & Science
Parallel Programming Workshop (Train the Trainer)

Overview

The Train the Trainer Program is provided in conjunction with the regular course Parallel Programming with MPI and OpenMP and Advanced Parallel Programming. Whereas the regular course teaches parallel programming, this program is an education for future trainers in parallel programming.

Too few people can provide parallel programming courses on the level that is needed if scientists and PhD students want to learn how to parallelize a sequential application or to enhance parallel applications. Within Europe, currently only six PATC centres and several other national centres provide such courses on a European or national level. We would like to assist further trainers and centres to also provide such courses in the whole Europe or at least within their countries.

Prerequisites
Prerequisites

You are familiar with parallel programming with MPI and OpenMP on an advanced level and skilled in both programming languages C and Fortran (or Python for the MPI part).

Your goal: You want to provide MPI and OpenMP courses for other scientists and PhD students in your country, i.e., you would like to provide at least the first three days of the regular course as a training block-course to PhD students.

Background: (a) Your centre supports you to provide such PhD courses in a course room at your centre. The course room is equipped at least with one computer/laptop per two (or three) students and has access to an HPC resource that allows MPI and OpenMP programming in C and Fortran. To this purpose, a center may send two or three TtT participants together to this course. Additionally, you may have already participated as a regular participant in one of our other courses, so that you are already familiar with all the exercises.
Or (b), you as a future trainer would like to co-operate with a centre with the necessary course infrastructure in your country.

What does this Train the Trainer Program provide?

  • We provide you with all necessary teaching material on a personal basis, i.e., with the copyright to use it and to provide pdf or paper copies to the students in your PhD courses.
  • We provide all exercise material.
  • You will listen the lectures, so that you can get familiar with the training material.
  • During the exercises, you will help the regular students to correct their errors. The regular students are advised to request help if they are stuck for more than a minute. You will be trained to detect their problems as fast as possible (typically in less than a minute) and to provide the students with the needed help.
  • For this, and if possible, we will pair you with other TtT participants, so that you can help at a maximum of problems.
  • When the participants start with the exercise, all TtT participants will receive a short (5 minutes) briefing on important aspects and usual problems with this exercise.
  • Optionally, we can also meet during the few lectures that are not part of the TtT program (e.g., those by external lecturers), or in the morning 8:15-8:30 every day.

The Train the Trainer Program includes the curriculum from Monday until Friday according the course agenda. The Train the Trainer Program starts on Monday with a short introductory meeting at 8:15 am. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday we will have a short review/discussion meeting after the course. On Thursday evening we will have an additional meeting and dinner for all participants of this TtT program. On Friday, we will wrap up with a short review at the end (17:00-17:30).

Additional prerequisites:

  • You should be present the whole time during the course week.
  • During the course week, you should be prepared to be totally offline from your regular business during the course hours because during the lectures you should learn details about the slide content and how to teach it, and during the exercises you support the participants. 
  • Please expect the TtT course to finish 30-60 minutes later than the official schedule of the regular course.
  • If you are accepted to the TtT course, you will receive four weeks before the course an updated pdf of the MPI and OpenMP course slides. The exercises are available here. It is required that you prepare the MPI and OpenMP exercises before the course starts, so that you can assist the participants during the exercises.

ON-SITE / COVID

On-site course & COVID rules

Although this event is a training course, another important aspect is the scientific exchange between participants, which did not work as well as we hoped in our online courses.

The concept to enable this communication among our participants consists of

  • common coffee and lunch breaks, and
  • if you want and permitted by COVID-19 rules in June, working together in groups of two during the exercises.

For your security, we allow only completely vaccinated, or fully recovered, or participants tested negatively on COVID-19 on all days. Note that participation with tests might be prohibited when the course starts or even while the course runs. In the course room and when not eating/drinking, FFP2 masks are required. See here for details (available when registration is open). Of course, these rules also apply to the instructors.

Registration soon

Registration

Registration will open soon.

Deadline
Deadline

for registration is Aug. 22, 2022.

Fee
Fee

Students without Diploma/Master: 40 EUR
Students with Diploma/Master (PhD students) at German universities: 90 EUR
Members of German universities and public research institutes: 90 EUR
Members of universities and public research institutes within EU or PRACE member countries: 180 EUR.
Members of other universities and public research institutes: 360 EUR
Others: 960 EUR

The course fee includes coffee breaks (in classroom courses only).
The fee only applies if your application is accepted. In that case you will receive an invoice.

Organization

Travel Information and Accommodation

see our How to find us page. We strongly recommend to choose travel options and hotels with the possibility to cancel (even close to the event) because we might be forced to deliver the course as an online course.

Breaks

There will be several shorter breaks and a lunch break every day. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we can only offer water (carbonized and natural) and apple juice in single bottles in breaks but no coffee. If you would like to drink coffee you might bring it in a thermos yourself or you can go to a nearby bakery. All bottles that contain liquids must be safely lockable by a screw cap to protect the laptops and underfloor in the lecture hall.

We recommend that you bring your own lunch. As of today, due to COVID-19 restrictions, there will be no possibility to have lunch at the canteen. We are only aware of the following two publicly accessible nearby places for lunch:

PRACE PATC and bwHPC

HLRS is part of the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS), which is one of the six PRACE Advanced Training Centres (PATCs) that started
in Feb. 2012.
HLRS is also member of the Baden-Württemberg initiative bwHPC.
This course is provided within the framework of the bwHPC training program.
This course is not part of the PATC curriculum and is not sponsored by the PATC program.

Contact

kakhiani@hlrs.de phone 0711 685 65796, kakhiani@hlrs.de
Michael Schlottke-Lakemper phone 0711 685 87223, m.schlottke-lakemper@hlrs.de

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