Teaching parallel computing concepts using real-life applications

The need to promote parallel computing concepts is an important issue due to a rapid advance in multi-core architectures. This paper reports experiences in teaching parallel computing concepts to computer and software engineering undergraduates. By taking a practical approach in delivering the material, students are shown to grasp the essential concepts in an effective way. This has been demonstrated by implementing small projects during the course, such as computing the sum of the terms of a geometric series using pipelines, solving linear systems by parallel iterative methods, and computing Mandelbrot set (fractal). This study shows that, it is useful to provide real-life analogies to facilitate general understanding and to motivate students in their studies as early as possible via small project implementations. The paper also describes an overall approach used to develop students’ parallel computing skills and provides examples of the analogies employed in conjunction with the approach described. This approach is also assessed by collecting questionnaires and learning outcome surveys. Keywords: parallel computing, message-passing interface, speed-up factor, Flynn’s taxonomy