EAGER: Collaborative Research: Developing a Parallel and Distributed Computing Concepts Curriculum Enhancement for the Computer Science Principles Course

EAGER：协作研究：为计算机科学原理课程开发并行和分布式计算概念课程增强

• 批准号: 1550928
• 负责人: Alan Sussman
• 金额: $ 5.96万
• 依托单位: University of Maryland, College Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-09-01 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1550928&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Collaborative; Research; Developing; Parallel

This project is initiating design of a Parallel and Distributed Computing (PDC) curriculum enhancement for the Computer Science Principles (CS0) course that is also applicable to the corresponding high school advanced placement (AP) course. Modern computing systems routinely employ high levels of parallelism (e.g., multiple cores, graphics processors) and distributed computing (e.g., cloud services). PDC significantly affects daily lives, and its importance in solving meaningful societal problems can inspire students to take a deeper interest in applying computing in STEM fields and beyond. However, most CS0 curricula are founded predominantly on older, sequential models of computing. CS0 has multiple purposes that address many audiences, and is now seen as a vehicle for increasing interest among students, especially from underrepresented groups, for studying computing in depth or to major in computer science. It has thus been the subject of an effort to create a new AP exam, with associated high school courses. Since the AP exam is still in a pilot phase, there is a brief window for amending the curriculum to reflect 21st century computing. The potentially vast impact of the AP course could quickly settle into educating students under the old sequential paradigm, acquiring an inertia that makes it difficult to change. This collaborative effort is developing PDC curriculum guidelines for CS0 and AP courses through gathering expert input and involving necessary stakeholders to ensure that an appropriate curriculum is developed and adopted. The goal is for students to gain an understanding of how modern computing technology actually functions, rather than being taught an obsolete operational model. The effort is following a process similar to the proposers' highly successful prior effort to design a PDC guideline for undergraduate curricula, which was incorporated into the ACM standard curriculum. The approach begins with a thorough survey of the state of practice in covering PDC topics in CS0. The survey is followed by a workshop attended by experts and stakeholders to draw upon their knowledge and experience. Then a select steering committee is formed that advises the investigators on the design of a curriculum and helps them identify means to bring it to fruition. The effort seeks the broadest possible dissemination of the results to have the greatest possible impact.Broad impact is the core of this effort, which seeks to expand awareness and appreciation of the important concepts at the foundation of PDC, to students in many different disciplines and in high school. Making these interesting and exciting topics more accessible to a wider range of students should generate deeper interest in the study of computer science and the application of concurrent computation in science, engineering, and commerce. Advancing PDC education further enables advances in science and engineering, which depend ever more on high performance computing, by providing the next generation of practitioners and researchers with the necessary skills and knowledge to routinely recognize how and where PDC concepts may be applied.

该项目正在为计算机科学原理（CS0）课程设计并行和分布式计算（PDC）课程增强，该课程也适用于相应的高中高级安置（AP）课程。 现代计算系统通常采用高水平的并行性（例如，多核、图形处理器）和分布式计算（例如，云服务）。 PDC显著影响日常生活，它在解决有意义的社会问题中的重要性可以激发学生对在STEM领域及其他领域应用计算产生更深的兴趣。然而，大多数CS0课程主要建立在旧的顺序计算模型上。CS0有多种用途，可以满足许多受众的需求，现在被视为提高学生兴趣的工具，特别是来自代表性不足的群体，深入学习计算或主修计算机科学。因此，它一直是努力创建一个新的AP考试，与相关的高中课程的主题。由于AP考试仍处于试点阶段，因此有一个简短的窗口来修改课程以反映21世纪的计算。AP课程潜在的巨大影响可能会很快陷入旧的顺序范式下教育学生，获得一种惯性，使其难以改变。这项合作努力正在通过收集专家意见和让必要的利益攸关方参与，为CS0和AP课程制定PDC课程指南，以确保制定和采用适当的课程。目标是让学生了解现代计算技术的实际功能，而不是教一个过时的操作模型。这一努力遵循的过程类似于提议者之前非常成功的为本科课程设计PDC指南的过程，该指南已纳入ACM标准课程。该方法首先对CS0中涵盖PDC主题的实践状况进行全面调查。在调查之后，将举办一个由专家和利益攸关方参加的讲习班，以汲取他们的知识和经验。然后成立一个精选的指导委员会，就课程的设计向调查人员提供建议，并帮助他们确定实现课程的方法。这项工作旨在尽可能广泛地传播成果，以产生尽可能大的影响。广泛的影响是这项工作的核心，它旨在扩大对PDC基础重要概念的认识和理解，使许多不同学科的学生和高中生都能认识到这一点。使这些有趣和令人兴奋的主题更容易获得更广泛的学生应该在计算机科学的研究和并发计算在科学，工程和商业中的应用产生更深的兴趣。推进PDC教育进一步推动科学和工程的进步，这更加依赖于高性能计算，通过为下一代从业者和研究人员提供必要的技能和知识，以定期认识PDC概念如何以及在何处应用。