Note: an updated post can be found at http://www.scinethpc.ca/scinet-certificate-program

SciNet has been teaching courses on scientific technical computing and high performance computing for the Toronto-area research community for several years, and now offers recognition to attendees in the form of SciNet Certificates in Scientific Computing or High Performance Computing.  Courses offered by SciNet will, effective immediately, count towards these certificates.

Note that the SciNet Certificates are not University credentials, and will not appear on transcripts.  However, several SciNet courses are sometimes offered in cooperation with the Astronomy and Physics departments as graduate minicourses, which can count towards course credit; interested students in other departments are encouraged to contact SciNet and their graduate coordinator.

Requirements for these certificates are based on credit-hours of SciNet courses successfully completed.   For a “short course” (typically a day long or shorter, with no between-course homework), a lecture hour counts as one credit hour; for a “long course” with homework due between sessions, a lecture hour counts as 1.5 credit hours.

The certificate offerings are as follows; note that requirements are subject to change.  Students who have successfully taken SciNet courses before January 2013 may discuss with us having credits applied from previously-taken courses.

Certificate in Scientific Computing

36 credit-hours in scientific computing

This certificate indicates that the holder has successfully completed coursework in general scientific computing topics such as software development, version control, testing, visualization, and data management.

Example courses, with typical credit hours:

• Minicourse: Intro to scientific software development – 16 credit-hours
• Minicourse: Numerical tools for physical scientists – 16 credit-hours
• C++ / Fortran classes: 6-7 credit hours
• Linux Shell: 2 credit hours
• Visualization with Paraview: 2 credit hours
• Data management: 1 credit hour

Certificate in High Performance Computing

36 credit-hours in HPC topics

This certificate indicates that the holder has successfully completed coursework in high performance computing topics such as programming models like OpenMP, MPI, CUDA or parallel development tools like debuggers

Example courses:

• Intro to SciNet – counts as 1 hour
• OpenMP/MPI bootcamp – varies
• Minicourse: Intro to GPU with CUDA – 12 credit-hours
• Minicourse: Intro to HPC – 16 credit-hours
• Parallel debugging with DDT – 3 credit-hours

Certificate in Advanced High Performance Computing

36 course hours in advanced HPC topics

Example courses:

• Parallel I/O – 8 credit hours
• Adios – 1 credit hour