A learning experience toward the understanding of abstraction-level interactions in parallel applications

Valero, Alejandro (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Gran-Tejero, Rubén (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Suárez-Gracia, Darío (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Georgescu, Emanue A. ; Ezpeleta, Joaquín (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Álvarez, Pedro (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Muñoz, Adolfo (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Ramos, Luis M. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Ibáñez, Pablo (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: In the curriculum of a Computer Engineering program, concepts like parallelism, concurrency, consistency, or atomicity are usually addressed in separate courses due to their thoroughness and extension. Isolating such concepts in courses helps students not only to focus on specific aspects, but also to experience the reality of working with modern computer systems, where those concepts are often detached in different abstraction levels. However, due to such an isolation, it exists a risk of inducing to the students an absence of interactions between these concepts, and, by extension, between the different abstraction levels of a system. This paper proposes a learning experience showcasing the interactions between abstraction levels addressed in laboratory sessions of different courses. The driving example is a parallel ray tracer. In the different courses, students implement and assemble components of this application from the algorithmic level of the tracer to the assembly instructions required to guarantee atomicity. Each lab focuses on a single abstraction level, but shows students the interactions with the rest of the levels. Technical results and student learning outcomes through the analysis of surveys validate the proposed experience and confirm the students learning improvement with a more integrated view of the system.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1016/j.jpdc.2021.05.008

Año: 2021

Publicado en: Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing 156 (2021), 38-52
ISSN: 0743-7315

Factor impacto JCR: 4.542 (2021)

Categ. JCR: COMPUTER SCIENCE, THEORY & METHODS rank: 18 / 110 = 0.164 (2021) - Q1 - T1

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 9.2 - Mathematics (Q1) - Computer Science (Q1)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 1.289 - Artificial Intelligence (Q1) - Theoretical Computer Science (Q1) - Software (Q1) - Computer Networks and Communications (Q1)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA-ESF/T58-20R
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA-FEDER/Construyendo Europa desde Aragón
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/T21-20R-DISCO
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/682080/EU/Intuitive editing of visual appearance from real-world datasets/CHAMELEON
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/PID2019-105004GB-I00
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO-AEI-ERDF/PID2019-105660RB-C21
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/TIN2017-84796-C2-2-R
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/UZ/PIIDUZ-18-246

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)

Área (Departamento): Área Arquit.Tecnología Comput. (Dpto. Informát.Ingenie.Sistms.)
Área (Departamento): Área Lenguajes y Sistemas Inf. (Dpto. Informát.Ingenie.Sistms.)