2026-08-13 –, Room 5
In this talk, I reflect on my experience designing, delivering, and openly releasing a university course — High Performance Computing in Julia — whose materials have since benefitted learners around the world in developing their skills with the language.
I will begin with the story behind the course: why Julia was the natural choice for teaching high-performance computing, and how the course developed over the years of teaching. From there, I will offer a practical account of what it takes to build an online course, the software choices considered and used, along with alternative approaches that other educators may prefer.
Whether you are an educator considering Julia for your own teaching, or a community member thinking about sharing your expertise through educational material online, this talk should have something interesting for you.
The talk will give a background on the High Performance Computing in Julia course, its aims and a description of its structure.
I will then dive into the technical details of how the course is put together, covering, but not limited to:
- Producing and publishing online lecture notes
- Creating animations and visual aids using code
- Recording, editing and publishing videos
- Distributing and marking assessments
In each of these topics, I will provide the software and techniques used, as well as the alternatives considered that may be more applicable to other educators.
Dr. Jamie Mair is a Research & Teaching Fellow at the University of Nottingham. He teaches courses to undergraduates and postgraduates on the topic of High Performance Computing and Reinforcement Learning. Throughout his research career, Jamie has advocated for the use of Julia in academic research, and has published several research packages in Julia. He has delivered several talks and presentations aiming to introduce Julia to a wider audience.
Jamie received his PhD in Machine Learning and Statistical Physics, along with his BSc in Theoretical Physics from the University of Nottingham.