Difference between revisions of "CSC352 Syllabus 2013"

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(Created page with "--~~~~ ---- right |300px __TOC__ <center> Main Page | Syllabus | [[CSC352 Class Page 2013 | Schedule...")
 
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The goal of the semester's work is a project that includes a parallel program that solves one of the problems associated with the processing of the collection of images, the redaction of a scientific paper describing the semester-long research using the ''LaTex'' document formatting language.
 
The goal of the semester's work is a project that includes a parallel program that solves one of the problems associated with the processing of the collection of images, the redaction of a scientific paper describing the semester-long research using the ''LaTex'' document formatting language.
  
=Class Notes=
+
=Newsletter=
  
Everybody will be responsible for transcribing the notes for the class and posting them on the wiki, in a rotation pattern (roughly once a month for each person in the class).
+
Everybody will be responsible for generating a 2-page newsletter every other week.
  
 
=Homework assignments/Projects=
 
=Homework assignments/Projects=
There will be homework assignments and 3 projects.  The homework assignments will be used to create various solutions that will be included in the projects. 
 
  
There will be 3 projects, roughly one month apart, and capping the material covered in each sectionMore details will be available as we go along.  The current project ideas are the following:
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There will be homework assignments and a projectThe homework assignments will contribute to the advancement of the project.
;Project 1:
 
:Threading in Python: given two lists of keywords, List1 and List2, retrieve docs from a site (xgridmac.dyndns.org, yahoo, google) that respond/match List1.  Filter the docs received and keep only those that contain most of the words in List2.
 
 
 
;Project 2:
 
:XGrid: process a gzip xml dump of wikipedia and break it up into individual pages (9 million or so of them)!
 
 
 
;Project 3:
 
:Map-Reduce: process wikipedia pages and create an index of words and their associated categories
 
 
 
;Project 4:
 
:Setup of Cloud Cluster.  Self-scheduled, lasting until Spring break.  Teams of two students will setup a PC with Ubuntu and Hadoop and contribute to documentation ([http://cs.smith.edu/classwiki/index.php/CSC352_Hadoop_Cluster_Howto#Workstation_Setup Wiki Setup Page])
 
  
 
=Smith Cloud=
 
=Smith Cloud=
  
6 PCs recovered from Burton Basement are awaiting to be reincarnated in a networked cluster of Ubuntu machines running the hadoop software.  Once initialized and connected together they will form Smith's first cloud computing platformOne of the required projects for the class is for students to pair up in teams and each setup one of the computers, documenting the process in the class [http://cs.smith.edu/classwiki wiki].
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We will use different computer clusters available on campusMore on this later.
  
 
=Presentations=
 
=Presentations=
  
We'll read, present and discuss papers during the semester.  Most papers are already posted on the [[CSC352 Resources | Links &amp; Resources]] page.  More information will be available as we proceed through the semester.
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We'll read, present and discuss papers during the semester.  Papers will be posted on the [[CSC352 Resources 2013| Links &amp; Resources]] page.  More information will be available as we proceed through the semester.
  
 
<!--For the presenters, the following [http://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/~newhall/presentation.html page] from Prof. Tia Newall of Swarthmore College for good advice on preparing a presentation.-->
 
<!--For the presenters, the following [http://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/~newhall/presentation.html page] from Prof. Tia Newall of Swarthmore College for good advice on preparing a presentation.-->
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=Prerequisites=
 
=Prerequisites=
  
Algorithms CSC252, or permission of the instructor.  A good knowledge of C and Java is important.
+
Algorithms CSC252, or permission of the instructor.  A good knowledge of Java is important.
  
 
=Schedule=
 
=Schedule=
  
The class meets twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:30 am - 11:50 am, in Ford Hall 342.
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The class meets twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:00-2:50 p.m., in Ford Hall 345.
  
 
=Textbook=
 
=Textbook=
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=Lateness Policy=
 
=Lateness Policy=
  
No late assignment/paper summariy/project will be accepted (except in case of documented illness or personal difficulties).
+
No late assignment/paper summariy/project will be accepted (except in case of ''documented'' illness or personal difficulties).
 
Do your work on time!
 
Do your work on time!
  
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=Grading=
 
=Grading=
  
You can pick between 3 options for the final grade.  If you do not make your choice known <font color="red">before the last day of class</font>, Option 1, the original grading option, will be used.
 
 
==Option 1==
 
  
 
{|
 
{|
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Class participation (summaries, class notes, discussion) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br />
 
Class participation (summaries, class notes, discussion) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br />
 
Homework <br />
 
Homework <br />
Projects (equal weight for all 3)<br />
+
Project<br />
 
Paper presentations &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
 
Paper presentations &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
 
|
 
|
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|}
 
|}
  
==Option 2==
 
{|
 
|
 
Class participation (summaries, class notes, discussion) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br />
 
Homework <br />
 
Projects (equal weight for all 3)<br />
 
Paper presentations &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
 
|
 
15% <br />
 
20% <br />
 
50% <br />
 
15%
 
|}
 
 
==Option 3 ==
 
Option 3 is the same as Option 1 but with more weight for Project 3.
 
 
{|
 
|
 
Class participation (summaries, class notes, discussion) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <br />
 
Homework <br />
 
Project 1 <br />
 
Project 2 <br />
 
Project 3 <br />
 
Paper presentations &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br />
 
|
 
10% <br />
 
15% <br />
 
10% <br />
 
10% <br />
 
40% <br />
 
15%
 
|}
 
  
 
=Teaching Assistants=
 
=Teaching Assistants=

Revision as of 11:08, 9 August 2013

--D. Thiebaut (talk) 10:55, 9 August 2013 (EDT)


CouldComputing.png
Main Page | Syllabus | Schedule | Links & Resources


Prof

Dominique Thiébaut (dthiebaut at smith.edu)
Dept. Computer Science
Ford Hall 356
Telephone: 3854
Office hours TBA and by appointments

Introduction

Parallel and Distributed Processing (formally Parallel Processing) is a seminar mixing theory and programming that explores the issues facing today's programmers needing to process data existing in either a large volume, or distributed over a network (local or the Internet).

The course this semester centers on a problem and formulating a solution for it. The problem is to take a large collection of images (possibly several million images) and creating a collage of them where images are scaled according to some quantity (popularity, frequency of use, date of posting, date of last viewing, etc...). The goal is to understand the various tasks required to process such large amount of data, investigate various parallel computing resources, and test different approaches to solve this problem in an acceptable time (minutes or hours rather than days or years of computation!).

The class mixes lectures, the reading and presentation of research papers, and programming assignments/projects.

We discuss different levels of parallelism, uncovering it in processors, in operating systems, and seek our teeth in multi-threading which we explore with Java. We learn about various theoretical approaches to safely share data (e.g. semaphores), and the problems one can expect by not adopting safe solution (deadlocks).

The final paradigm we visit is the processing of data in parallel on a grand scale and we learn about Google's Map-Reduce solution for processing large amount of textual data. We study Hadoop, the open-source version of Map-Reduce on a local cluster of computers.

The goal of the semester's work is a project that includes a parallel program that solves one of the problems associated with the processing of the collection of images, the redaction of a scientific paper describing the semester-long research using the LaTex document formatting language.

Newsletter

Everybody will be responsible for generating a 2-page newsletter every other week.

Homework assignments/Projects

There will be homework assignments and a project. The homework assignments will contribute to the advancement of the project.

Smith Cloud

We will use different computer clusters available on campus. More on this later.

Presentations

We'll read, present and discuss papers during the semester. Papers will be posted on the Links & Resources page. More information will be available as we proceed through the semester.


Whenever a paper is scheduled for presentation or discussion, everybody not presenting the paper is responsible for handing out at the beginning of the class a one-page (possibly two pages) with a summary of the paper, in 3 parts:

  • a one-sentence summary of the paper
  • a one-paragraph summary of the paper
  • a half-page summary of the paper.

Prerequisites

Algorithms CSC252, or permission of the instructor. A good knowledge of Java is important.

Schedule

The class meets twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:00-2:50 p.m., in Ford Hall 345.

Textbook

There are no textbooks for this course. The Web has a rich collection of documents we'll be using and which are catalogued in the Links & Resources page.

Other Sources of Material

The science library has a good collection of books on parallel processing and algorithms that you might find useful for supplementing the material presented and covered in class. "Parallel algorithm", "Parallel Programming," or "Grid Computing" are good keywords to start a search on.

Lateness Policy

No late assignment/paper summariy/project will be accepted (except in case of documented illness or personal difficulties). Do your work on time!

You can, however, drop any one homework assignment and any one reading assignment without penalty. If you do not drop any assignment and do not drop any assigned reading, I will remove the ones with the lowest grade automatically.

Grading

Class participation (summaries, class notes, discussion)       
Homework
Project
Paper presentations       

10%
15%
60%
15%


Teaching Assistants

No TA for this class.