Course Information GRAD 778 introduces broadly applicable skills relevant for understanding the rapidly changing technological landscape of the 21 st century. Further, skills developed in this course are directly supportive to Reno’s research technology economy. This course builds human capital with research computing skills that are timely and necessary for current, local employment. Computational research is essential to understanding the complexities facing the modern workforce, and graduates of GRAD 788 will be required to handle sample datasets and learn to navigate and choose amongst various research computing skill sets.
Instructors: Jonathan Greenberg (NRES, jgreenberg@unr.edu ); Emily Hand (CSE, emhand@unr.edu ); Mark Lescroart (Psychology, mlescroart@unr.edu ); Thomas Parchman (Biology, tparchman@unr.edu ); Kevin Shoemaker (NRES, kevinshoemaker@unr.edu ); Perry Williams (NRES, perryw@unr.edu ); Alireza Tavakkoli (CSE, tavakkol@unr.edu ); Engin Arslan (CSE, earslan@unr.edu); Thomas White (Physics, tgwhite@unr.edu)
Course Faculty Organizer: Alireza Tavakkoli ( tavakkol@unr.edu )
Teaching Assistants: Gunner Stone (CSE, gunnerstone@nevada.unr.edu ), Akshay Krishna (CSE, akshay.krishna@nevada.unr.edu)
Support: Winnefred Rusanoff (OIT, wrusanoff@unr.edu)
This course is an overview of computational research as well as a skills-based introduction to programming and shell scripting for automating computational tasks. This course is offered for variable credit depending on the number of weekend workshops a student selects at the start of the semester.
Anyone interested in using computational tools for research in any graduate department is encouraged to attend. Students will have the opportunity to work hands-on with large datasets with various real-world examples and write basic programs in more than one programming language. Classes will be part lecture, part open discussion, and part hands-on practice, held in mini-session format and lessons will be fully inclusive within each workshop.
Class materials in a mini-workshop format will be posted online in video format, and then discussion sessions held live on Saturdays. Students will select from the mini-workshops of interest. Mandatory attendance is required at course introduction during the first week (August 29 th ) of classes to establish proper equipment and enrollment.
To receive one graduate credit, a minimum of three-weekend workshops must be attended in full. To receive two graduate credits, a minimum of six-weekend workshops must be attended in full. To receive three graduate credits, a minimum of nine-weekend workshops must be attended in full. To receive course credit, students must display a working piece of code and pass a quiz at the end of each workshop.
Pre/co-requisite are specified under each workshop description. It is the student’s responsibility to identify the prerequisites before the workshops.
All course materials will be posted on web campus (organized as modules) before the workshop days. Here the assigned instructor will populate the module with necessary material or any course prereq material (ex: including tutorials on how to load programming materials) on webcampus.
Students will be able to use Linux, R, Python, C++, Batch Processing techniques, depending on workshops selected. Students will become versed in basic vocabulary and procedures associated with the tools listed in the course Students will be able to install, configure, use and obtain results from the tools associated with each workshop. Students will be able to determine what types of computational tools might be useful in their own research.
| Week | Course Title | Link |
|---|---|---|
| W1 | Labor day weekend (no class) | |
| W2 | Data Operations and Programming in R (Part 1) | R Bootcamp |
| W3 | Data Operations and Programming in R (Part 2) | R Bootcamp |
| W4 | Introduction to Linux | Linux Introduction |
| W5 | Documentation and reproducibility | Rep-Res-Workshop |
| W6 | C++ Programming | Parallel Programming with Cuda and C++ |
| W7 | Introduction to Python | Intro To Python |
| W8 | Batch Processing in Pronghorn | Intro Pronghorn Module |
| W9 | Nevada Day Weekend (no class) | |
| W10 | Advanced Pronghorn Utilization | Advanced Pronghorn Utilization |
| W11 | Cloud Computing | Cloud Computing |
| W12 | Version Control | Version Control |
| W13 | Thanksgiving weekend (no class) | |
| W14 | Wrap-up |