Chevron Left
Back to Introduction to High-Performance and Parallel Computing

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to High-Performance and Parallel Computing by University of Colorado Boulder

3.3
stars
92 ratings

About the Course

This course introduces the fundamentals of high-performance and parallel computing. It is targeted to scientists, engineers, scholars, really everyone seeking to develop the software skills necessary for work in parallel software environments. These skills include big-data analysis, machine learning, parallel programming, and optimization. We will cover the basics of Linux environments and bash scripting all the way to high throughput computing and parallelizing code. We recommend you are familiar with either Fortran 90, C++, or Python to complete some of the programming assignments. After completing this course, you will familiar with: *The components of a high-performance distributed computing system *Types of parallel programming models and the situations in which they might be used *High-throughput computing *Shared memory parallelism *Distributed memory parallelism *Navigating a typical Linux-based HPC environment *Assessing and analyzing application scalability including weak and strong scaling *Quantifying the processing, data, and cost requirements for a computational project or workflow This course can be taken for academic credit as part of CU Boulder’s Master of Science in Data Science (MS-DS) degree offered on the Coursera platform. The MS-DS is an interdisciplinary degree that brings together faculty from CU Boulder’s departments of Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Science, and others. With performance-based admissions and no application process, the MS-DS is ideal for individuals with a broad range of undergraduate education and/or professional experience in computer science, information science, mathematics, and statistics. Learn more about the MS-DS program at https://www.coursera.org/degrees/master-of-science-data-science-boulder....

Top reviews

Filter by:

26 - 45 of 45 Reviews for Introduction to High-Performance and Parallel Computing

By Abhinav

•

Oct 7, 2023

ming boggling

By Felix Z

•

Dec 30, 2023

I really liked the course; it's not too difficult or too easy, but you still have to think carefully when solving the assignments. It's accessible for non-computer scientists without a relevant background to learn the basic concepts of HPC and parallel computing. My personal highlight was when I had to write a bash script that compiles and executes a parallelized Fortran program using the OpenMPI module and subsequently submit the job to the Slurm scheduler (which sounds more difficult as it is). Cool! The assignments could be improved by being more explicit and removing some minor mistakes in the provided files (see also the Discussion Forum). All in all, it serves as a great entry point for interested non-computer scientists.

By Oyendrila D

•

Dec 27, 2023

The course covers the basic expectations mentioned in the course objectives. However, there are minor discrepancies in the assignments and materials that needs to be revised.

By fan c

•

Dec 13, 2021

Having programming assignment on hpc is good, but the assignment may be more close to reality

By Stas M

•

Dec 23, 2021

The course gives a good intro into the HPC topic. However, the assignments are very ambiguously formulated, and more time is spent on figuring out what's the correct format of the submission file, than to the assignment itself. The checking of the assignments is done by an automatic checker which gives almost no clues on why you're wrong, and no support is provided by the mentors of the course.

By Nicholas D

•

Jan 1, 2023

The automatic grader is an annoying problem especially for the timing module. I found the material simple enough to cover in the allotted time, which is good for a simple 4 week course. Yet the basic knowledge included in this course (in particular bash scripting) is essential for talking to a super computer.

By Jash D

•

Dec 18, 2021

Week 4 instructions need to be made more clear, grader output needs to be made more specific. Good instructor and hands-on experience

By Bud R

•

Apr 12, 2023

ok

By José I O B

•

Jan 29, 2024

Los videos están bien, aunque para un curso de este precio esperaba mucho más contenido y acceso a más material. Además dice que no es necesario saber programar, cuando en varias tareas, sobre todo la tarea tres hay que modificar código en C++, Python y Fortran. Si lo vas a pedir, no estaría de más añadir un tema adicional sobre conceptos básicos de estos lenguajes y otro profundizando más en como es la programación en paralelo con estos lenguaje. Realmente el curso me deja con un sabor agridulce, ya que más que para aprender algo nuevo, como mucho me ha servido para refrescar cosas que había olvidado y para seguir buscando información al respecto, pero no creo que todo eso valga el precio que he pagado para ello.

By Ahmed H S Y

•

Sep 27, 2021

It is a good introduction for someone who does not have an experience working with HPC centers. However, The assignment instructions and the auto-grade system is too weak. It makes you waste too many hours trying to figure out what is wrong with your solution which turns out to be like a blank line at the end or you are even submitting something else. The problem instruction did not specify what they want you to do. So you totally understand the topic and successfully do the assignment in two hours and spend another four trying to submit it to the system to get the grade. Finally, The videos are just slides where the instructor read directly from it.

By BOGGIA,Fulvio

•

Jun 7, 2022

As an introduction, it shows basic concepts of HPC. It was an interesting course, completely ruined by the assignments. I don't know if the lab platform changed after course organization, but some assignments cannot be passed if you don't imagine what the parser would expect, especially in terms of paths. I lost half of the time to solve such kind of ridicolous issues.

By Mohamed A A

•

Jul 2, 2022

Too basic, not enough practical assignments, bad choice of Final week's assignment, an issue in the autograder makes it take a wrong output for the correct one. Please, fix that! The support is quasi-absent, students' issues in the discussion forums are left unanswered for months now.

By Leticia C

•

Nov 3, 2021

Doesn't really does an introduction to HPC concepts

By N. J J

•

Oct 24, 2021

This course has some valuable information and the instructional videos can be very interesting. However, the assignments are absolutely terrible and there is no support from the course staff in completing and/or understanding what each assignment is asking for. For 3 of the 4 assignments, I spent most of my time simply figuring out how to format the answer rather than implementing the programming. If you ask a question, you can expect to receive not a single answer from any course staff. Overall, the course is not worth the frustration.

By Merckel Y

•

Nov 12, 2021

A waste of time. Instructions for assignment are not clear at all and feedback are uninformative. I didn't want to lose houres fighting with unclear assignment so I give up and went to spend time on something more usefull.

By Mauro S

•

Mar 14, 2023

It very clear that this course was a longer one, and a lot of materials was removed.

Now the course is inconsistent a full of gap regarding the ideal concept.

Udacity offer two much better courses.

By Zhihao W

•

Oct 1, 2023

The assignment instruction is not easy to read, even the task file and config, upload existing multiple issues. Purely waste my time!

By Kyle S

•

Jun 15, 2022

The lectures are great, if a bit basic, depending on your technical experience. The assignemnts however, are broken.

By Vladislav G

•

Nov 30, 2023

Too many bugs in the assignments. Spending most time on workarounds around those bugs instead of learning.

By Прітченко К Ю

•

Nov 18, 2022

Last programming task is broken