Weekly News Flashes
Wednesday Morning Message, January 18, 2012
February Evaluations
The Schedule for Project Evaluations is up on the Challenge web site at
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/evaluations
Remember to check the site during the week your school is scheduled for
changes. It is best if your whole team can participate but at least one or
two team members should present.
Scholarships
Seniors have received a mailing about Challenge Scholarship Applications.
There is a link on the web site that describes the scholarships and application
process:
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/expo/scholarships.shtml
Sandia and UNM Tours
Consult will be taking signups for the March 5th Tours in February.
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/archive/11-12/sandiatour
More information will be coming soon.
Summer Teacher Institute
Again this summer we plan to hold a two-week long Summer Teacher Institute
at New Mexico Tech in Socorro. The dates will be July 15th to July 27th.
Keep up the good work. We are looking forward to seeing you in February.
Betsy, Celia, and David for Consult
Monday Morning Message, January 9, 2012
Good Day!
Interim Reports
We are continuing to work on the Interim Report Wiki and will try to get it
rolling by next week. UNM and Tech students, scientists, mathematicians, educators
and programmers will log into the Wiki and leave you comments about the progress
of your project. You then can converse with them about their suggestions and
ask any questions.
January: Peer Evaluation Month
Invite your parents in to hear about your project. Present to the school
board and share the Challenge process and your project with them. Ask your
principal to sit in on a presentation of your project.
February Face to Face Evaluation at a College Near You
The schedules are subject to change so please check
back OFTEN during the week of your evaluation for last minute changes.
- Friday, February 10 - San Juan College, Farmington
- Saturday, February 11 - New Mexico State University, Las Cruces
- Saturday, February 11 - Santa Fe Community College
- Saturday, February 11 - Eastern New Mexico University, Portales
- Saturday, February 18 - New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas
- Saturday, February 18 - Northern New Mexico College - Espanola
- Saturday, February 18 - University of New Mexico - Albuquerque
- Saturday, March 3 - New Mexico Tech, Socorro
Here is the link to the form that you will receive as you finish your presentation. Please note that it has four sections the judges will refer to.
- research
- agent based problem/mathematical model
- code
- presentation
Judging Form
Coding/Programming Assistance
We have mentors standing by you can help your team with your programming needs.
Please write to consult @ challenge dot nm dot org for assistance in StarLogo TNG,
NetLogo, Python, Java, etc.
EPSCoR (New Mexico's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) Hydrology and Climate Modeling
A central research challenge of NM EPSCoR is to understand how future changes
in seasonal temperature and precipitation will impact snowpack, snowmelt and
spring runoff in the mountainous region of north central New Mexico. Read more at
http://nmepscor.org/content/hydrology-and-climate-modeling
Supercomputingly yours,
Betsy, Celia and David
Management Team for Consult
Monday Afternoon Message, January 2, 2012
Happy New Year!
Interim Reports
We are proud of those of you who have placed their interim reports up on our
website. We are going to try a more public way of sharing your fantastic work.
Jesse Crawford, NMT Cadre Member, has created a Wiki for us all to use. You
will need to get an account so that you can read the comments on your project
and respond to the questions and suggestions. Details will soon follow. We
are hoping that this is a great way to showcase our work and allow experts to
comment on your projects also.
Congratulations to the Challenge's own Stephen Guerin, mentor, facilitator and board member
Simtable Returns to TIME Magazine's Techland for "5 Cool Inventions" List
First featured on the site in June, SimTable's flagship wildfire training
system returns for Top-5 honors in TIME magazine's tech blog's 2011 best-of list.
The brainchild of Stephen Guerin, Santa Fe Complex founder, Simtable developed
in the Complex's unique training-and-entrepreneurship environment. After attracting
start-up money from LANL's Venture Acceleration Fund, Simtable opened its own
offices in 2011, and has now sold more than 20 sand table units to firefighting
and emergency management organizations around the country.
Read the TIME articles
here and
here,
or visit simtable.com.
Resource Page on Website
There are good links alphabetically from Careers to Writing Reports on our
resource page.
Volunteer, Kathy Pallis, editor at LANL, has weeded and organized
the links for your use. One link is Summer Opportunities for students.
Summer Opportunities
It is not too early to start thinking about your summer plans. You can find
some suggestions for camps, internships and jobs at
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/resources. Keep checking back for more opps.
January is Peer Evaluation Month
Click
here for
more info on this activity.
Anita Nugent, teacher-sponsor at Santa Fe High, first proposed this event
to the Challenge community. Here is how she describes it:
"I initiated the peer review many years ago. I ask students to bring
in scientists, parents, etc and also have the students there. I have a rubric
for judging which includes the topic, student knowledge of the topic, student
dress, the powerpoint presentation, etc. The students present their projects
just as they would in April, except they are interim, not final. They then are
asked questions by the audience. Some parents are very aggressive - so be it.
I also ask the audience to give constructive criticism, not destructive. Often
a parent agrees to help the students with their presentation. The students
receive all the feedback sheets, including one I fill out. I videotape them
and let them watch themselves, as well. The presentations usually last about
ten minutes with 5-10 minutes for questions. It is quite a "heads up" for them."
Heads Up for February Face to Face Evaluations
Team members will make an oral presentation, not to exceed 30 minutes, to a
team of Challenge judges so that the judges can better understand their project,
review progress and offer advice and direction on overcoming obstacles or finding
additional resources.
NOTE: All team members do not have to be present - but it is highly recommended
that they be there if not competing elsewhere.
Why Supercomputing?
Here is a link to a video called
Powerful Beyond Imagination
for your perusal.
Scholarship applications will be due the end of February. Details to come.
Seniors, stay tuned!
Supercomputingly yours,
Betsy, Celia and David
Management Team for Consult
Monday Morning Message, December 12, 2011
Happy Holidays,
Consult will take a two week hiatus from our Monday Morning Message. We will
be back on January 2nd.
Wishing you health and happiness this holiday season and prosperity in the
new year. We value our students, cadres and teachers and want to thank you for
being part of our community. We look forward to supporting you in 2012!
All the best to you, your family, and your teams!
BotBall at SODA (Schools of Dreams Academy, Los Lunas, Challenge Participants also)
The KISS Institute is pleased to announce that the Beta Autonomous Aerial
Vehicle Contest was a success Saturday Dec. 3th, 2011.
4th Place Team SODA Chloe (High School Level) - Los Lunas, NM
5th Place Team SODA Zack (High School Level) - Los Lunas, NM
The goal of the Autonomous Aerial Vehicle Contest was to more widely introduce
the concept, capabilities and study of autonomous rotor-craft vehicles to the
college and secondary school communities. The contest serves as an emphasizes
on planning, control, sensing, and system level problem solving; All required
when working with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and hybrid ground / UAV systems.
See pictures at:
http://botball.org/story/2011/12/05/autonomous-aerial-vehicle-contest-results-norman-ok
Interim Reports
We currently have 74 reports and we are hoping that the remaining 39 come
in this week. We are going to place your interim report up on a wiki and then
have either a cadre member, Challenge facilitator, mentor or scientist give you
some feedback by mid January. This public review will allow other scientists to
respond to your topic, allow you to look at other projects and allow consult to
see who needs some additional information. We are hoping that this process will
give your team even more feedback.
Summer Opportunity for 11 graders
RESEARCH SCIENCE INSTITUTE
The Center for Excellence in Education (CEE) and Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) co-sponsors of the Research Science Institute (RSI) are looking
for talented 11th Grade STEM Students! Do you know any students who want to work
on really exciting cutting-edge summer research?
Have them apply to the (RSI) program to be held on the MIT campus June 24 to
August 4, 2012. They will meet some of the world's most talented students and
have an opportunity to conduct research in amazing labs! If you know any current
high school juniors, have them take a look at the CEE web site:
www.cee.org for RSI application materials,
and more information about the program.
If you have any questions, please contact Maite Ballestero, Vice President,
Programs, maite @ cee.org.
Data for your project?
Drew Einhorn, Challenge judge, mentor and mathematician, writes there is
much data here that may be useful for our teams
http://www.data.gov Write to him, drew.einhorn
@ gmail.com for assistance.
Why Use a Supercomputer?
Check out this project - "Tracking Wal-Marts to Make Better Maps" at
http://www.krellinst.org/csgf/doe-lab-practicum/practicum-profiles/david-potere
Potere says, With satellites transmitting complete images of Earth about
every 48 hours, we have so much information coming out of space right now -
more than a terabyte (one trillion bytes) of data per day - we need high
performance computers to sort through this."
Supercomputingly yours,
Betsy, Celia and David
Monday Morning Message, December 5, 2011
Happy December,
Snow, winds, cold temps and Challenge School visits all took place this past week
around the state. Thanks JP Gonzales for going to Taos, Tierra Amarilla, Farmington
and Shiprock.
Terri Hansen and Richard Oliver from NMSU met with Deming GUTS and
Challenge Team members and teachers from Red Mountain Mid School last
Thursday. The workshop was held in Las Cruces at Dona Ana Community
College. Project development, programming practice, offline activities,
plus lots of questions and a great lunch of enchiladas as guests of the
college made for a great day. It was finals time for the college students
and the staff was making sure everyone was well-fed and ready!
Interim Reports
We are looking into the idea of putting the Interim Reports onto
wiki so that scientists could comment on them there and a record
could be kept in feedback and discussion about the project.
Your team's interim report is due, this Saturday, the 10th. We already have six
reports submitted. We are looking forward to having 106 more! Please cite your
current research and share your mentors' names. For more info, please visit
http://challenge.nm.org/archive/11-12/interims
Assistance with Programming for your Team
We have Cadre members standing by who would like to visit with you online about the
modeling portion of your project. We have volunteers who can help with any computer
language. Like a college professor, they have certain virtual office hours, set for
consultation. Please write to Consult @ challenge.nm.org for an appointment.
Drought
Carl Bogardus, Chaparral Middle School, shares this drought map with us
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/smart-takes/this-is-what-drought-looks-like-in-the-us-map/20723?tagl.e660
Computer Science Week
Why Computer Science Education?
CSEdWeek 2011, taking place December 4 to 10, is a celebration of computer science
education. But why are we celebrating computer science education? Computer science
education is essential to exposing students to critical thinking and problem
solving; instilling a foundation of understanding of computational thinking, a key
to success in the digital age; inspiring students to pursue computing careers that
are exciting, plentiful and financially rewarding; and, perhaps most importantly,
preparing students to tackle some of the world's greatest challenges. Find out more
http://www.csedweek.org/about
and don't forget to Pledge Your Support to CSEdWeek
http://www.csedweek.org/forms/sign/pledge-step1
and let us know how you are celebrating the week.
The National Science Foundation, in support of the celebration, announced its
rollout of CS Bits & Bytes
http://www.nsf.gov/cise/csbytes/,
a biweekly newsletter highlighting innovative computer science research aimed at
high school teachers and students. NSF will release CS Bits & Bytes biweekly,
beginning on December 5 and continue publication through the end of the 2011/2012
academic year. NSF hopes that educators and parents will use CS Bits & Bytes to
inspire students to engage in the multifaceted world of computer science, to become
not just users but creators of technology, and to develop the abilities to utilize
computation skills, no matter what their interests.
Resources: Event Planning Toolkit
http://www.csedweek.org/site/page/event-planning-toolkit
Five-Minute Activity Guide
http://www.csedweek.org/m/c/yt5zjm4g/hhvqrzfs/bgyjmmzy
WE WANT YOU ... to hold an event celebrating CSEdWeek in your area! Are you
wondering where to start and how to plan it? CSEdWeek has a toolkit
http://www.csedweek.org/site/page/event-planning-toolkit to help.
And, let us know what you're planning on doing to celebrate CSEdWeek. We'd love to
profile your local event in this newsletter. Tell us about it!
http://www.csedweek.org/forms/sign/pledge-step1
Here's what our friends in Massachusetts are up to thanks to CAITE
http://www.caite.info
Computer Science Makes a Comeback
The message seems to be getting through in some quarters: It pays to study computer
science.
PC World reports
http://www.csedweek.org/m/c/yt5zjm4g/hhvqrzfs/ylrbkcpr that the
computer science major is getting hot again, at least at some of
the country's top colleges. Professors at Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Harvey
Mudd and the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology are seeing a surge in students
declaring majors in computer science. (All four colleges top US News and World
Report's list of the best comp sci and engineering
programs). Read more ...
http://www.changetheequation.org/blog/computer-science-makes-comeback
Summer Opportunity
High school freshman, sophomores and juniors consider applying to attend the
Research Science Institute at MIT this summer. See the details at:
http://www.cee.org/research-science-institute
http://www.cee.org/academic-program
http://www.cee.org/apply-rsi
NASA Science News
NASA's biggest and most capable Mars rover ever left Earth this morning in a picture
perfect launch from Cape Canaveral. The new rover, named "Curiosity", is due to
reach the Red Planet in August 2012.
FULL STORY at
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/26nov_msllaunch
To learn more about Curiosity's landing site on Mars, check out the video "The
Strange Attraction of Gale Crater":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNqeftciRFA
Supercomputingly yours,
Betsy, Celia and David
Monday Morning Message, November 28, 2011
Participate in Computer Science Education Week in December!
Computer Science Education Week,
December 4 to 10, is fast approaching. Learn how you can find or host an event
in your region in this week-long, nationwide celebration of computing's impact
on our daily lives. CSEdWeek was established to address the crisis in computer
science education and to prepare students with the fundamental computer science
knowledge and skills they need for growing opportunities in 21st century careers.
CSEdWeek is an activity of ACM and the Computing
in the Core Coalition and is supported by many academic and industry organizations,
including the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT)
and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA).
Visit the CSEdWeek website to:
- obtain customized resources for students, teachers, parents and community, administrators and counselors, colleges and universities, and corporations
- find inspiration in descriptions of past and upcoming events
- make a pledge to take on an activity on behalf of computer science education
Last year, this successful week featured more than 300 events engaging students, parents, and teachers, and 1750 pledges of support. With your participation, we can make this year's CSEdWeek an even greater success.
Women in Computing Conference
The weekend of November 11-12, Albert Simon from Alamogordo High, Eric Brown
from School of Dreams in Los Lunas, a crew from NMSU and Betsy Frederick from
the Challenge attended the Grace Hopper Women in Computing Conference in Portland,
OR. Albert represented CSTA-NM at the K-12 Leadership meeting. NMSU Women in
Computing delegation included Rachel Jensen and Rebecca Galves who were accompanied
by students. The Conference promotes Computer Science and serves also as a site
to link students to graduate programs, internships, and employers. Teachers attended
workshops related to teaching Computer Science. Advocacy for increasing the number
of Computer Science offerings for students and preparation of teachers were K-12
strands. Ideas for CSEd Week were a major focus.
Computational Problem-solving Competition
The Computer Science Teachers Listserv sent this idea out to us:
The USACO is a national program that promotes excellence in computational
problem-solving at the high-school level through on-line training materials
and programming contests. This season, we plan to offer six on-line programming
contests:
Nov 11-14: November Contest
Dec 9-12: December Contest
Jan 6-9: January Contest
Feb 3-6: February Contest
Mar 2-5: March Contest
April: US Open (a proctored exam that serves as our "national championship")
Contests are free, open to all students, and available in three levels of
difficulty: bronze (novice), silver (intermediate), and gold (advanced). The
website (http://www.usaco.org) offers hundreds
of hours of free on-line training materials for students and teachers seeking
additional resources to help improve their algorithmic coding skills.
The very best students nationwide who excel in our contests will be invited to
attend the USACO summer training camp in early June, where they will receive
advanced instruction and the opportunity to compete for membership in the 4-person
team representing the USA at the International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI),
the most prestigious international computing competition at the high-school
level, held in 2012 in Milan, Italy.
For additional information, please see the website:
http://www.usaco.org or contact Brian Dean
(bcdean @ clemson.edu).
Interim Reports
Please let us know how it is going with your project by submitting an Interim
Report (by December 10th).
See http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/interims for details.
Science News
NASA's biggest and most capable Mars rover ever left Earth this morning in
a picture perfect launch from Cape Canaveral. The new rover, named "Curiosity",
is due to reach the Red Planet in August 2012.
FULL STORY at http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/26nov_msllaunch
To learn more about Curiosity's landing site on Mars, check out the video
"The Strange Attraction of Gale Crater":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNqeftciRFA
Curiosity has a rock-zapping laser machine, called ChemCam, that was developed
at Los Alamos National Laboratory:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/super-size-mars-rover-blasts-off-biggest-robotic-explorer-ever-built-to-roam-another-planet/2011/11/26/gIQAmSaoyN_story.html
Monday Morning Message, November 21, 2011
SC'11 Award and Panel
Cleve Moler, one of our Supercomputing Challenge judges, was presented with
the 2011 IEEE Computer Society Sidney Fernbach Award at SC'11 last week.
Read about it at: http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/moler
Irene Lee, David Kratzer, and Lorie Liebrock (NM Tech) along with Joe Ippolito
from Education Development Center and Nadine Miner from Sandia National
Laboratories presented a panel on Linking Education Pathways to Workforce
Needs.
Women in Technology Conference in Portland, OR
Betsy Frederick, Albert Simon, teacher from Alamogordo, and others attended
the CSTA Leadership Cohort and the Women in Technology Conference in Portland, OR
in early November. We're awaiting a report from them to share with you.
School Visits
Some schools have been visited recently by Challenge facilitators and the reports
back have been positive.
Other News?
Let us know what you are up to as well.
Happy Thanksgiving
Monday Afternoon Message, November 14, 2011
Report from SC'11
Jerry Esquivel from CEPi1 and Creighton Edington from School of Dreams
Academy, as well as David Kratzer and Bob Robey, are participating in the
Education Program of the International Supercomputing 2011 Conference
in Seattle, Washington. We are learning about new topics and making good
contacts for future use. We are looking for opportunities that we can share
with the Challenge participants. Like, where do our students go after they
have finished the Challenge? What else it there to do? Where else can they
go?
The keynote speaker this morning was Cecilia R. Aragon who gave a great
talk about the universe and has a very interesting history in becoming
who she is. Google her to see her YouTube video about being an aerobatic
pilot. She took a 14 year break before getting her PhD, but grew up as
a very shy Latina where her teachers did not expect much of her. People
will meet your expectations, so students, teachers, and others, expect
a lot of others (students, teammates, etc) and watch them perform.
Dr. Aragon says she succeeded by Overcoming Fear, Developing Self
Confidence, using Teachers, Mentors, and Friends in your journey.
The Supercomputing Challenge hopes that by participating, each of
the students will develop self confidence and over come the fear
of public speaking (at least) and get to know teachers better, get
to interact with and learn from mentors and to support and get
support from friends.
Proposal Reviews
Scientists have been busy reviewing proposals and sending emails to
the teams (from the "Mail the entire Team" link on the Proposals).
Interims
Remember, each Challenge team should be planning to write up their
Interim Report and submit it on line by December 10th. The Interims
should cover the research and progress that you have been making.
We want you to include references that you have been using (and
they shouldn't all be from the Internet).
Wednesday Morning Message, November 9, 2011
Project Proposals
We are very please to see that 106 teams have submitted project proposals.
Several folks have been asked to review them and provide feed back so expect
emails about your proposals. Please begin a dialogue with those folks or at
least thank them for their time.
Mini Kickoff in Santa Fe
Last Saturday a mini-Kickoff was held for Santa Fe area students, many of whom
were not able to attend the Kickoff in Socorro. Three different tracks were offered.
Facilitator Visit
We are planning to have Challenge facilitators visit each new school and are
making arrangements for that now. If your school/team would like a visit,
please let Consult know.
Interims
We hope you are making progress on your research about your project and
starting to learn the computer language that you will be using for your project.
Keep documentation so that it will be easy to write up an Interim Report by
the December 10th deadline. See the details at:
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/interims
Writing Resources
Write is a big part of the Challenge, from the proposals to the interim reports
to the final report. We have two professional writers/editors that have agreed
to help teams. They have provided information for you at:
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/resources/#writing_reports
so take a little time and read over the documents posted there.
Mentors
Having mentors to help you with your project is important. When you submit
your Interim reports, we would like to you mention the mentor(s) you are
working with. There are college students at New Mexico Tech, New Mexico State,
and University of New Mexico that are willing to help mentor teams, take
advantage of them.
SC11
Several representatives from the Supercomputing Challenge will be attending
the Super Computing 2011 conference in Seattle, Washington next week. SC is
the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking,
Storage and Analysis. It is our desire that one of these years we would be able
to support a team of students attending the conference. You can learn about it at:
http://sc11.supercomputing.org
Betsy, Celia and David, for Consult
Monday Afternoon Message, October 31, 2011
Trick or Treat!
We have been treated to 96 proposals! Soon each team will receive a message
from a scientist who has read your proposal and is ready to give you some feedback.
Please send a note to the scientist as soon as your team reviews the message
and thank him or her for writing. You may also wish to comment on their remarks
and how it will affect your work.
Mini Kickoff in Santa Fe
Do you live in Northern or Central New Mexico? Did you miss the Kickoff in
Socorro because of schedule conflicts? This Saturday, 5 November 2011, a one-day,
Mini KO will be held at Santa Fe Community College. There will be four strands
offered based on programming experience. Please send a note to Irene Lee
by Wednesday, 2 November if you'd like to register.
Where in the world is Consult this week?
- Getting ready for the Mini Kickoff
- Hosting a table at the NM Technology in Education Conference in
Albuquerque http://www.nmtie.net/conferences/2011
- Celebrating Women in Technology at a breakfast on Thursday, 3rd
of November
http://nmtechcouncil.org/celebrationhonoringwomenintechnology.html
- Replying to your questions, lining up scientists to review your
proposals, and sending out the press release for you to distribute to your
schools. Let us know if you need another copy.
Science News
Not sure what Massively Parallel Computing is? Read the
Wikipedia article
and then read about a
Massively Parallel Computer
built from a layer of molecules.
Have a great week and stay in touch!
Betsy, Celia and David for
Supercomputing Challenge Consulting
Monday Afternoon Message, October 24, 2011
Proposals
We now have 78 proposals listed on the Challenge web page and promises from
five more teams that "mine will be in by Thursday". If yours isn't up on the
web page yet at:
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/view_proposals.php, please make that a top priority.
Teams whose proposals are on the web site will soon be getting feedback from
another scientist. You talked with at least one scientist at the Kickoff about
your project and had a sheet of comments to take back to your team and teacher.
Now you'll be getting comments from another scientist who will be reviewing your
proposal. Remember that you can edit your proposal if you have thought about it
since your team talked with a scientist at the KO and want to make a revision to
your original idea.
Map
Our map has been updated and we are all over it! North, East, South and West. Check it out:
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/map.shtml
Mentors
Mentors are not assigned to teams by the Challenge. You need to find one
through your community contacts, by looking at the Challenge Mentor List, or
by doing some detective work on the Internet. Consult may send a facilitator
out to visit your school in response to a request from a teacher. That facilitator
should not be assumed to be a mentor unless/until a specific request is made by
the team to that person, and that person agrees. Consult welcomes your writing
to ask about ideas for mentors.
NM-EPSCoR Award
New Mexico's Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research has
announced that it will give a prize at Award's Day in April at Los Alamos to
a Challenge team whose project focuses on NM water. As April approaches you'll
see more information about awards here.
Thank you!
A big challenge thank you shout goes out to Alan Daugherty and Beckey Raulie
of Melrose High School. They not only helped with transportation at the Kickoff
but their bus wound its way across the state and down the Rio Grande corridor to
help their colleagues from CEPi1, Albuquerque High, and School of Dreams get to
Socorro.
Robots! Plasma! Video Games!
UNM Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
invites you to view their state of the art laboratories, meet their award-winning
faculty and learn about the degree of your dreams!
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011, 4:00-7:00pm, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Building. Register online and enter for a chance to WIN an iPod Shuffle! Link to:
Welcome.ece.unm.edu
Why Brenda uses computer simulations:

"I love to imagine experiments in all sorts of fields and test them without
having to buy millions of dollars of equipment and wait years for reasonable
results. Only computer simulation allows your scientific imagination to wander
without having too much reality set in."
Brenda Rubenstein, Columbia University
Field of Study: Theoretical Chemistry
Practicum: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Hometown: Saddle Brook, N.J
Have a great week!
Betsy, Celia and David for Consult
Monday Morning Message, October 17, 2011
Successful Kickoff
A very successful Kickoff Conference was held this past weekend at
New Mexico Tech in Socorro. Approximately 340 students, 60 teachers
and 80 staff were buzzing around the campus. (Registration data
indicates that 428 students and 71 teachers have registered to
participate during this year.)
Thank-yous All Around
Thanks you so much to New Mexico Tech for hosing the Kickoff.
Thanks to Sarracino Middle School for allowing us to use four
classrooms/computer labs for the approximately 100 students
and teachers that followed schedules one through four.
Thanks to all the teachers and parents for bringing your students.
Thanks to all the staff for teaching all the classes.
Thanks to all the students from New Mexico Tech, UNM, NMSU
and CNM for helping guide and advise the participants.
Thanks to all the Supercomputing Challenge ALUMNI that returned
to "give back" to the Challenge and encourage the next generation.
And Thanks to everyone else.
November 5, 2011 Mini Kickoff at SFCC
Santa Fe Community College is hosting a one-day mini-kickoff for the
Santa Fe area students who were not able to make it to the Socorro
Kickoff last weekend. This mini-kickoff will be held from 8:30-5:00
on Saturday November 5th. Please let us know if you are planning
to attend so that appropriate preparations can be made. Lunch will
be provided.
Proposals
So far, 60 proposals have been posted to the Challenge Proposals
web page. We hoping for another 50 or so. Please see:
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/proposals
and STUDENTS (not teachers) submit your proposals if you haven't.
You can edit the proposal that has already been submitted if you
have other information that you want to add to it, maybe because
you had a good meeting with a scientist at the Kickoff.
Mode machine moving
The machine that hosts the Project Proposals and other Challenge related
information will be moving locations this week and might not be available
for a day or two. Don't worry if you can't access one of the Challenge web
sites, just try again the next day. If you are having trouble next week, drop
Consult a note.
More Class Material Coming
We will be posting more of the materials presented in the classes on the
Kickoff web page, under Class Material, as we can get to it.
Pictures Coming
We'll be posting pictures from the weekend on the Kickoff page, look for
a link to Pictures. Thanks to the many photographers! Use the team/school
pictures to advertize your participation in the Challenge. Get them into the
yearbook, your school newsletter, or post them in your classrooms.
Betsy, Celia and David, for the team from
Supercomputing Challenge Consulting
Monday Evening Message, October 10, 2011
Greetings!
We are making the final preparations for the Kickoff. There are a few
things we have mentioned before and will mention once again here.
Proposals
We expect you to post your project proposal before you come to Socorro
and you will need a hard copy of that proposal to share with a
Scientists. Questions?
http://challenge.nm.org/proposals
Remember
that this applies to Challenge teams and not to GUTS Club members
unless they are planning to start a Challenge project right away.
Evening Activities
During Registration Saturday morning you will be asked to choose an
Activity for that evening. Activities will take place after dinner:
- Cyber Sheep - computer cyber security game
- Dodgeball
- Game Room
- Mafia/Werewolf/Assassin/Witch Hunt - parlor game
- Mineralogical Museum
- Observatory
- One Water Documentary - global view of
- Water Wars
- Water Impact Q and A, Discussion with EPSCoR Scientists including
the keynote
Schedules
There are sixteen tracks or schedules at the Kickoff. These are based
on math levels. You may be in the same track with your teammates but
that is only for sure if you are in the same math level.
Housing
Thank you for continuing to check your housing assignments. We need
to adjust as students discover they cannot attend or that they forgot
to check off Kickoff on their registration. If you have had to make
changes it would be thoughtful to send a note to
consult @ challenge.nm.org to thank David for his efforts to meet your
needs.
Registration
Registration takes place from 10-12 at Fidel at NMT. Your teacher
will pick up names tags and you will walk through registration cycle
collecting USB bands, Tee Shirt, a schedule, and getting your photo
taken and getting a tour of the campus with Tech student scientists.
We think it is going to be a super weekend and are looking forward to
seeing you. Remember that we are guests of Tech, that there are a lot
of us, and that we all need to do what we can to make things go as
smoothly as possible. They have made amazing preparations for us.
Remember to be helpful and to say thank you. We couldn't do this
without all of the Scientists around the state who care about your
future. We wouldn't be doing it without you! See you soon!
Betsy, Celia and David for Consult
Supercomputing Challenge Consulting
Monday Morning Message, October 3, 2011
22nd Annual Supercomputing Challenge Kickoff
In less than two weeks, we will be at New Mexico Tech in Socorro for a
weekend that will include campus tours, programming, data analysis, visits
with scientists, and evening activities. All this and pizza, too. 405
students from 56 schools are registered. It is our largest Kickoff in recent
years. It is so big that we are having some of our classes at Sarracino Mid School.
Housing
Please check the Kickoff Schedule from the Challenge home page at
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/kickoff
to see the details of the housing assignments. If you click on the
name of the motel, you will see the roommate assignments. Rooms have
either one or two queen-sized beds. Two students will be expected to share
a bed, so bring sleeping bags if that is an issue. When your teacher arrives
at the motel, the desk will assign a room number. Please check the list
and write to consult @ challenge.nm.org if you see an error. Be sure to write
to Consult right away if someone on your team is unable to come. Let us know
if a bus driver will be coming that might need housing.
Rules and regulations:
We have an AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) for behaviors on the Internet that
is an agreement students signed on the TEAF. We expect students to maintain the
high standards of behavior their schools expect. If you wonder if some behavior
is appropriate please ask one of our Tech hosts or another adult. We expect
you to behave responsibly and respectful of others in the motels. You know what
that means: no running, no loud voices, and in your rooms after 10:30.
All teachers and other adults should assume responsibility for any student
that they see behaving inappropriately whether or not he/she is one of their
students. If you are observing a class or seeing students on the campus behaving
in a way that keeps others from learning please interrupt that behavior. You
can call on Celia and David in Fidel or Speare or Betsy at Sarracino Mid if
there is a situation that needs to be addressed.
Teachers, please help maintain quiet hours in the motels, and direct your
attention to any student who is out of order whether or not he/she is from your school.
Saturday Morning Registration, Lunch, and Talk
Saturday morning starts with registration at 10:00 am, picking up your name
tag, schedule, t-shirt, and bag, getting your photo taken for Expo/Awards Day
badges, selecting electives to participate in on Saturday night, touring the
campus (tours start at 10:15, 10:30 and 10:45), and finally, lunch in the
Cafeteria in Fidel Hall on the campus. After lunch, you'll go upstairs to the
Ballroom for a Welcome and Teaming Talk by Lisa Harris.
And then it is off to your classes. You can see your detailed schedule from
the same Kickoff page where you saw your housing assignment.
The NM Tech bookstore will be open from 9:00-3:00 on Saturday.
Challenge Teams
Those participating in the Supercomputing Challenge, as opposed to those
participating in GUTS, need to form teams at:
https://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/teamreg_login.php .
Proposals
Remember to bring a hardcopy of your proposal with you. It should be posted
on the web, too. You will need this when you Meet the Scientists. Even if you
haven't got your proposal in final form, bring it with you. You will need to
complete it while you are at Tech. Do you need help with an idea? At the Proposals
link from the home page
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/proposals
you can see the proposals that have been submitted to date and you can look at
the archive and see what has been proposed in past years.
Facebook
Check out the special links to science news and hear what former Challenge
teams have to say about their experience in the Supercomputing Challenge.
Add your own comments, too.
October is going to be a great month! We are looking forward to seeing you
and talking with you next week.
Warm regards,
Betsy, Celia and David
Monday Morning Message, September 26, 2011
Happy Belated Autumnal Equinox
http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/september-equinox.html
Registration Statistics
We are currently at 447 people, 385 students and 62 teachers. That is
a high number for recent years! Please form into teams as soon as possible.
For the kickoff, our students who have a pre-algebra math level will be
meeting at Sarracino Mid School in Socorro. Details will be sent to
their teachers shortly. They will register at Fidel Center on the Tech
Campus and have meals and electives on campus.
Registration at NM Tech on Saturday, October 15th from 10 - 11:45 AM
See the map of the campus at:
http://www.nmt.edu/images/stories/maps/map_big.jpg
You will be receiving a hard copy of the map when you register. We will
have registration in the lobby of Fidel Center, the Student Union
building. Buses can park in the parking lot by Fidel. Your teacher will
receive your name tags which you must wear at all times (Well, you can
take it off when you are sleeping.)
You will receive
- a pistachio green t-shirt with a fractal logo, created by Claire
DeCroix from Aspen Elementary.
- a cinch bag
- a usb bracelet preloaded with programming languages and most of our
curriculum (You can save your work and your project on it
throughout the year.)
- a schedule that fits your math level
You will get your picture taken individually and with your team.
You will choose an elective for Saturday night.
You will sign a contract for your use of the Tech network for the weekend.
Proposal Guidelines
Use the following information to help prepare your proposal:
Sponsors
We have three levels of commercial sponsors and they are listed here.
We appreciate their continued support.
Commercial Partners--Gold
Abba Technologies/SGI
Google RISE
Intel Corporation
Lockheed Martin
Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation
Synergy Group
The MathWorks
VanDyke Software, Inc.
Wolfram Research, Inc.
Commercial Partners--Silver
Gulfstream Group and
bigbyte.cc
Technology Integration Group
Commercial Partners--Bronze
Albuquerque Journal
Anthony Giancola
BX Internet
Cray Inc
Lobo Internet Services
New Mexico Business Weekly
New Mexico Technology Council
Redfish Group
Sun
Research Projects
Our keynote, Dr. Edward Martinez, is involved in Wind River
Ranch restoration and research projects. Visit this link to learn more
about the fauna and flora and water projects he is involved with:
http://windriverranch.org/restoration
News of Interest
Think outside the bottle:
http://www.digitalmanufacturingreport.com/dmr/2011-09-21/solar_lights_from_soda_bottles.html
Supercomputing propels America forward:
http://www.olcf.ornl.gov/2011/09/12/simulating-turbulent-combustion-speeds-design-of-power-and-propulsion-devices
Sincerely yours,
Betsy, Celia and David, Consult Management Team
Monday Morning Message, September 19, 2011
Salutations!
Registration for the 2011-2012 Supercomputing Challenge CLOSES TOMORROW
Registration is open at:
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/registration.shtml
We currently have 163 students, 34 teachers and 43 schools represented.
Thirty-six teams have registered so far. Be forming teams and use the web
page to set them up so we know how many teams will participate this year.
If you have troubles, email Consult with who is on what team and we'll help
set that up.
If you have any questions about registration, please contact consult @ challenge.nm.org
You have ONE DAY LEFT TO REGISTER.
Challenge Sponsors
Educational Partners
The following Colleges and University throughout the state support the
Challenge with mentors, February mid course evaluations, scholarships, judges
and summer roundups. We thank them for their continued in-kind support and
expertise.
New Mexico Highlands University - February mid course evaluations, scholarships, judges
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology - February mid course evaluations, scholarships, judges, Summer Teacher Institute, Kickoff, mentor cadre, board of directors
New Mexico Public Education Department - prints finalist reports book
New Mexico State University - February mid course evaluations, scholarships, judges, mentor cadre
NMSU-Dona Ana Community College - GUTS PD, GUTS/Challenge roundups, roundtables, board of directors
Northern New Mexico College - February mid course evaluations, judges, Challenge/GUTS summer roundup
San Juan College - February mid course evaluations, judges
Santa Fe Community College - February mid course evaluations, judges
Santa Fe Complex - space, judges, awards, board of directors
Santa Fe Institute - President of board of directors, hardware loans, judges
Swarm Development Group - Summer opportunity for collaboration with agent based modeling, judges
University of New Mexico - February mid course evaluations, judges, mentor cadre
University of New Mexico-Center for Advanced Research Computing - Challenge/GUTS Summer roundups, board of directors, judges
Computational Science
For Challenge teams who will be attending the kickoff, please make sure that
you get your project idea approved in your Meet the Scientist session. Some
teams will be notified that they need to meet with a scientist at lunch on
Sunday to get project approval. The scientists will check to see if you have
chosen a problem that is suitable for computational science, has measurable
components so that a mathematical model can be developed, and from that a
computing solution can be written.
Here is a visual to help teams think about their projects and some commentary
by Irene Lee, Project GUTS Principal Investigator

We start with a real world problem, and a question. We make sure that our problem's solution will rely on data.
We simplify the real world problem - and not the assumptions we have made. We do research to find out as much as
we can about the idea.
We come up with an idea model - (not an attempt at exact duplication of the real world) - assumptions are
acknowledged. However, it is important to be able to describe the idea in English or pseudo code language before
building the computational model.
We use the computational model as an experimental test bed complete with variables and parameters.
Goal is to understand primarily this model, and see how it can help us understand the real world.
- Allows us to run multiple "what if" scenarios
- Compare results to real-world, what is similar and different.
Water Resources Theme Video
Here is a 30 minute EPSCoR video to watch in class or at home with your families.
http://nmepscor.org/content/water-scarcity-nm-epscor-researchers
KRWG Public Television featured some New Mexico EPSCoR Researchers in their
recent segment of "KRWG Newsmakers". Watch the video and keep an eye out for
the EPSCoR Mug!
From KRWG: "According to the U.S. Climactic Data Center the first six months
of 2011 was the driest period on record for New Mexico and Texas. In this report
we look at how the drought is affecting the region. We'll also tell you about
steps being taken to monitor and prepare for what some say will be a future
with more and more area water scarcity dilemmas. KRWG's Jared Andersen reports."
Teachers, we will be sending you a Water Scarcity PowerPoint, created by
Patty Meyer, to use with your classes. It will come in your email as an attachment.
Sincerely yours,
Betsy, Celia and David, Consult Management Team
Monday Morning Message, September 12, 2011
Good Day,
Fall is in the air in ABQ! It is State Fair time and the temps have dropped a bit.
Registering for the 2011-2012 Supercomputing Challenge
Registration is open at:
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/registration.shtml
So far 55 students and 15 teachers from 26 schools have registered.
If you have any questions about registration, please contact consult @ challenge.nm.org
Registration closes on September 20th because we have to meet deadlines for
hotel reservations, food orders, and class scheduling at the Kickoff. You have
eight days to register!
Challenge Sponsors
Here are a few more of the national and state Educational Sponsors we work with.
Their contributions are noted by their names.
Educational Partners
The Center for Connected Learning (CCL) and Computer-Based Modeling/NetLogo - NetLogo
New Mexico Council for Higher Education Computing/Communication Service (CHECS) - Awards at Expo, TIE conference
Eastern New Mexico University - February mid course evaluations, scholarships, judges
MIT Starlogo - StarLogo TNG
New Mexico Computing Applications Center - support with supercomputer Encanto
New Mexico EPSCoR, Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research - grant money, mentors, speakers,
Collaborative Research: Cyberinfrastructure Development in the Western Consortium of Idaho, Nevada, and New Mexico, NSF Award #0918635
Next week, Colleges and University support.
Kickoff Conference, Oct 15-16 at NM Tech
Dr. Lorie Liebrock is heading up a cadre of mentors from New Mexico Tech
who will be helping us at the kickoff and throughout the year. They will be
giving campus tours on Saturday morning the 15th, working along each of the
math tracks as a guide, and teaching some of the classes. They will also be
available throughout the year to mentor teams from their kickoff track.
Dr. Richard Oliver at NMSU and Joel Castellanos, UNM, are working on
getting mentor cadres at those locations also.
Each track will have three hours in a computer lab, data analysis,
a parallel processing session and a Meet the Scientist session. We are
planning a teaming presentation with Lisa Harris from LANL and our keynote
is Dr. Edward Martinez, from NM Highlands. The title for his talk on Saturday
night is - "Climate Change in New Mexico: Water Resources, Flora and Fauna".
Project Proposal
When Challenge teams meet in the Meet the Scientist Session at the Kickoff,
they must bring a hard copy of their proposal for the scientists to read so
that they can give suggestions about the project. There will be a form for
one or more scientists to node down their thoughts about the work and sign
indicating they have seen your project proposal and have discussed the ideas
and implementation plan.
Project Idea
One of our new mentors, Mel, has suggested an interesting project.
His area of expertise is aviation history and he is a private pilot.
His project suggestion is a Co-Flow Jet improvement of airfoil performance
by recirculating fluid that is blown along a streamlined shape. He proposes
investigating the drag force on a symmetrical airfoil of infinite span. If
this topic interests your team, please write to melabq @ yahoo.com as he has
graciously volunteered to mentor teams in this area. (Just remember to leave
out the spaces in his email.)
Sincerely yours,
Betsy, Celia and David, Consult Management Team
Supercomputing Challenge Consulting, consult @ challenge.nm.org
Wednesday Morning Message, September 7, 2011
Happy September!
We hope that you had some R and R over the three-day weekend.
(R + R means rest and recreation used in military jargon to mean
time away from the front.)
Registering for the 2011-2012 Supercomputing Challenge
Registration is open at:
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/registration.shtml
If you have any questions about registration, please contact
consult @ challenge.nm.org
Challenge Sponsors
We are going to review our sponsors with you this month. Our
Primary Sponsors are
We thank them for their financial and personnel support throughout
the whole Challenge year.
Kickoff Conference, Oct 15-16 at NM Tech
In the past years we have developed the schedule for the Kickoff using
a spreadsheet. We have seven different math levels, approximately 300
students, six different classes and restraints on computer labs and other
spaces. This year we are using an open source optimization program.
Open source generally means that the source code is freely available.
Wikipedia states "In mathematics
and computational
science, mathematical optimization refers to the selection
of a best element from some set of available alternatives." So we are
hoping that your individual schedule will really meet each member of
the team's needs. Because we schedule according to math level, your
team members' schedules may be different from yours.
Project Proposal
All Challenge teams attending the Kickoff Conference need to submit a
proposal online and bring a hardcopy of this proposal with them to the
conference. Remember, proposals are short and concise ~ no more than
250 words.
You may view last year's proposals in the archive
Project Idea
Here is an interesting blog about water scarcity in New Mexico:
Water Scarcity Threatens the Whole Southwest
http://smarth2o.hydropoint.com/2009/09/water-scarcity-threatens-entire.html
What kind of computational science project could your team do on water
scarcity?
What data could you collect and analyze? What model/simulation could
you create?
Sincerely yours,
Betsy, Celia and David, Consult Management Team
Monday Morning Message, August 29, 2011
We have been sending out information about the 2011-2012 Supercomputing
Challenge
and are getting emails from folks asking more questions. Please help us
spread the word!
Registering for the 2011-2012 Supercomputing Challenge
Registration will open up later this week so keep checking it at:
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/registration.shtml
Each student will register themselves and each teacher will register
themselves. Then the students and/or teachers can register the students on teams.
Teachers can "manage" teams from their school, adding students to teams, dropping
students from teams, and moving students to different teams.
Registration fees are $40 per student and $0 for teachers. But, we don't
want the
registration fee to prevent anyone from participating so if that is a
hardship, please
let Consult know. The registration fees can be submitted by checks or
Purchase Orders.
Challenge Use of Face Book
There is a NM Supercomputing Challenge Facebook group and we are going
to be creating
a Facebook "page". As people register for the Challenge, we well be
"Inviting" them to join.
Kickoff Conference, Oct 15-16 at NM Tech
Plans continue to be made for the 22nd Annual Kickoff Conference. The
general timeline
will be arrival 10:00-11:30 on Saturday morning, lunch, afternoon
classes, check in to
hotels, dinner and keynote speech followed by evening activities. Sunday
morning will
have three classes then lunch and teams will head home after lunch.
Meals (lunch, dinner,
lunch) will be provided at NM Tech.
A Visual History of Supercomputing
Most of you are too young to know a world without computers and
supercomputers,
but we have come a long way in the past 70 years. Take a look at this
great "infographic" and
imagine the possibilities that you will see in your lifetimes, because
of computers and technology.
http://www.hpcwire.com/hpcwire/2011-08-22/a_visual_history_of_supercomputing.html
Monday Morning Message, August 22, 2011
Are you ready for the 22nd Annual Supercomputing Challenge?
Registration
Start forming teams to participate in the 22nd annual New Mexico
Supercomputing Challenge.
Registration will open on September 1st
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/registration.shtml
Registration deadline is September 20th.
Proposals
Teams need to form and start thinking about their projects and preparing a
proposal. See
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/proposals for guidelines.
Our theme for this year will be water issues. Take a look at this 30
minute video from EPSCoR
about current water issues in New Mexico:
http://nmepscor.org/content/water-scarcity-nm-epscor-researchers
Kickoff Conference
The Kickoff Conference
will be held October 15-16 in Socorro, New Mexico.
Teachers
Please print a flyer to place in your school for advertisement.
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/archive/11-12/invitation_flyer.pdf
Here is the invite link:
http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/archive/11-12/invitation.shtml
Summer Teachers Institute
At the STI this summer, one team of teachers studied the Fibonacci
Sequence. Here is some current
news about how a teenager used the Sequence:
http://inhabitat.com/13-year-old-makes-solar-power-breakthrough-by-harnessing-the-fibonacci-sequence/2/
Future topics
In future Monday Morning Messages (MMMs), we will be sharing Science Links
and Cool topics so if you have found something to share, let Consult know.
Looking forward to a wonderful year,
Betsy, Celia and David representing Consult, the Challenge Management Team
Supercomputing Challenge Consulting, consult @ challenge.nm.org
These News Flashes are archived at http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org/news_flash.shtml
so that you can review them at a later date. There is also a link at the top of each Challenge web page pointing
to Newsflash.
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