Etudes for Parallel Programmers

Mini-applications are widely used in parallel computing for testing and benchmarking purposes. However, many existing mini-applications are not suitable for teaching, since they require advanced knowledge of algebra, numerical analysis or physics to be fully understood, which might be beyond the reach of beginners. In this paper we describe a set of programming assignments, called parallel etudes, that have been used in the last years for teaching High Performance Computing at the undergraduate level. These applications are self-contained, self-documenting, and short. They are drawn from more familiar domains such as 3D~rendering, simulation, image processing and simple physics models, to be more accessible to students without a strong mathematical background. The mini-applications target shared-memory, distributed-memory and GPU programming. The analysis of the students' feedback and final grades provides indirect support for the effectiveness of the etudes.