If you want your students to
Then your school will want to participate in the Supercomputing Challenge. The Challenge is organized and administered by Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, and academic, research and high-technology organizations. The Challenge draws teams of middle schoo and high school students who learn to model important real-world problems and explore computational approaches to their solutions.
Here are some sample questions teams might wish to answer: How can we better protect our society from hackers? Is our county going to run out of water? Does is rain more on weekends? How does snow pack affect river flow? What effect do forest fires have on ecosystems? Can we predict tsunamis? Is there a more efficient way to distribute food in sub Saharan Africa? How does wearing a mask help prevent the spread of a virus? How can self-care help in the prevention of disease? What is the likelihood that the deer population in Bandelier will run out of grassland?
Teams from around the state participate to learn about the challenges facing their environment, to better understand properties of the physical universe, to look at trends in the social sciences that have implications for their own lives, and to develop useful career preparation skills such as teamwork, oral, written and visual communication, problem solving, and project follow-through. After teams have selected a problem to work on, they choose a programming language that is appropriate for the kind of modeling and visualization they think their project requires. In the past, some teams chose Java, Python, or C++ to implement computational models. Other teams elected to model complex systems using agent based modeling with StarLogo TNG/Nova or NetLogo.
The Challenge Year begins with registration in September and a Kickoff Conference in October. The year continues with a Project Proposal due in December, an Interim report in early February, Project Evaluations in late February, and Final Project Presentations and Awards Ceremony in April in Albuquerque or at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Throughout the year, scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico State University, New Mexico Tech, University of New Mexico and technology and business companies, mentor students and teacher-sponsors to provide initial and ongoing training in computational methods and scientific modeling. They evaluate project ideas, steer student teams towards successful completion of their work, and evaluate projects at mid-term and final judging events.
Costs are minimal for students: major funding comes from the National Labs and other businesses and individual sponsors.
To register, to find out more about our sponsors, to see past student projects, to read about the awards, prizes and scholarships presented at the Awards Ceremony, or to see if your school has participated in the past, visit our website at https://supercomputingchallenge.org. Please write to consult @ supercomputingchallenge.org if you have questions or would like to receive more information. Online registration is at https://supercomputingchallenge.org
As New Mexico addresses its workforce needs for the 21st century, it has become obvious that the 11,000 plus students who have participated in the Challenge are better prepared to plan for careers in the high-tech industry. Colleges and employers seek the skills that Challenge participants develop. We hope that you will encourage your students to form teams and
Take the Challenge!