Collaborative Research: CSinParallel: Experiential Learning of Parallel and Distributed Computing Through Sight, Sound, and Touch

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Today's desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones all contain multiple core processing units. Many people today also use cloud computing services for online shopping, sharing photos, and other conveniences. Multicore computers and cloud computing services are both examples of parallel and distributed computing. Current computer science (CS) curriculum recommendations require every undergraduate CS student to learn about parallel and distributed computing (PDC). To help students master the complexities of PDC, this project will develop software and curricular materials that combine two strategies for making PDC topics tangible and accessible: inexpensive single-board computers and teaching materials that use sight, sound, and touch. By using these teaching materials to explore PDC topics, CS students will be able to see and hear parallel and distributed computations and touch the hardware performing those computations. The project team will also develop a free, interactive, online PDC textbook and a collection of "unplugged" exercises for learning PDC concepts without a computer.The project will develop: 1) visual software and teaching materials that use the investigators' Thread-Safe Graphics Library so students can see parallel computations in real-time; 2) audial software and teaching materials for a new Thread-Safe Audial Library so students can hear abstract PDC concepts and computations; 3) manipulative learning systems constructed with inexpensive multi-core single-board computers so PDC systems are concrete and touchable; 4) "unplugged" activities that make PDC algorithms accessible to broad audiences; and 5) a free, interactive PDC textbook that will be deployed through a combination of client-side and cloud-based systems. These materials will be accessible through the CSinParallel.org website, a previously-funded NSF project (Awards 1226172; 1225739; 1225796). Broader impacts will include strengthening and diversifying the U.S. cyber-workforce, improving the PDC skills of CS instructors and students nationwide including those at minority-serving institutions, and diversifying the community of PDC educators through faculty-development workshops and new social-networking features on CSinParallel.org.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.