[TriLUG] High Performance Computing at Wake Tech

[David R.Matusiak]

Wow!  I don't know how this one slipped thru the cracks, but I just 
landed on it by accident.

+1 Informative

This sounds like a really cool program and perhaps, as Phil mentioned, 
a wise career investment.  I would hope there was a focus on real 
"hands-on" learning and testing, lest it become another 
pseudo-cert-like piece of paper that only impresses the most out of 
touch PHBs.

The curriculum looks interesting, at the very least.

http://www.waketech.edu/curred/cis/hpcday.html

Thanks for the info!
dave m.

On Wednesday, July 16, 2003, at 08:58  PM, prhodes at vdsinc.com wrote:

> Some of you may already be familiar with this, but some of you
> who aren't might find this interesting...
>
> Wake Tech has a new program, started about a year ago I think,
> called "High Performance Computing."  Essentially it's an entire
> degree program (results in an A.S. degree) based around
> Beowulf clusters / Grid Computing / Linux / Parallel programming,etc.
>
> There's a heavy focus on Linux in the curriculum, as Linux is the most
> widely used OS for Beowulf clusters (although not the only one.. 
> incredibly
> some people are building Beowulf's using Windoze).
>
> Now, why would I think this would be of interest to the TriLUG list? 
> Well,
> first because it's dealing with geeky cool high-end computing stuff, 
> and it
> involves Linux.. .but maybe more importantly, is because of future 
> career
> considerations.  We all know the tech economy is in the dump, 
> especially
> around here.  And we're all hearing horror stories about the constant
> exporting of high paying tech jobs overseas...
>
> However, there are some government projections that there will be
> a huge short-fall of workers trained in dealing with HPC, developing
> over the next few years.  The NSF is predicting a need for something
> like 164000+ HPC workers by 2008.
>
> "Based on survey findings and employment projections, the number
> of HPC positions for which associate degree holders will be eligible
> will be 164,397--at minimum--by 2008."
> - From www.highperformancecomputing.org
>
> This also seems particularly relevant in the Triangle region, as this 
> area
> appears to be developing more and more of a bio-tech bias, as opposed
> to software and telecom.  And guess what kinds of companies use lots of
> HPC clusters? Right.. bio-techs... for stuff like genome mapping, DNA
> sequencing,
> etc.
>
> So anyway, for anybody who is maybe looking to learn some neat
> skills, and possibly help "future proof" yourself a little bit, in 
> terms
> of employability, I recommend checking out the Wake Tech
> HPC program...
> their website is http://www.waketech.edu/curred/cis/hpchome.html
> and the NSF homepage dedicated to the nationwide HPC
> initiative is at www.highperformancecomputing.org
>
> TTYL,
>
> Phil