Training and Education
at EPCC
Judy Hardy
j.hardy@epcc.ed.ac.uk
Training & Education at EPCC
1
EPCC Activities
 Founded in 1990
 Aim:
Facilities
HPC
Research
Technology
Transfer
Training &
Education
Grid
European
Middleware Programmes
Training & Education at EPCC
– “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
2
Training and education
 HPC Training:
Facilities
HPC
Research
Technology
Transfer
HPCx users
European visitor programme
UK academia
commercial HPC users
 MSc in HPC
Training &
Education
Grid
European
Middleware Programmes
Training & Education at EPCC
–
–
–
–
– one of first in world
– significant numbers of overseas
students during first 4 years
– supported by industry
– excellent practical grounding for
future careers
3
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
4
Courses
Original
T3D/T3E
Courses
Application
Service
HPCx
Courses
Based
Courses
MSc Core
Courses
MSc
(EPCC/CCLRC)
Courses
Advanced Courses
– Introduction
– Introduction
to HPC
– Simulation
to the
– Using
Cray
for Engineers
T3D
the
– Fundamental
HPCx–service
Exploiting
Concepts
the Computational
of HPC
Grid
– Decomposing
– Introduction
the
– Mesh
Potentially
to the
Generation
– The
Cray
Parallel
DL_POLY
T3E
– Computer
Practical
molecular
– Applied
Software
Course
dynamics
Numerical
Development
Algorithms
– MPI Programming
– MPI Programming
– Mesh Decomposition
package
on the–T3D/T3E
Shared–Memory
Hardware,
Programming
Compilers and Performance
– HPF Programming
– HPF Programming
– Modelling
– Optimisation
in
onthe
the–Geophysical
T3D/T3E
Message
techniques
Programming
Passing
for Programming
the
– Scientific
– Performance
Visualisation
Sciences
Optimisation
Power4–processor
for
Parallel
the –Decomposition
Object Oriented Programming for HPC
– Computational
Cray T3D/T3E
Methods
– Computational
in
– Physical
Improved
Fluid
– Core
Performance
Dynamics
Topics
– Scientific
in Scaling
HPCVisualisation
and
one-Science
Science
– HPC in Business
HPCx
– Introduction to Genetic Algorithms
– Advanced Topics in HPC and
e-Science
– Performance Optimisation on Sun
Workstations
Training & Education at EPCC
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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
•
Training & Education at EPCC
1600 POWER4+
processors @ 1.7GHz
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Training courses
HPCx Courses
– Using the HPCx service
– The DL_POLY molecular dynamics
package
– Optimisation techniques for the
Power4 processor
– Improved Performance Scaling on
HPCx
 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 MSc
courses but delivered differently
Training & Education at EPCC
7
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
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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
9
Structure
MSc in
HPC
Computational Science
Physical
Sciences
Theory
Simulation
Training & Education at EPCC
Computer
Science
Applied
Pure
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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
11
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
12
MSc courses
MSc Core Courses
MSc Advanced Courses
– Fundamental Concepts of HPC
– Exploiting the Computational Grid
– Practical Software Development
– Applied Numerical Algorithms
– Shared Memory Programming
– Hardware, Compilers and Performance
– Message Passing Programming
Programming
– Parallel Decomposition
– Object Oriented Programming for HPC
– Core Topics in HPC and e-Science
– Scientific Visualisation
– Advanced Topics in HPC and
e-Science
Training & Education at EPCC
13
Student applications
Year
OS
EU
UK
Total
2001-02
18/0
4/2
10/4
32/6
2002-03
30/3
7/1
23/4
60/8
2003-04
40/5
17/4
31/5
88/14
2004-05
48/5
15/4
43/4
106/13
Student numbers (applications/enrolled)
Training & Education at EPCC
14
Student destinations
First Destinations
further study
UK employment
overseas employment
overseas student returned
seeking employment/study
unknown
Training & Education at EPCC
Students
(2002 - 2004)
25%
35%
10%
5%
0%
25%
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Summary
 Training is one of EPCC’s
key activities
Facilities
HPC
Research
 HPC training
– supports HPC users
throughout UK and Europe
Technology
Transfer
Training &
Education
European
Visitor
Coordination Programme
Training & Education at EPCC
 MSc in HPC
– practical training for range of
careers in academia and
industry
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