Education, Outreach & Training

The aim for the Education, Outreach and Training (EOT) program is to significantly increase the skills of users and potential users of advanced computing and grid facilities.

The projects in the program cover three areas: Courseware Project, Outreach Activities and International Activities.

Courseware Project

The courseware project involves the preparation and dissemination of on-line materials which can be used to present education and training courses in computational science and engineering. The project is a set of coordinated (sub-)projects conducted by the partners in cooperation with their members and other organisations.

The projects are planning to deliver course materials in the areas of:

Computational techniques
Computing techniques
Numerical techniques
Internet, Web and Grid services
Computational applications

Each project is being managed by a Project Leader who is responsible for the planning and operation of the project in terms of activities, milestones and resources, within the approved resources.

Opportunities have been identified for more cooperation on the materials and for more emphasis on computational techniques and grid services to support the other APAC programs.

The position of Project Coordinator was established to coordinate the activities of partner projects with the view of producing a cohesive outcome of the project. The coordinator is responsible for fostering a high level of quality for the materials produced.

Outreach Activities

The outreach activities involve special initiatives for researchers, postgraduates and undergraduates in advanced computing and the grid.

The activities include:

An annual APAC Summer School in advanced computation for postgraduate students.
APAC Internships for undergraduate students to work at partner sites during vacations.
Conferences on advanced computing, grid applications and eResearch, including APAC’05.
Specialist workshops on advanced computing and grid technologies.

Summer School

The APAC Summer School provides a forum for intensive training of Australian postgraduate students and junior researchers in advanced computation and related areas.

The next APAC Summer School is being held in Brisbane from 4-8 December 2006. The school is aimed primarily at postgraduate students and comprises one week of lectures and tutorials in computational science across the following five themes:

Numerical Solution of Ordinary Differential Equations
Numerical Solution of Partial Differential Equations
Numerical Linear Algebra
Numerical Optimisation
High Performance Computing

We are also planning to hold a formal presentation via the Access grid on Wednesday evening, 6th December from a European speaker.

For further information on the summer school, click here.

APAC Internship Scheme

APAC funds internships allowing undergraduate students to gain work experience at partner sites.

The main aim of the scheme is to provide national recognition to outstanding students enrolled at higher education institutions in Australia. The internships are intended to encourage students to gain further experience and to pursue a career in computational science and engineering.

The internships will be awarded to students who are accepted in an internship or work experience scheme of one of the partners.

Details of the APAC Internships awarded for 2006-07, click here.

Details of the APAC Internships awarded on 2005-06, click here.

Details of the APAC Internships awarded on 2004-05, click here.

International Activities

The international activites support the participation of researchers in international forums for advanced computing and the grid as well as building international cooperation and collaboration.

Activities include:

APAC participation in major conferences, exhibitions and demonstrations, such as SC Conferences and Exhibitions, Pragma and HPC Asia conferences.
National contributions to grid standardisation efforts including the Global Grid Forum (GGF).
Australian cooperation with major advanced computing and grid initiatives in overseas organisations.
Australian collaboration with other major organisations such as NCSA, NPACI, PSC and the UK eScience program.

Contact

Dr Stephen Roberts
APAC EOT Program Coordinator
Mathematical Sciences Institute
L F Crisp Building (26)
The Australian National University
CANBERRA, ACT 0200

Phone: +612 6125 4445

Fax: +612 6125 0759