Java, Multimedia, Database, Web Collaboration, Medicine, Performance Modelling, HPCC Projects at NPAC

NPAC is part of the national team that is coordinating the Education and Training activities of the two new NSF Partnerships in Advanced Computational Infrastructure at Illinois University (NCSA) and University of California, San Diego (NPACI).
Our work with this team builds on our earlier NSF Sponsored Meta Regional Alliance project developing training material for the centers.

The latter involved development of train the trainers material for colleges and the Supercomputer centers based largely on technologies produced by CRPC.

Our contribution project includes coordination of the Graduate education program in the NCSA PACI and linkage of it with training activities throughout the NCSA Alliance. We believe that existing international programs are successful and have identified some good general guidelines. These include linkage of academic computational science education with training; proactive effort to distribute material and follow up with users who want base material tailored for their needs; use of modern web technology in delivery; and a careful choice of topics based on strengths of technology providers and needs of the users. For instance, reviewing currently available electronic material shows a good coverage of HPCC software such as HPF and MPI but a clear need for curricula on algorithms and tools.

Initial activities will include working on cataloging available Alliance resources and requirements. This will be in collaboration with undergraduate NCSA EOT activity. Further we will develop our prototype certificate programs.
We are developing educational resource material for the N-body problem including both the traditional O(N²) and newer fast multipole methods.

National activities include working with "NCSA Central" on the new ADL – Advanced Distributed Learning – initiative organized by OSTP (Office of Science and Technology Policy), Department of Defense and the Instructional Management Systems project of Educom . This effort is centered on promoting and standardizing a distributed object infrastructure for education and training.

Both Tango and Habanero will be important here. The first meeting for this ADL initiative is November 3-4 1997. Another important activity is the proposed EUFOTTET initiative (EU - USA Forum on Telecommunication and Technology for Education and Training) which recently met in London.