ABSTRACT - Full Paper
The shift to parallel computing – including multi-core com­puter architectures, cloud distributed computing, and general-purpose GPU programming – leads to fundamental changes in the design of software and systems. As a result, learning parallel, distributed, and cloud techniques in order to allow software to take advantage of the shift toward parallelism is of important significance. To this end, FutureGrid, an experimental testbed for cloud, grids, and high performance computing, provides a resource for anyone to find, share, and discuss modular teaching materials and computational platform supports.

This paper presents a series of case studies for experiences in parallel and distributed education using the FutureGrid testbed. Building on previous experiences from courses, workshops, and summer schools associated with FutureGrid, we present a viable solution to developing a curriculum by leveraging collaboration with organizations. Our approach to developing a successful guide stems from the idea of any­one interested in learning parallel and distributing comput­ing can do so with minimum assistance from a domain ex­pert, and it addresses the educational goals and objectives to help meet many challenges, which lie ahead in the discipline.