Let’s Prepare Students for a Future with Supercomputing

Primary Presenter: Monica Falk

Organization: CCCOnline

Role: Manager of Vendor Services

Track: General Presentation

Topic: Educators Connecting/Collaborating Locally & Globally

Level: For Mere Mortals

Abstract: Every day we are surrounded by and exposed to big data, supercomputers, and high-performance computing, synchronously talking and searching on mobile phones, weather forecasting, and medical breakthroughs such as researching brain and nerve functions. Let’s get students prepared to work in the current and future fields that develop and maintain the high-performance computing technology of tomorrow or use big data for research.

Bio: Dr. Monica Falk holds a Computer Science Engineering degree from the University of Toledo, Master of Management Information Systems from University of Phoenix, and a terminal degree in Computer Science – Enterprise Information Systems from Colorado Technical University. Her background includes management of hydro-generator rehabilitation projects and in-person and online computer science courses for corporations in USA and Canada, Colorado Mountain College, CCCOnline, and Trinidad State Junior College-Alamosa. Currently, Dr. Falk is leading a project to implement supercomputer concepts (e.g., computational theory, and visualization) in Colorado Community College System STEM courses with assistance from the NSF sponsored XSEDE Educational Program.

Description: The audience will follow the journey to date of why and how the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) is preparing students for careers with the current and future wave of supercomputing. The adventure includes an introduction of XSEDE Educational Program and answers to questions like “Why supercomputers for community college students?” and “How important are supercomputers for our future?” Two key focal areas for higher education are parallelism and computational thinking. Parallelism is becoming increasingly prevalent in our general use of computers as it requires software be written in such a way that we harness the power of multiple processors for maximum output. This does not always follow in our current teaching in software programming courses. Computational thinking is a higher order of thinking that allows us to develop more complex parallel programs logically. It is important for teachers and administrators to help our students prepare for a brighter future by giving them the tools needed to think in parallel and computationally. Please join us to see how you can make a difference.