[hpc-announce] Deadline extended - Call for Book Chapter Proposals: CDER Book Project on Parallel and Distributed Computing Instruction in Undergraduate Curricula

[Sushil K. Prasad]

Call for Book Chapter Proposals:

CDER Book Project on Parallel and Distributed Computing Instruction in
Undergraduate Curricula: Volume 3, Springer, 2025.

Extended Deadline: Dec 31, 2024

Book Title: Topics in Parallel and Distributed Computing: From Concepts to
the Classroom

Motivation and Goals:

Basic undergraduate computing courses taught in most colleges are still
based on the 20th century conceptual model of computation, predating the
distribution of computing across the Internet and widespread use of
parallel processing. Learning to reason about computational problem
solving, without considering the powerful capabilities offered by
parallelism and distribution, creates a foundational mindset that limits
creative insights and handicaps students in furthering their education and
potential productivity in their careers.

The Center for Parallel and Distributed Computing Curriculum Development
and Educational Resources (CDER) initiated a book series to help overcome
some of the key impediments that have prevented educators from updating
introductory (and advanced) computing curricula to address the reality of
current systems. The series provides instructional resources and guidelines
to instructors as well as students to incorporate Parallel and Distributed
Computing (PDC) topics in the undergraduate courses as part of the
NSF/IEEE-TCPP Curriculum Initiative. The first two volumes were published
in 2015 and 2018, respectively, and can be found at the CDER website
<https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://tcpp.cs.gsu.edu/curriculum/?q=CDER_Book_Project__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!aDL4Ojb69OWyeEvR8Lstqa24rHwogj0d0wcjEaY-rzf1EXZLjdy7nKAjjXyZp-WPvC3tYTLvUeyrb1JMfLvcFkEidssQYw$ >.

CDER is now seeking proposals for chapters in Volume 3 of its book series
on PDC instruction in undergraduate curricula, possibly also addressing
modern aspects of AI, Big Data, and Cybersecurity.



*Volume 3 will focus on how the early adopters of the NSF/IEEE-TCPP
curriculum guidelines or ACM/IEEE 2013 and related curricula and the
computing community at large have integrated PDC topics in specific courses
in their local contexts.* These are intended to provide instructors of
specific modules or courses with material ready to be incorporated into
their classes with advice on how to teach based on prior experiences. The
chapters are expected to include how the PDC topics at hand were taught and
how they were integrated into the current courses. Possible courses
include *early
computing courses* such as CS0, CS1, CS2, Discrete Math, Data structures
and Algorithms, Systems/Computer Organization, and Digital Logic as
well as *upper
level/advanced courses* such as Networking, Operating Systems, Computer
Architecture, Software Engineering, and Databases.

The published chapters are expected to be supplemented with ready-to-adopt
instructional materials in an Appendix (full topic or even full course
exemplars, slides, assignments, quizzes, online/video material, if any; a
manual on how to teach alongside existing topics, etc.) which will be kept
live on the CDER website for periodic updates by the authors. Authors are
also expected to share teaching experience/evaluation in their local
institutional context.

What and how to submit:

Please submit a 2-3 page informal proposal specifying your goals and a
brief outline of your proposed chapter by Dec 31, 2024 via this EasyChair
portal <https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://easychair.org/my/conference?conf=cderbook2024__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!aDL4Ojb69OWyeEvR8Lstqa24rHwogj0d0wcjEaY-rzf1EXZLjdy7nKAjjXyZp-WPvC3tYTLvUeyrb1JMfLvcFkF-jh52iw$ >. Employ
keywords specifying the core/advanced course that is the primary target of
your chapter and the PDC topics covered. Multi-author teams are welcome.

The proposals will be reviewed by the CDER center investigators, and the
authors will be notified by Jan 15, 2025.  The chapter submissions will be
due by March 31, 2025 and will be reviewed by the NSF/TCPP curriculum
working groups and other experts. This volume will be published by Springer
and preprints will be made available for free downloads at the CDER site
(past chapters’ download count is about *60K*).

Resources:

NSF/IEEE-TCPP Curriculum Initiative on Parallel and Distributed Computing -
Core Topics for Undergraduates: Version 2.0.
<https://urldefense.us/v3/__https://tcpp.cs.gsu.edu/curriculum/?q=home__;!!G_uCfscf7eWS!aDL4Ojb69OWyeEvR8Lstqa24rHwogj0d0wcjEaY-rzf1EXZLjdy7nKAjjXyZp-WPvC3tYTLvUeyrb1JMfLvcFkGFATGkYw$ >
<https://urldefense.us/v3/__http://tcpp.cs.gsu.edu/curriculum/?q=system*files*NSF-TCPP-curriculum-version1.pdf__;Ly8!!G_uCfscf7eWS!aDL4Ojb69OWyeEvR8Lstqa24rHwogj0d0wcjEaY-rzf1EXZLjdy7nKAjjXyZp-WPvC3tYTLvUeyrb1JMfLvcFkFR9x41ww$ >

Editors:

Anshul Gupta, IBM Research, anshul at ibm.com

Sushil Prasad, UT San Antonio, sushil.prasad at utsa.edu

Alan Sussman, U. Maryland, asussman at umd.edu

Ramachandran Vaidyanathan, LSU, vaidy at lsu.edu

Charles Weems, UMass, weems at cs.umass.edu