Teaching Fluid Mechanics for Undergraduate Students in Applied Industrial Biology: from Theory to Atypical Experiments

EBI is a further education establishment which provides education in applied industrial biology at level of MSc engineering degree. Fluid mechanics at EBI was considered by students as difficult who seemed somewhat unmotivated. In order to motivate them, we applied a new play-based pedagogy. Students were asked to draw inspiration from everyday life situations to find applications of fluid mechanics and to do experiments to verify and validate some theoretical results obtained in course. In this paper, we present an innovative teaching/learning pedagogy which includes the concept of learning through play and its implications in fluid mechanics for engineering. Examples of atypical experiments in fluid mechanics made by students are presented. Based on teaching evaluation by students, it is possible to know how students feel the course. The effectiveness of this approach to motivate students is presented through an analysis of students' teaching assessment. Learning through play proved a great success in fluid mechanics where course evaluations increased substantially. Fluid mechanics has been progressively perceived as interesting, useful, pleasant and easy to assimilate. It is shown that this pedagogy which includes educational gaming presents benefits for students. These experiments seem therefore to be a very effective tool for improving teaching/learning activities in higher education

Componentising a scientific application for the grid

CoreGRID is a Network of Excellence funded by the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programm

Current State of Java for HPC

About ten years after the Java Grande effort, this paper aims at providing a snapshot of the current status of Java for High Performance Computing. Multi-core chips are becoming mainstream, offering many ways for a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to take advantage of such systems for critical tasks such as Just-In-Time compilation or Garbage Collection. We first perform some micro benchmarks for various JVMs, showing the overall good performance for basic arithmetic operations. Then we study a Java implementation of the Nas Parallel Benchmarks, using the ProActive middleware for distribution. Comparing this implementation with a Fortran/MPI one, we show that they have similar performance on computation intensive benchmarks, but still have scalability issues when performing intensive communications. Using experiments on clusters and multi-core machines, we show that the performance varies greatly, depending on the Java Virtual Machine used (version and vendor) and the kind of computation performed

HPC in Java: Experiences in Implementing the NAS Parallel Benchmarks

International audienceThis paper reports on the design, implementation and benchmarking of a Java version of the Nas Parallel Benchmarks. We first briefly describe the implementation and the performance pitfalls. We then compare the overall performance of the Fortran MPI (PGI) version with a Java implementation using the ProActive middleware for distribution. All Java experiments were conducted on virtual machines with different vendors and versions. We show that the performance varies with the type of computation but also with the Java Virtual Machine, no single one providing the best performance in all experiments. We also show that the performance of the Java version is close to the Fortran one on computational intensive benchmarks. However, on some communications intensive benchmarks, the Java version exhibits scalability issues, even when using a high performance socket implementation (JFS)

HPC in Java: Experiences in Implementing the NAS Parallel Benchmarks

International audienceThis paper reports on the design, implementation and benchmarking of a Java version of the Nas Parallel Benchmarks. We first briefly describe the implementation and the performance pitfalls. We then compare the overall performance of the Fortran MPI (PGI) version with a Java implementation using the ProActive middleware for distribution. All Java experiments were conducted on virtual machines with different vendors and versions. We show that the performance varies with the type of computation but also with the Java Virtual Machine, no single one providing the best performance in all experiments. We also show that the performance of the Java version is close to the Fortran one on computational intensive benchmarks. However, on some communications intensive benchmarks, the Java version exhibits scalability issues, even when using a high performance socket implementation (JFS)

Programming, Composing, Deploying for the Grid

Grids raise new challenges in the following way: heterogeneity of underlying machines/networks and runtime environments (types and performance characteristics), not a single administrative domain, versatility. So the need to have appropriate programming and runtime solutions in order to write, deploy then execute applications on such heterogeneous distributed hardware in an effective and efficient manner. We propose in this article a solution to those challenges which takes the form of a programming and deployment framework featuring parallel, mobile, secure and distributed objects and components

Ensconsin/Map7 promotes microtubule growth and centrosome separation in Drosophila neural stem cells.

International audienceThe mitotic spindle is crucial to achieve segregation of sister chromatids. To identify new mitotic spindle assembly regulators, we isolated 855 microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) from Drosophila melanogaster mitotic or interphasic embryos. Using RNAi, we screened 96 poorly characterized genes in the Drosophila central nervous system to establish their possible role during spindle assembly. We found that Ensconsin/MAP7 mutant neuroblasts display shorter metaphase spindles, a defect caused by a reduced microtubule polymerization rate and enhanced by centrosome ablation. In agreement with a direct effect in regulating spindle length, Ensconsin overexpression triggered an increase in spindle length in S2 cells, whereas purified Ensconsin stimulated microtubule polymerization in vitro. Interestingly, ensc-null mutant flies also display defective centrosome separation and positioning during interphase, a phenotype also detected in kinesin-1 mutants. Collectively, our results suggest that Ensconsin cooperates with its binding partner Kinesin-1 during interphase to trigger centrosome separation. In addition, Ensconsin promotes microtubule polymerization during mitosis to control spindle length independent of Kinesin-1