Term 1: University of Reading (UoR)
Aims: To introduce the student to programming on Unix Systems. The student will learn the general issues of the Unix system and how to use them to build adequate and efficient programs. The student will learn how to program shell-scripts, how to program in C using all the facilities Unix can offer. Furthermore, the student will also learn to program network applications in a client/server way.
Credits: 5 ECTS
Assessed: Coursework 100% (individual project).
SEMC02: Network Computing
Aims: To provide background in computer networks, from both the hardware and software perspectives: communication standards and protocols, network hardware. Introduce the client-server model and remote procedure calls. To introduce the cluster computing techniques and concepts of load balancing and resource management in cluster environments. To present the concept of the Computational Grid and the corresponding advanced concepts of Grid computing, drawing examples from Globus toolkit etc. Outlining the concept of Virtual Organization and how the Grid paradigm can be used to build Virtual Organizations.
Credits: 5 ECTS
Assessed: Exam 70% (closed book); Coursework 30% (team project).
SEMC03: Computer Architectures
Aims: To introduce the basic concepts of computer architecture and organisation in order to allow computational scientists to recognise when programs are not as efficient as they could be and to be able to transform them so that they can make better use of the underlying machine. The lectures give enough knowledge on the recent structures such as pipelined and superscalar processors, cache based programming, SIMD and MIMD principles used in solving DSP problems. Students will be able to recognise when the program is not performing near the capacity of the system, to understand performance improvement techniques recommended by the compiler writers and/or system architects and decide whether the benefits of increased performance are worthy of satisfying abstraction and portability.
Credits: 5 ECTS
Assessed: Exam 70% (closed book - only listed lecture notes allowed); Coursework 30% (individual project).
SEMC05: Internet Computing Environments
Aims: To introduce students to network centred software environments, specifically the Java programming language and the Java platform, and to illustrate the application of these environments though the design and development of a small-scale practical system.
Credits: 5 ECTS
Assessed: Coursework 100% (individual project).
SEMC06: Transferable Skills
Aims: To introduce the student to the main elements of Personal effectiveness, Interpersonal skills and Project Management. To highlight the importance of personal and interpersonal skills such as communication, flexibility and self-learning, information handling and equip the students to effectively communicate, present orally their work and write varied research documentation. This is linked to the introduction of teamwork through management games in planning and decision making.
Credits: 5 ECTS
Assessed: Coursework 100% (report - 30%, literary review - 20%; oral presentation - 50%).