I am always looking for highly motivated and skilled PhD students who are highly motivated to do research. Please see my website for a list of my current students and alumni.

Research Projects

We have a number of ongoing, exciting projects in the Parallel Programming Models for High Performance Computing research group such as the Parallelization using Inspector/Executor Strategies (PIES) project and the Separating Algorithm and Implementation via programming Model Injection (SAIMI) project. Many of these projects involve developing performance programming abstractions for sparse computations that occur in molecular dynamics simulations, finite element methods, and other algorithms such as PageRank, which is used by the Google Internet search engine.

Training Students for Research Careers

The goal for a graduate student is to contribute to the field of computer science by solving sub problems that have not been solved before or by solving sub problems in a novel way. A PhD indicates that a person is able to frame a research problem of interest, create a novel approach for solving that problem, carry out the solution to the problem, thoroughly evaluate the results, AND effectively communicate the problem, context, approach, and expected evaluation throughout the whole process. In computer science research communication takes the form of conference papers, journal papers, technical reports, talks, posters, user and developer manuals for software, and weekly progress reports. Students in my group are trained to do all of the above through weekly one-on-one research meetings, group research meetings, and ad hoc meetings initiated by students or myself.

Typical Research Student

Successful research students in the Parallel Programming Models for HPC research group typically fit the following criteria:

• They have a strong background in Computer Science with systems courses such as compilers, parallel programming, operating systems, networking, and architecture and core courses such as programming languages and algorithms.
• They are willing to work hard. Research can be very rewarding, but it has its long stretches of frustration as well.
• They have a strong interest in developing programming abstractions for use in scientific computing. My students have done internships at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL), Cray, and Intel.
• Before joining the research group, they read papers written by the group.
• They have good communication skills so they are able to effectively communicate their research to others in writing and orally.
• They understand the RTFM (Read the Fine Manual) concept. We use tools such as various programming languages, latex, subversion, project management systems, performance analysis tools, debuggers, valgrind, unit testing frameworks, etc. on a day-to-day basis. Students in my group are expected to navigate the learning curves for such tools in an efficient manner and then teach more junior students.

Apply to Graduate School at CSU

Admittance to the Ph.D. program in computer science at Colorado State University is competitive. Each new Ph.D. student is matched with an advisor and is placed on a standard track of expectations where one of the benefits is 5 years of guaranteed funding. Our department has a number of ongoing funded projects and students who start working with one advisor but find another research passion are encouraged and supported by the department to work with the most appropriate advisor. Your success as a Ph.D. student helps the department to be more successful and most importantly leads to important research contributions.

All applicants to the Computer Science Graduate program must fill out a free pre-application. After you have submitted your application, I would be happy to receive an email from you indicating how you fit the above criteria. I receive many emails from prospective graduate students, so please be succinct in your explanation for why you would like to join my group. More information on the Graduate Program in Computer Science at Colorado State University can be obtained by sending email to gradinfo@cs.colostate.edu.

Michelle Strout, mstrout@cs.colostate.edu .... January 19, 2012