Kickoff Conference

The Kickoff Conference at the New Mexico Tech in Socorro will be held on October 15-16.

For each student and teacher attending the Kickoff, the Supercomputing Challenge will provide room and board. Attendance at the Kickoff is not required for participation in the Challenge. Attendance at the Kickoff will be limited to 300 students.

Keynote speaker

Dr. Edward Martinez will talk about "Climate Change in New Mexico: Water Resources, Flora and Fauna". He is an associate professor in the Natural Resources Management department at New Mexico Highlands University. Originally from northern, N.M., he earned his Bachelor of Science in environmental science from New Mexico Highlands University in 1994, a masters in environmental and regional planning in 1998, and a doctorate in environmental and natural resource sciences from Washington State University, Pullman in 2000.

He did his postdoc at Washington State University with the Department of Natural Resources and with the School of Veterinary Science from 2001-2002. He was an assistant professor at California State University-Sacramento from 2002-2005. From 2005 to the present he has worked as a professor in the Department of Natural Resources Management at NMHU.

Dr. Martinez's research interests are in the multidisciplinary fields of environmental science. Specifically in heavy metal impacts of aquatic systems, lake restoration and management, stream characterization and restoration and heavy metal toxicity of aquatic insects.

Dr. Martinez is also interested in STEM education and is currently the PD of numerous STEM education grants from various granting agencies such as the USDA-HSI program, the US Department of Education, and NSF EPSCoR program.

Here are the slides from Dr. Martinez's talk.

Schedule

The general schedule. Here are the detailed schedules.

Housing

Housing will be provided at local hotels in Socorro on a first come first served basis.

• Comfort Inn housing list: Aspen, Chaparral High, Cleveland, Desert Academy, La Cueva, Las Cruces, Los Alamos High, Los Alamos Mid, Mayfield, Miyamura, NMWiC, Navajo Prep, Pinion, School of Dreams Academy, Shiprock, Zuni.
• Econo Lodge housing list: ATC, Albuquerque High, CEPi1, Melrose, Mesa Mid, Picacho, Sandia Prep, The Masters Program
• Super 8 housing list: AIMS@UNM, Alamogordo, Artesia, Bernalillo, Chaparral Mid, Down to Earth School, Edgewood Elementary, Edgewood Mid, Escalante, Espanola Valley, Freedom, Grants, Hatch Valley, Jackson, Little Earth School, Manzano, NM School for the Arts, Quemado, Rio Rancho Cyber Academy, Robertson, Santa Fe Indian School, Sat Sci & Math Acad, St. Pius X, The Ask Academy.

Proposals

Remember that Supercomputing Challenge teams need to bring a Proposal with you to the Kickoff. See Proposal hints. A Proposal template is to be filled out for each team, unless they are following the GUTS curriculum.

Class materials

To learn more about previous years' kickoffs, visit our archive