Mr Lev Lafayette1
1University Of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia
The importance of High Throughput Computing (HTC), whether through high performance or cloud-enabled, is a critical issue for research institutions as data metrics are increasing at a rate greater than the capacity of user systems [1]. As a result nascent evidence suggests higher research output from institutions that provide access to HTC facilities. However the necessary skills to operate HTC systems is lacking from the very research communities that would benefit from them. Apart from reducing research output this also places additional unnecessary pressure on system administrators who need to respond to uneducated user requests.
With empirical data spanning several years correlating training and utilization from the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC), the University of Melbourne, and Goethe-University Frankfurt Am Main, theoretical and practical issues are raised. As advanced adult learners, the postgraduate researchers involved in the course offerings from these institutions should be an ideal fit for andragogical teaching techniques [2]. However exploring the practices and course offerings of the listed institutions indicates a combination of experience and cultural factors reinforces the notion of a continuum between pedagogical and andragogical techniques, but also raises whether there are correlative stages for the components within this continuum or whether they are independent.
The results of this international investigation with variant teaching methods, classes, and results, provide opportunities for other institutions to initiate or review their own training programmes and create the conditions for dynamic HTC user communities and increased informed utilization of their systems.
REFERENCES
- Martin Hilbert, Priscila López. The World’s Technological Capacity to Store, Communicate, and Compute Information, Science Vol. 332 no. 6025 1 April 2011, pp. 60-65.
- Malcolm Shepherd Knowles, Elwood F. Holton, Richard A. Swanson, The Adult Learner: The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, Gulf Publishing Company, 1998
Biography
Lev Lafayette is the HPC Support and Training Officer at the University of Melbourne. Prior to that he worked for several years at the Victorian Partanership for Advanced Computing in a similar role. An active advocate of HPC and Linux, he has presented at numerous conferences and user groups on these subjects over the past decade.