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.

1. research
2. agent based problem/mathematical model
3. code
4. 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

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?

1. Getting ready for the Mini Kickoff
2. Hosting a table at the NM Technology in Education Conference in Albuquerque http://www.nmtie.net/conferences/2011
3. Celebrating Women in Technology at a breakfast on Thursday, 3rd of November http://nmtechcouncil.org/celebrationhonoringwomenintechnology.html
4. 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:

1. Cyber Sheep - computer cyber security game
2. Dodgeball
3. Game Room
4. Mafia/Werewolf/Assassin/Witch Hunt - parlor game
5. Mineralogical Museum
6. Observatory
7. One Water Documentary - global view of
8. Water Wars
9. 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:

• What does an Supercomputing Challenge Proposal look like?
• Look at the official project requirements
• Browse through past year's proposals in our Archive.
• Areas of Science appropriate for Participation
• From the Challenge Technical Guide:
• What is Supercomputing?
• A flowchart to help determine whether or not your project idea is a good supercomputing project idea.
• Other Guidelines for Choosing and Evaluating a Project

Sponsors

We have three levels of commercial sponsors and they are listed here. We appreciate their continued support.

Commercial Partners--Gold

Commercial Partners--Silver

Commercial Partners--Bronze

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

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

• Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Los Alamos National Security, LLC
• Sandia National Laboratories

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.

• Read the Proposal Guidelines
• Submit or Edit your proposal

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.