CDER PDC Curriculum Development Grants and Summer Training
The CDER Center is pleased to announce an NSF-sponsored summer program to help faculty incorporate Parallel and Distributed Computing (PDC) into courses for students in their first two years of undergraduate study.
Highlights:
$3000 grant to each participant (see grant restrictions based on citizenship below)
Recipients attend a one-week, in-person training workshop (July 29 - August 2, 2024) hosted by UMass, Amherst
Training includes PDC content, and educational evaluation methodology
Focus on Introductory Programming, Data Structures/Algorithms, and Systems/Computer Organization courses
Application Deadline: April 30, 2024
Notification: May 6, 2024
Program Overview
The $3000 grant is meant to be used in support of attending the workshop and curriculum development. $3000 will be awarded upon completion of the training workshop. There is no fee for the workshop itself, and any needed materials will be provided. Breakfast and snacks will also be provided, but participants are responsible for other meals, lodging, travel, etc.
Training will be a combination of learning to use PDC tools, how to design and instrument an experimental course for meaningful evaluation in preparation for publication, and pedagogical approaches for engaging a diverse set of students in PDC studies.
The expectation is that grant recipients will develop experimental versions of course enhancements, or a new course or courses, to be offered following the training. Participants will be prepared to gather data on the effectiveness of their course modifications and write a paper that reports the results of their efforts, based on application of the evaluation methodologies covered in the training. Any courseware developed will be contributed to the CDER exemplars public repository so others may benefit from course development efforts.
Grant Restrictions
The training grant is limited to US citizens and permanent residents, who will receive the $3000 as a stipend, and will be sent a 1099 miscellaneous income form at the end of the year. We regret that we are not able, under NSF rules for disbursement of participant support costs, to route the grant through the participant’s institution. We also regret that we cannot support international participants. H1B visa holders can only be reimbursed for actual travel expenses related to attendance. Prior participants in CDER training programs, which covered the same topics, will be given a lower priority for acceptance than new participants.
Application Process
To apply, submit a brief proposal to the CDER Center, prepared using the Google Form linked below. The proposal form will request:
Applicant’s name
Academic position and tenure status
Discipline of highest degree
Institutional affiliation
Address
Email
Phone number
Demographic information with respect to membership in an underrepresented group
Courses typically taught
What you hope to gain from the training
Description of institution (Type, size (students), department size (students, faculty))
Programming languages used in the introductory courses
A brief description of your background in parallel and distributed computing.
For each course that will be created or enhanced with new PDC content:
- Course number and title
- Year(s) in which it is taken (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior)
- Required or elective
- Semester or quarter length (weeks)
- Number of credits
- Frequency of offering (number of terms offered per year)
- Single or multiple sections
- Taken by majors only, open to limited other majors, general service course
- Typical enrollment number
- Indication that changes are allowed (e.g., approved by curriculum committee)
- Describe changes you plan to make and list the topics from the PDC curriculum you hope to introduce as a result of the enhancement.
Google form for proposal submission: https://forms.gle/K8Ymc6hQ5gUAgqWX9
Also see https://tcpp.cs.gsu.edu/curriculum/?q=NSF_Cybertraining for updates.