Ed Hill wrote:
On Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:29:11 -0400 "Perry E. Metzger" wrote:
I think part of the issue is that most people doing scientific
computing don't have computer science backgrounds, which is a
shame.
Formal CS training can certainly help but I don't view it as a
requirement. I've met some remarkably capable programmers who have
little or no formal CS background.
And I don't mean to sound like a cheezy motivational speaker but
if each of us is willing to study the texts a bit, read others' code,
and learn-by-doing then I don't think there is anything that prevents us
from becoming capable programmers. Or engineers. Or chefs. Or system
administrators. Or..., well, you get the idea. :-)
I'm loathe to get into this, but: A lot of computational scientists
came to the PhD program seeking degrees in numerical modeling in
meteorology or climatology, or some computational realm: chemistry,
bioinformatics, petroleum engineering, etc., never dreaming they'd
become a system administrator and code wrangler, and that their degree
was granted when an advisor deemed their efforts in keeping the hardware
and others' software going were deemed sufficient: They'd suffered enough.
They may or may not have sufficient computer science training when they
started, and they may or may not get formal training in the course of
their degree process, but don't discount the computer science training
they acquired along the way.
For the record, I prefer to not sacrifice a new PhD student to the HPC
gods, but I don't control everyone else. And, I find that some, when
they see what goes into HPC, are seduced by the Dark Side. If they work
for me, they end up with a somewhat different degree plan, as they have
to have a couple of C courses, exposure to FORTRAN, and some formal
exposure to MPI and OpenMP. Others, however, assume osmosis is
sufficient for their students, and they don't quite get as good a
result, in my opinion.
This, however, is the basis for a plan several of us are fostering:
Cluster condominiums allow for leveraging economies of scale in hardware
purchase along with professional system administration. Students
interested in working on computational science in a pragmatic manner can
work here and also continue with their nominal studies. OR change to a
curriculum in computational science.
gc
--
Gerry Creager -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University
Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.862.3982 FAX: 979.862.3983
Office: 1700 Research Parkway Ste 160, TAMU, College Station, TX 77843
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