Today was the final Saturday for our work as apprentices. We completed our learning about parallel computing through work with BCCD, or the Bootable Cluster CD, an operating system that connects different computers to teach about parallel computing. We used command line interfacing to do this, which was very interesting, and we were able to connect our computers and perform tasks with processing power one computer wouldn't be able to do. I left at 12:00 today because I was feeling sick.
Today we continued working on parallel computing. We looked at different careers and how High Performance Computing (HPC) could be used in them. The career I chose was nuclear engineering, where HPC is used for simulations of nuclear experiments that require high processing powers. We compared different supercomputers around the world through the Top500 list, and learned about Shodor's mini supercomputer, LittleFe. We also did an activity where we "shopped" for our own parts to build a supercomputer with a $3000 budget. This activity helped us see what parts of a supercomputer are essential and how expensive or inexpensive they can be, depending on the different components.
I wasn't able to attend class today because of a prior commitment, but today we began working on parallel computing. Parallel computing is when multiple computers, nodes, or cores work together to solve a problem. Parallel computing is efficient because more work can be done in less time, but it requires communication between each computer, which can take time and processing power. Many different areas of life involve parallel thinking or parallel computing. We did a coin flipping activity where we compared the number of coins flipped by different numbers of serial and parallel workers, and found that parallel workers were generally able to flip more in shorter time periods.
Today we finished and presented our project! In the morning, we worked on making our finishing touches so our model was perfect. Last week, we ended in a good place so we didn't have too much work to do. Our fire model had a wind component added so that the fire would only blow in a certain direction depending on the intensity of the wind. In the afternoon, we presented our project, which went fairly well; I struggle sometimes with presenting and public speaking skills, so this was, as always, good practice. I think our project was good and I'm proud.
Today we continued working on our forest fire model project. We had some moments of confusion over the Javascript syntax and how to best edit it, and we ended up accidentally breaking our model more than a few times. However, we worked together well and made some good improvements on our model. I think we're almost there and although we'll have some more work to do to finish up next week, we're in a good place. I'm proud of the work we did today, especially because neither of us had prior experience with Javascript.
I wasn't able to attend class today because of a prior commitment, but today we began work on our spring project, which involves taking either our disease model or the predator/prey model we created and changing it into a model of a forest fire using the programming concepts and skills we've been learning over the past month. My partner Chris Parker began work on this project while I was absent. I'm excited for this project and for the chance to practice coding and enhance my programming skills.
Today we learned more about programming concepts, through transforming a predatory/prey model into a disease model, like we've been doing for the past two weeks. We learned about using linters like ESLint to find and correct mistakes in code syntax, defining and calling functions and variables, and using square brackets to make arrays. We changed the eating function in the original model to an infecting function, where the sick people removed the healthy people and created sick people in their place when they came into contact. I learned a lot about programming concepts today, and worked efficiently.
I was sick today and wasn't able to attend class. I worked to make it up on my own time. This lesson involved working more on programming and changing the predator/prey model into a disease model. We learned about different programming concepts and how to implement them in our code, and practiced making changes and predicting, observing, and reflecting on what happened.
Today we began learning about coding and programming concepts. We started working with Javascript in Atom, but the concepts we're covering are general and could be used to apply to any programming language. Over the next month we will work on transforming a predator/prey model into a disease model and learning about programming through our work. I very much enjoy programming and am excited to learn more.