Bridging the Gap between Education and Research: A Retrospective on Simulating an HPC Conference

High Performance Computing (HPC) is playing an increasingly important role in industry, research and everyday life. Moreover, a central core of the European HPC strategy is the Modular Supercomputing Architecture (MSA), which breaks with traditional HPC architectures by integrating heterogeneous computing resources in system-level modules. Nevertheless, HPC and especially MSA content only rarely find their way into the curriculum of computer science courses at German universities. In addition, the necessary competencies for independent scientific research are hardly addressed, although these skills are essential for students for writing their final theses. This paper presents a blended learning based module concept that promotes the understanding and application of modular supercomputing while connecting it with the techniques of scientific project work. The module was first implemented at Goethe University in Summer 2022. The initial feedback and evaluation results are quite encouraging both in terms of learning outcomes and student engagement and interest.