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Parallel and distributed computing (PDC) has become pervasive in all aspects of computing, and thus it is essential that students include parallelism and distribution in the computational thinking that they apply to problem solving, from the very beginning. Computer science education is still teaching to a 20th century model of algorithmic problem solving. Sequence, branch, and loop are taught in our early courses as the only organizing principles needed for algorithms, and we invest considerable time in showing how best to sequentially process large volumes of data. All computing devices that students use currently have multiple cores as well as a GPU in many cases. Most of their favorite applications use multiple cores and numbers of distributed processors. Often concurrency offers simpler solutions than sequential approaches. Industry is desperate for software engineers who think naturally in terms of exploiting these capabilities, rather than seeing them as an exotic upper-level topic that gets layered over a sequential solution. However, we are still teaching students to solve problems using sequential thinking. In this workshop we overview key PDC concepts and provide examples of how they may naturally be incorporated in early computing classes. We will introduce plugged and unplugged curriculum modules that have been successfully integrated in existing computing classes at multiple institutions. We will highlight the upcoming summer training workshop, for which we have funding to support attendance, as well as other CDER (Center for Parallel and Distributed Computing Curriculum Development and Educational Resources) activities.
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Investigating Impacts of STARS Program Components on Persistence in Computing for Black and White College Students.” Accepted at Research in Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT).
- Award ID(s):
- 2023391
- PAR ID:
- 10392229
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Research in Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT)
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Let L be a set of n axis-parallel lines in R3. We are are interested in partitions of R3 by a set H of three planes such that each open cell in the arrangement A(H) is intersected by as few lines from L as possible. We study such partitions in three settings, depending on the type of splitting planes that we allow. We obtain the following results. * There are sets L of n axis-parallel lines such that, for any set H of three splitting planes, there is an open cell in A(H) that intersects at least ⌊n/3⌋ - 1 ≈ n/3 lines. * If we require the splitting planes to be axis-parallel, then there are sets L of n axis-parallel lines such that, for any set H of three splitting planes, there is an open cell in A(H) that intersects at least (3/2) ⌊n/3⌋ - 1 ≈ (1/3 + 1/24) n lines. Furthermore, for any set L of n axis-parallel lines, there exists a set H of three axis-parallel splitting planes such that each open cell in A(H) intersects at most (7/18) n = (1/3 + 1/18) n lines. * For any set L of n axis-parallel lines, there exists a set H of three axis-parallel and mutually orthogonal splitting planes, such that each open cell in A(H) intersects at most ⌈5/12 n⌉ ≈ (1/3 + 1/12) n lines.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- The DOI is not currently available.
