Seneca First Canadian college to be named CUDA Teaching Center

Toronto, July 6, 2012 – Seneca is the first Canadian college to be named a CUDA® Teaching Center by NVIDIA, the world leader in visual and high performance computing. As a CUDA Teaching Center, Seneca will provide students in its School of Information and Communications Technology the opportunity to expand on their software development skills.

CUDA is NVIDIA’s parallel computing platform that enables dramatic increases in computing performance by harnessing the power of the graphics processing unit (GPU). CUDA is currently being taught in more than 580 universities and institutions around the world, and CUDA Teaching Centers are recognized institutions that have integrated GPU computing techniques into their mainstream computer programming curricula.

Seneca was named a CUDA Teaching Center based on faculty commitment to advancing parallel computing education using CUDA and to the teaching of the C/C++ programming skills required by CUDA. Seneca also has capacity for innovative research in the field of GPU-accelerated computing and will be seeking research partners.

“Seneca’s programs are kept current through our relationships with industry leaders, like NVIDIA,” said Dr. Christine Bradaric-Baus, Dean of the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering Technology at Seneca. “As a CUDA Teaching Center, Seneca students will continue to be taught on the latest technology in a dynamic field.”

Among the benefits of the CUDA Teaching Center program are the donation of teaching kits, including textbooks, software licenses and NVIDIA CUDA architecture-enabled GPUs for teaching lab computers, as well as academic discounts for additional hardware. More information is available on the CUDA Teaching Center Program website.

“The CUDA GPUs that Seneca has received from NVIDIA will fully equip a lab with this technology. Seneca Professor Dr. Chris Szalwinski is developing a new course for our diploma and degree students and will deliver it in the fall semester,” said Mary-Lynn Manton, Chair of the School of Information and Communications Technology at Seneca. “Students in all of our computer studies programs will now have the opportunity to learn this important extension to the C/C++ programming languages.”

“The use of GPU computing to drive research and discovery across a broad range of scientific and engineering fields worldwide continues to grow dramatically,” said David Luebke, senior director of research at NVIDIA. “The commitment that Seneca is demonstrating toward CUDA in education will be critical in their mission to help prepare the next wave of programmers.”

With campuses across the Greater Toronto Area, Seneca offers degrees, diplomas and graduate certificates renowned for their quality and respected by employers. Combining the highest academic standards with practical, hands-on learning, expert teaching faculty and the latest technology ensures Seneca graduates are career-ready.

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