Introduction to Julia for High Performance Computing

Aug 18, 2026, 9:00 AM → Aug 21, 2026, 12:00 PM Europe/Berlin

Building: 133, Room: 1.03 (1st floor), Weyertal 121, IT Center University of Cologne (ITCC) and online

This course introduces Julia as a modern, expressive, and high-performance programming language that bridges the gap between productivity and computational efficiency. Participants will learn how to write elegant and performant code in Julia.

Topics

• Programming fundamentals in Julia
• Duck typing and multiple dispatch
• Generic programming
• Serial code optimization
• SIMD vectorization
• Multi-threaded parallelization
• Distributed computing
• GPU programming
• Machine learning with Julia

Through interactive lectures, hands-on exercises, and Q&A sessions, participants will gain the knowledge and practical experiences to program Julia code efficiently on the state-of-the-art HPC systems at the Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing.

Speakers

• Prof. Dr. Stefan Wesner (ITCC – IT Center University of Cologne)
• Viktor Achter (ITCC – IT Center University of Cologne)
• Alex Wiens (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)
• Xin Wu (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

Organizer

• M.A. Jutta Schneider (ITCC – IT Center University of Cologne)

Prerequisites

• Strong interest to dive into Julia (most important)
• Basic knowledge in any programming languages
• Ideally, familiarity with basic Julia syntax

Course Format

• on-site in person (lectures, tutorials, and Q&A)
• online course (only lectures)

Course Venue

• For on-site participation
  
  Building: 133
  Room: 1.03 (1st Floor)
  Weyertal 121
  IT Center University of Cologne (ITCC)
  D-50931 Cologne

• The campus map can be found here.

Additional Information

• For the Hands-on Tutorial, please bring your own laptop (Windows, macOS, or Linux).
• This course is free of cost for members of German universities or publicly-funded research institutions. Please register the course using your university/institution e-mail address.
• The number of seats is limited and the allocation of seats is done by the organizer.

This course is funded by Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing (PC2), IT Center University of Cologne (ITCC), the NHR alliance, and the competence network HPC.nrw.

Tuesday, August 18

9:00 AM → 12:00 PM Day 1: Morning

9:00 AM Welcome!

Speaker: Prof. Stefan Wesner (IT Center University of Cologne)

9:15 AM Introduction to Julia for HPC

Speaker: Alex Wiens (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

10:45 AM Break

11:00 AM Hands-on: Basics in Julia

Speakers: Alex Wiens (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing) , Xin Wu (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

12:00 PM → 1:30 PM Lunch Break

1:30 PM → 5:00 PM Day 1: Afternoon

1:30 PM Workflow in Julia

Speaker: Alex Wiens (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

3:00 PM Break

3:15 PM Fast Code

Speaker: Xin Wu (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

4:15 PM Hands-on: Julia on HPC System

Speakers: Alex Wiens (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing) , Xin Wu (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

6:30 PM → 8:30 PM Social Dinner (self-paid): Venue TBD, near the ITCC, University of Cologne

Wednesday, August 19

9:00 AM → 12:00 PM Day 2: Morning

9:00 AM Performance Optimization

Speaker: Alex Wiens (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

10:30 AM Break

10:45 AM Hands-on: Write Performant Julia Code

Speakers: Alex Wiens (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing) , Xin Wu (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

12:00 PM → 1:30 PM Lunch Break

1:30 PM → 5:00 PM Day 2: Afternoon

1:30 PM HPC Tour at IT Center University of Cologne

Speaker: Viktor Achter (IT Center University of Cologne)

3:00 PM Multi-threading in Julia

Speaker: Xin Wu (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

4:00 PM Hands-on: Multi-threaded Julia Code

Speakers: Alex Wiens (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing) , Xin Wu (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

Thursday, August 20

9:00 AM → 12:00 PM Day 3: Morning

9:00 AM Distributed Computing in Julia

Speaker: Alex Wiens (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

10:30 AM Break

10:45 AM Hands-on: Parallel Julia code

Speakers: Alex Wien (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing) , Xin Wu (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

12:00 PM → 1:30 PM Lunch Break

1:30 PM → 5:00 PM Day 3: Afternoon

1:30 PM GPU Programming

Speaker: Xin Wu (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

3:00 PM Break

3:20 PM Hands-on: GPU-accelerated Julia Code

Speakers: Alex Wiens (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing) , Xin Wu (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

Friday, August 21

9:00 AM → 12:00 PM Day 4: Morning

9:00 AM Machine Learning in Julia

Speaker: Xin Wu (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

10:00 AM Break

10:20 AM Hands-on: Machine Learning with Flux.jl

Speakers: Alex Wiens (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing) , Xin Wu (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)

11:30 AM Q&A for Julia on HPC

Speakers: Alex Wiens (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing) , Xin Wu (Paderborn University, Paderborn Center for Parallel Computing)