Fall 2007
PHYS 693 as ARSC User Training
PHYS 693 lectures are open to any interested individuals. While the structure, lectures, labs, and grading policies of this course are designed for UAF students enrolled in the course for credit, the course doubles as ARSC user training. ARSC users and prospective ARSC users are strongly encouraged to attend any lectures they would find beneficial. There will be no other formal ARSC user training on these topics offered this fall.
Instructors
This course will be taught by several instructors including Arctic Region Supercomputing Center staff, UAF Physics department faculty and guest speakers.
The primary points of contact for the class are:
Tom Logan, ARSC, WRRB 109, 450-8624, logan@arsc.edu
Dr. David Newman, 112 NSF, 474-7858, ffden@uaf.edu
Course Syllabus
| Schedule & Lectures | Homework | References |
In approaching this (and all) classes, please note the following ancient chinese proverb: Teachers can open the door, but you must enter by yourself.
Prerequisites
Graduate standing in physical sciences; experience with FORTRAN or C programming language; or permission of instructor.
Content
This course provides students of computational sciences an introduction to the basic skills required to operate in the modern high performance computing (HPC) environment offered at the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center (ARSC). Topics include an introduction to HPC, basic Unix/batch/scripting skills, performance programming, shared and distributed memory parallelism, code validation and debugging, data storage and management, and data visualization. Each of these topics will be presented in lecture form. To provide additional applied knowledge, either a thorough case study by a guest speaker and/or a hands-on lab session will be given in support of each.
In the past, components of this class have been regularly offered as individual
training sessions by the staff at ARSC. The impetus for creation of the ‘core
skills’ class was to provide a more intensive training environment
for new student users, while still providing distinct modules for more
advanced researchers to refresh/update skills.
Lectures/Lab Meeting Time and Place
West Ridge Research Building 009, Tuesday/Thursday, 9:15 - 11:15am
Grading
The course grade will consist of the following components
Homeworks 40 %
Semester project 30 %
Mid-term 20 %
Attendance and Participation 10 %
Homework
There will be approximately one homework assignment per week. The assignment will be given out and posted on the web. These assignments help in assessing your understanding of the material, and will count as a major part of your final grade.
Project
There will be a semester project, which will require a final presentation and paper.
Mid-term Exam: A mid-term exam will be given.
Contacting Us
During office hours (9-5) or by appointment, with any of the instructors. A list of email contacts is given below:
| Instructor | Position | Office | Phone Ext | |
| Logan, Tom | MPP Specialist | logan@arsc.edu | WRRB 105-117 | 8624 |
| Webb, Patrick | Visualization Specialist | webb@arsc.edu | WRRB 105-104 | 8635 |
| Maurits, Sergei | Visualization Specialist | maurits@arsc.edu | WRRB 008-014 | 8697 |
| Newman, David | Prof, Physics Dept | ffden@uaf.edu | NSF 112 | 7858 |
Special Needs
The Office of Disability Services implements the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and insures that UAF students have equal access to the campus and course materials. We will work with the Office of Disabilities Services (203 WHIT, 474-7043) to provide reasonable accommodation to students with disabilities.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism and cheating are matters of serious concern for students and academic institutions. This is true in this class as well. The UAF Honor Code (or Student Code of Conduct) defines academic standards expected at the University of Alaska Fairbanks which will be followed in this class. (Taken from the UAF plagiarism web site, which has many links with good information about this topic)
Complaints and Concerns
You are always welcome to talk to the instructors about anything, however, if you have a non-subject matter question or concern that cannot be resolved by the instructors contact the department chair, Dr. Craven, Physics Department Office, room 102 NSCI.
Last updated: August 27, 2007
