The winners of the 2008–2009 Open Education Cup were announced by Connexions, in co-operation with the Ken Kennedy Institute for Information Technology at Rice University. The competition, introduced during the SC08 conference, challenged educators and researchers to produce open access education and training modules on various aspects of high performance computing. The winners, Tim Stitt, Ph.D., of the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) and Kenneth Leroy Busbee of Houston Community College, each received $500 cash prizes.

Tim Stitt is the category winner for "Parallel Programming Models and Languages". His module, 'An Introduction to the Partitioned Global Address Space (PGAS) Programming Model', impressed the judges as a cogent description of an important programming methodology. "We were very appreciative of the quality of his explanations, and particularly liked the up-to-date material about the Asynchronous PGAS languages at the end of the module", stated Jan Odegard, the Open Education Cup leader. Tim Stitt is the author of seven Connexions modules and one Connexions collection.

Tim Stitt was also awarded the prize for Best Overall Module for his module "An Introduction to the Partitioned Global Address Space (PGAS) Programming Model". The prize for the award is an Nvidia C1060 card. "In terms of clarity, content, and topicality, this module stood out from the rest", stated Jan Odegard.

PRACE's training and education programme aims to prepare and initiate a sustainable and comprehensive European HPC education and training programme encompassing summer schools, winter schools, training workshops and training material. The Open Educaton Cup initiative was sponsored by BP, WesternGeco, Nvidia, Total, Sun and Chevron.