The Blue Waters Student Internship Program: Promoting Competence and Confidence for Next Generation Researchers in High-Performance Computing

The Blue Waters Student Internship Program (BWSIP), a year-long program funded for three years by the National Science Foundation, motivates and trains the next generation of supercomputing researchers. A community engagement partnership of the Blue Waters Petascale Computing Facility at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) and Shodor, the BWSIP has developed, demonstrated, and evaluated novel lessons involving hands-on, interactive, and collaborative methodologies to teach parallel and distributed computing (PDC) and high-performance computing (HPC) topics. Students participating in the program gain experience in the application of highperformance computing to real-world problems in science, mathematics, and engineering through a year-long internship. By engaging undergraduate and graduate students in Petascale computing research and development projects, students build confidence and competence in PDC and HPC.The BWSIP recruited a large and diverse applicant pool from across the US from which 21 research interns reflecting that diversity were selected and each matched with a mentor and a project for the year-long internship. Students, many having only introductory programming experience, began their internship by attending the two-week Petascale Institute -- each day including 6.5 hours of directed, inquiry-based learning and 2 hours of open lab using the run-modify-write paradigm -- during which they were trained in PDC and HPC tools, techniques, and technologies using Blue Waters at NCSA, and by analogy other XSEDE HPC resources. Students then continued working all summer on their home campuses, or were hosted by their mentor, with on-going work expected to be continued during both Fall and Spring semesters.The project engaged an external evaluator to conduct formative and summative assessments of the program. BWSIP Interns participated in pre- and post-surveys, daily reflections/evaluation questions, as well as in a focus group during their training. Even with significant differences in background, knowledge, and with varying projects, participants stated that the two-week institute was an essential element to help them learn conceptual thinking and how to program using parallel computing. It is proposed that the curriculum and approach for the Institute could be adapted for a semester course at the undergraduate or graduate level.