Background visual: a 3D landscape representing gradient descent, inspired by the 2026–2027 Challenge t-shirt artwork.
Welcome to the 37th Annual
Supercomputing Challenge
Optimizing for greatness.
A year-long research competition where New Mexico students turn curiosity into computational research.
Grades 4–12 · Teams statewide · $40/student
Who it’s for
Empowering the next generation of innovators through high-performance computing.
The Supercomputing Challenge is an exciting program that offers a truly unique experience to students in our state. The opportunity to work on the most powerful computers in the world is currently available to only a very few students in the entire United States.
In New Mexico, it is just one of the benefits of living in the Land of Enchantment. We are dedicated to helping produce the high-tech workforce of the future by having students tackle the problems of today and tomorrow.
- Grades 4–12 — middle and high school students statewide
- No prior programming experience required
- Work with mentors from labs, universities & industry
- All skill levels welcome
Student project
2026 Expo · First place
Dust Busters
The Effects of Dust Scattering on Observations of X-Ray Binaries
Los Alamos High School student research that used computational modeling to better understand what distant X-ray observations are really telling us.
- Student researcher
- Tate Plohr
- Sponsor
- JeeYeon Plohr
- Mentor
- Greg Salvesen
Student project topics
Explore topic ideas
A rotating sample of three fields — browse all eight on the topics hub.
Testimonials
Ideas. Innovation. Impact.
Hear from Challenge participants, teachers, and alumni about the impact of computational science in New Mexico.
