Towards a top-down approach to teaching an undergraduate grid computing course

Early undergraduate Grid computing courses generally took a bottom-up approach to Grid computing education starting with network protocols, client-server concepts, creating Web and Grid services, and then progressing through the underlying Grid computing middleware, security mechanisms and job submission all using a Linux command-line interface. We describe a new approach to teaching Grid computing beginning with a production-style Grid portal, registration process, and job submission, and then leading into infrastructure details. We incorporate seven assignments, several of which require students to install Grid computing software on their own computer or lab computers rather than using centralized servers. Students complete a "capstone" mini-project. Typical projects included creating a JSR 168 portlet user interface for an application. We describe our experiences using this new course structure. Categories and Subject Descriptors C.2.4 [Computer-Communication Networks]: D...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2008
• Where: SIGCSE
• Authors: Barry Wilkinson, Clayton Ferner
• Keywords: Education, Grid, Grid Computing, Grid Computing Courses, SIGCSE 2008