The ICSC Observatory has published the results of the research “The Big Ideas for HPC Education: From Existing Needs in High-Performance Computing Training to Recommendations for Instructional Design”.

The research presents an in-depth investigation into the current state and future prospects of High-Performance Computing (HPC) education, addressing the critical gap between the growing demand for professionals with HPC skills and the still insufficient educational offer. The study proposes ten fundamental “Big Ideas” of HPC that should guide curriculum design and the choice of teaching approaches.

The document also provides recommendations for transforming HPC education and training programs, ensuring early exposure to parallel thinking and computational literacy, and adopting the “Big Ideas” approach to create structured and coherent curricula that emphasize enduring principles over accelerating technologies.

The research has been conducted thanks to the collaboration of two authors: Eleonora Barelli, Head of Education and Foresight, IFAB Foundation, and Michael Lodi, Junior Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Bologna.

The Italian version of this document can be accessed at this page.