comp464
COMP 364/464 - High Performance Computing
Loyola University Chicago — Fall 2026
Cross-listed as COMP 364 (undergraduate) and COMP 464 (graduate). Project requirements differ depending on the section you are enrolled in.
Syllabus
Course syllabus, v2.0
For questions
Course details and material discussion are on Piazza. This is the preferred channel for anything course-related.
For anything involving personal information, please email me.
Logistics
| Schedule | Wednesdays, 7:00–9:30 PM |
| Location | Remote, over Zoom |
| Office hours | Wednesdays 6:15–7:00 PM, plus appointments via Calendly |
| Prerequisite | COMP 413 |
| Contact | mcornelius@luc.edu |
Classes are usually recorded, but recordings are not guaranteed — plan to attend synchronously. Exams are held in person barring extenuating circumstances arranged with me well in advance.
Grading
| Component | Weight |
|---|---|
| Midterm | 25% |
| Final | 25% |
| Project 1 — systems survey | 10% |
| Project 2 — programming and performance | 15% |
| Project 3 — capstone | 25% |
Grades are curved. Example exams and solutions are provided at each review session, and project rubrics and examples are posted.
Schedule
This schedule is subject to change; changes are announced in class and on Piazza. Materials are posted here as the term progresses.
| Week | Date | Topic | Reading | HW | Projects | Materials |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Aug 26 | Intro to the class + planning questionnaire | — | — | — | slides |
| 02 | Sep 2 | Intro to HPC: architectures, networks, topics overview | — | — | slides | |
| 03 | Sep 9 | Networks and architectures (cont.) + Linux, finalize | R1 | Project 1 announced | slides | |
| 04 | Sep 16 | Parallel programming (intro) | R2 | |||
| 05 | Sep 23 | Parallel programming (OpenMP) | R3 | slides | ||
| 06 | Sep 30 | Parallel programming (MPI) | Project 1 due; Projects 2 and 3 announced | slides | ||
| 07 | Oct 7 | Performance monitoring + midterm review | Project 2B assigned (Oct 10); Project 3 assigned (Oct 12) | practice problems, answers, Piazza | ||
| 08 | Oct 14 | Midterm | — | |||
| 09 | Oct 21 | Virtualization in HPC | R6 | Project 2A due (Oct 24) | ||
| 10 | Oct 28 | Data in HPC + security | R7 | Project 3 check-in due (Oct 28); Project 2B due (Oct 31) | ||
| 11 | Nov 4 | Fault tolerance | R8 | |||
| 12 | Nov 11 | AI in HPC | R9 | |||
| 13 | Nov 18 | Open — possible guest speaker | R10 | Project work time | ||
| 14 | Nov 25 | Thanksgiving break | R11 (optional) | — | ||
| 15 | Dec 2 | Wrap-up, presentations, final review | — | — | Project 3 due at final exam (date TBA) |
Readings are posted to Piazza the week before the lecture they accompany, with links to the materials. No material is assigned over breaks.
Projects
| Project | Part | Description | Assigned | Due |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | — | Survey of networks and architectures in modern HPC | Sep 9 | Sep 30 |
| 2 | A | Parallel programming: counting queens (stub code, Piazza) | Sep 30 | Oct 24 |
| 2 | B | Performance monitoring: counting queens with /proc and perf | Oct 10 | Oct 31 |
| 3 | — | Capstone HPC project: check-in (plan and drafts) | Oct 12 | Oct 28 |
| 3 | — | Capstone HPC project: final report, code, and run package | Oct 12 | Final exam date (TBA) |
All deadlines are 11:59 PM AoE. Project 3 runs the rest of the term and may be done alone or in a pair.
Resources
- M. van Steen and A. S. Tanenbaum, Distributed Systems, 4th ed., 2023 — referenced occasionally and available free from the authors
Late work
Each late day reduces an assignment’s grade by 50%. Students have three no-questions-asked late-credits, each granting a 24-hour extension. These cannot be used on exams, but apply freely to other deadlines unless stated otherwise. Let me know when you use one.