Undergraduate Computational Science Award

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                        April 1994

Name:  Kris Stewart

Title: Associate Professor
       Dept. Mathematical Sciences
       San Diego State University (SDSU)
       San Diego, CA 92182-0314

       Computational Science Curriculum Coordinator
       San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC)
       La Jolla, CA

Phone: (619) 942-1012

FAX:   (619) 594-6746

Project Title: Developing Undergraduate Computational
               Science, A Personal QUEST

Intended Audience: Undergraduate students at SDSU

Brief Project Description (300 words)

My participation in curriculum develop in computational cannot be categorized as an individual project or program. I have tried to use my position as a numerical analyst within the Computer Science Group of the Mathematical Sciences Department at SDSU to established multidisciplinary relationships with fellow SDSU faculty within the College of Sciences and College of Engineering. I have also been able to make effective use of the fact that SDSU was an original consortium member of the San Diego Supercomputer Center, first as a simple user. Through working with the staff at SDSC, we were able to obtain NSF/DASC funding to allow me to develop an undergraduate course in supercomputing at SDSU. This also involved developing summer faculty workshops called SUE (Supercomputing and Undergraduate Education), which I gave twice. The SDSU course (CS 575 Supercomputing for the Sciences) has been taught 3 times as appears in the SDSU undergradaute catalog now. I have made a concerted effort to be involved in the rapidly evolving world of undergraduate curriculum development in high performance computing, and I would suggest reading through the section on "Educational Activities" below for more details. This has paid off in two courses being developed and taught by myself at SDSU. Through campus committees and being the administrator of the SDSU Block Grant of time on the Cray C90, I have made many faculty contacts on the SDSU campus. I have also been able to participate at a national level with faculty pursuing similar development programs.

Description of how project uses computational science method and techniques in an interdisciplinary context (200 words)

Although this has been primarily a personal quest, I feel it has paid off for the benefit of SDSU as well as SDSC. The computational science methods and techniques are presented to students in the CS 575 course through lecture, but enhanced through their computing projects. Each student selects a science based problem that is of interest to them, tailoring it to their particular academic background. The students become familiar with the computational characteristics of their program by running it on the educational mainframe machine at SDSU, a SUN Sparc 10. The student writes a formal report describing the problem, the performance of their code and the implications of their results on the "science" of their problem. Since each student has an individual project, it is difficult in this writeup for me to be more specific about what each student attempts.

The student's report, code and results are review by me with many comments to help improve the written presentation of the material. The student then ports their code to the Cray C90 at SDSC. The code/problem is extended in a manner appropriate for their particular project and then a final presentation is written, discussing again the problem and its science implications, as well as the performance on the Cray C90 and how this compares to the initial performance on the Sun Sparc 10.

Description of how the project will be implemented and evaluated in the classroom (200 words)

The course CS 575 is begin taught for the third time this semester (Spring 1994) at SDSU. All courses taught at SDSU undergo "Student Evaluations". In the previous two offerings of the course, the students have been very pleased with the course. There is also the indirect evaluation which I receive from my fellow faculty at SDSU when their students are enrolled in the course. Faculty continue to help me in proposing projects for students to work on.

The new course, CS 205 Introductional to Computational Analysis will be taught Fall 1994. This is a sophomore level course whose only prerequisite is one year of calculus. I plan to "track" students who enroll in this course during their entire academic career at SDSU to obtain long term feedback on how this early introduction to Computational Science has affect their undergraduate career.

Educational Activities by K. Stewart (reverse chronological order):

CS205 Introduction to Computational Analysis appears in SDSU Undergraduate Catalog, 1994/95
CS205 Introduction to Computational Analysis will be taught Fall semester 1994 at SDSU.
SIAM Visiting Lecturer Program invited presentations at USD (January 15, 1994) and UCSD (January 22, 1994) on "Experiences in the Development of Undergraduate Curriculum in Computational Science"
"An Ad Hoc Approach to Undergraduate Curriculum Development in Computational Science", DOE High Performance Computing Education Conference, Albuquerque, NM, February 1994 (presentation at the panel for Undergraduate Programs which was organized by Dr. Joan Francioni and Dr. Kris Stewart)
CS575 Supercomputing for the Sciences taught as a "course in the catalog" at SDSU, Spring 1994.
"Computational Science Curricula and Programs: What is Out There and What Works?" Panel participant, Supercomputing 93, November 93, Portland
Updated curricula materials for "Supercomputing for the Sciences" made available via anonymous ftp from ftp.sdsc.edu
"Student Edition of MATLAB as a Computational Tool for High School Science", 1993 MATLAB Conference, October 1993, Boston.
NSF Scientific Advisory Review Panel on the Undergraduate High Performance Scientific Computational Curriculum Development Group at the U. Colorado, Boulder (Fosdick and Jessup), 1992 - final report on Sept. 21, 1993.
UCES (Undergraduate Computational Engineeering and Sciences) participant beginning September 1993. [DOE funded program to encourage develop of curricular materials]
CS575 Supercomputing for the Sciences appears in SDSU Undergraduate Catalog, 1993/94
Asked to be SDSC's Computational Science Curriculum Coordinator, Spring 1993. [This entails being the national spokesperson for SDSC and their outreach programs in computational science education.]
"Supercomputing and Undergraduate Education at the San Diego Supercomputer Center" Poster Session, Supercomputing 92, November 1992, Minneapolis
"Exemplars of Undergraduate Supercomputing Research and Education Experiences" Panel participant, Supercomputing 92, November 1992, Minneapolis
"Computer vs. Computational Literacy: Investigations in Undergraduate Curricula", SIAM Annual Meeting, July 1992, Los Angeles
Attended the Summer Faculty Workshop on High Performance Scientific Computing, June 1992, at U. Colorado, Boulder. This workshop was presented by Dr. Lloyd Fosdick and Dr. Liz Jessup covering their NSF funded development of a senior year, undergraduate course in Scientific Computing.
Appointed SDSU representative to the SDSC Steering Committee in 1992. [SDSU is an original member of the academic consortium that founded the San Diego Supercomputer Center in 1986.]
Curricula materials for "Supercomputing and Undergraduate Education" made available via anonymous ftp from rohan.sdsu.edu
"Supercomputing and Undergraduate Education" SUE Faculty Workshop, one week workshop presented by Stewart at the San Diego Supercomputer Center for nation wide faculty from primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs) interested in pursuing curriculum development in high performance computing using supercomputers, Summer 1992. [Note this attracted several faculty from Liberal Arts colleges in Minnesota and Wisconsin whose participation was funded by Cray Research Inc.]
CS 596 Supercomputing for Sciences taught as an experimental upper division, interdisciplinary course at SDSU, Spring 1992
Curricula materials for "Supercomputing for the Sciences" made available via anonymous ftp from rohan.sdsu.edu
CS 596 Supercomputing for Sciences taught as an experimental upper division, interdisciplinary course at SDSU, Spring 1991
"Supercomputing and Undergraduate Education" SUE Faculty Workshop, one week workshop presented by Stewart at the San Diego Supercomputer Center for faculty from the CSU (California State University) system interested in pursuing curriculum development in high performance computing using supercomputers, Summer 1991
"Computational Science Education: The Impact and the Issues at the Secondary and Undergraduate Levels", Panel Discussion, EDUCOM '91, Curricula, Computing and Culture, San Diego, October 1991
"The Supercomputer as a Stimulant for Undergraduate Education", Computational Science in Industry and the Comprehensive University Conference, Cal Poly Pomona, November 1990 (DOE funded conference)
"Undergraduate Curriculum Development in Advanced Computing", NSF/DASC Research Grant with Dan Sulzbach (PI), San Diego Supercomputer Center, 1990-93.