The Ohio Supercomputer Center Summer Institute was a great opportunity to participate with others who are as excited to learn about the potential uses of supercomputers and how they can help solve practical problems. Computer science opportunities such as this are limited in the Hilliard City School District as computer science offerings have been cut over the past few years. As a result, I have sought out ways to expand my knowledge and the Summer Institute offered the potential experience I was looking for.
I expected to learn about how to create programs that efficiently utilize the supercomputer’s resources, create efficient networks and how to program in a team environment.
As I would like to enter in the field of systems engineering and computer science, I felt the skills involved in the creation of projects utilizing these supercomputers would help deepen my understanding of the multiple processes involved.
How did you change? How do you see the world differently than you did before?
Personally, I do not see the world any differently as a result of this experience. As I decided to use an educational experience for my capstone, the only change within myself was gaining new knowledge about computer science and networking.
The Summer Institute was a great experience for me because I had not only the opportunity to expand my knowledge about networking and supercomputers, but also campus life. I was able to get a feel for not only life in a dorm room, but transportation, dining, and the campus area. I was also able to meet new people with similar interests.
Through my participation in this program, I learned about the basics of computer networking and the fundamentals of supercomputers. I gained hands-on experience in developing a network while working within a group and a better understanding of some of the challenges in creating and operating a network.
For our final project, we created two set of networks and connected them as described in the blog. While we were unable to complete the network, I felt like our project was a success as we were able to apply many of the basic networking protocols.
The Ohio Supercomputer Center provided a wonderful opportunity that was well planned and left us wishing the experience could have been longer.
The only part I would have changed about this experience was the planning of this website. Originally, I created the entire website design from scratch, but it was very difficult to update every night in the dorm quickly. I experienced many road blocks that prevented timely updates, and there were also some issues with the display of some posts. I ended up redesigning the site with a template called Bootstrap that reduced design quirks once I returned to improve efficiency with the editing.