Educating the Educator: High Performance Computing Training Workshop for Faculty from Under-Represented and Minority Serving Institutions

Computational science and engineering (CSE) and high performance computing (HPC) have now become an integral part of several engineering and science disciplines with still a very small participation from minority and under-represented population. To attract minorities to these critical technical areas and to the field of CSE and HPC, we have followed a complimentary approach by exposing and training the faculty from several under-represented and minority universities in the areas of CSE and HPC through a one-week workshop sponsored by Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Office Program Outreach and JEOM (Joint Educational Opportunities for Minorities) conducted at the campus of North Carolina A&T State University with a strong computational science and engineering graduate program. This workshop enabled the participant faculty from under-represented and minority serving institutions who are generally involved with minority undergraduate students to be educated and exposed the various aspects of the CSE and HPC techniques and opportunities in these areas. This paper highlights the development of this educating the educator workshop on computational science and engineering and high performance computing for the past 2 years (2006 and 2007); the experiences and feedback from the participating minority university and the impact on expanding CSE and HPC education outreach to the community of faculty and students at the under-represented and minority serving institutions. This educating the educator workshop has enabled the participating faculty to not only get trained and exposed in these areas but also act as a catalyst to propagate their knowledge to their students, serving a larger minority population and future work force needs of qualified minorities in these critical areas.