\section*{University of Colorado}

Funded by the National Science Foundation, a one-year course
and supporting laboratory facility is being developed for undergraduate
students, which focuses on high-performance scientific computing.

The objectives of the project are as follows.
\begin{itemize}
\item To teach undergraduate students how to use high-performance
computing systems in scientific and engineering applications.
\item To provide an advanced computing environment for undergraduate
instruction in particular applications.
\item To develop instructional materials: course notes,
problem examples and exercises, manuals, and software.
\item To export our instructional materials and experience to
support undergraduate studies at other institutions.
\item To encourage interdisciplinary studies for computer scientists
and engineers.
\item To encourage research scientists to become involved in
undergraduate education.
\item To prepare students for work in the field of computational science.
\end{itemize}

In the first semester, the concentration is on the analysis of 
the performance of a computer and the codes that run on it.  As a case
study, a problem in molecular dynamics is considered for a variety
of architectures.
For each architecture, the organization of the problem is studied
with respect to achieving the best possible 
performance. This exercise is aimed at distinguishing the
strengths and weaknesses of the different architectures.
In the second semester, problems in
heat conduction and image reconstruction are considered for the
three machines.


The laboratory has been established, and the course was offered
in academic year 1991-92 and academic year 1992-93.
It makes use of DEC and SGI workstations,
a Cray Y-MP, a CM-2, and an Intel iPSC/2 hypercube multiprocessor. 
The course begins
with introductions to the machines and performance measurements.  
Students also study the computational and visualization 
tools Matlab, IDL, and AVS.
The concepts and tools learned in the early chapters are then applied to 
the solution of numerical problems 
in molecular dynamics, advection, and tomography.

The machines chosen for this course are representative of MIMD and SIMD
distributed-memory multiprocessors and vector computers.  
In the future, the course might make use of the CM-5, 
the Intel Paragon, the KSR1,
a network of workstations connected by PVM, and possibly
with downsizing materials, laptops or PC's.

Final drafts of course material are available by anonymous FTP
in the directory /pub/cs/HPSC on cs.colorado.edu.  It is expected
that all chapters of the laboratory manual and accompanying software and 
tutorials will be complete by Fall 1993. 

