Final Report Guidelines

This page contains information about format, content, and how to submit your final report. Another page is provided to offer assistance writing your final report.

Every team is required to submit a Hard Copy version of the final report and an electronic copy of the final report via e-mail -- e.g. as a Microsoft Word document attached to an e-mail message to consult@challenge.nm.org.

Teams are further encouraged (but not required) to produce an HTML version of the final report. An award for the "Best HTML Version of a Final Report" will be given during the Awards Day activities.

Every team must submit a Hard Copy final report in either Category A (to compete for prizes) or Category B (to get feedback to use toward completing the project the following year). Each team that registers in the fall must submit either a Category A or Category B report. All reports must arrive in HARD-COPY form (no faxes) at New Mexico Technet no later than NOON on Wednesday, April 4, 2001. Mail your submissions to:

New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge
New Mexico Technet, Inc.
5921 Jefferson, N.E.
Albuquerque, NM 87109

Your report should focus on your project rather than on the experiences of your team. The report must show that you conducted a scientific investigation, obtained results, and arrived at some conclusions. Be sure to include the following:

• an executive summary that is shorter than one page
• a statement of the problem that you have investigated
• a description of the method you used to solve your problem
• the results of your study
• the conclusions you reached by analyzing your results
• the software, references, tables, and other products of your work
• your most significant original achievement on the project
• an acknowledgment of the people and organizations that helped you

Be sure to follow the rules that govern the submittal of final reports so that your team is not disqualified. Please keep a copy of your report in case any problems arise in delivering it or copying it for the judges. Also note that, if you are selected to be a finalist team, you will need to bring a camera-ready copy of your report to Los Alamos when you do your presentation for the judges. Camera-ready means that the printing is of good enough quality to reproduce well. A fax is not acceptable. Please follow these guidelines for your report:

• Use 8.5- by 11-inch paper.
• Allow one-inch margins at the top, bottom, and sides.
• Place a binder clip at the top left corner. (Please do not use any other form of binding for the report - No Staples!)