Ames Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Ames, Iowa
Ames Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Ames, Iowa
Ames, Iowa -- For the second year in a row, a student team from North Polk High School in Alleman, Iowa, won the first-place trophy at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Adventures in Supercomputing (AiS) Expo, held on June 24 and 25 in Washington, D.C.
The North Polk team of Sara Karbeling, Anna Keyte and Josh Kortbein, accompanied by teacher/coach Bruce Bennett, took top honors for their project entitled "The Choatic Tumbling of Hyperion" in the national competition, which hosted student teams from Alabama, Colorado, Iowa, New Mexico and Tennessee.
In their project, the North Polk team used equations developed by researchers who analyzed photos of Hyperion, a misshapen moon of the planet Saturn. Working with the equations, the students were able to explore and quantify for themselves the chaotic nature of Hyperion's rotation about its own axis.
The North Polk team qualified for the national event by winning at the Iowa AiS Expo, sponsored by the DOE's Ames Laboratory in April.
Barbara Helland, Ames Lab assistant program director for Applied Mathematical Sciences and the AiS national coordinator, says, "The primary goal of AiS is to foster the participation of high school students in mathematics, science and computing. Through their participation in AiS and the development of their projects, students gain a much greater awareness of computational science. They become more technically and scientifically literate and so are better prepared for the future."
Ames Laboratory is operated by Iowa State University for the DOE. The Lab conducts research into various areas of national concern, including energy resources, high- speed computer design, environmental cleanup and restoration, and the synthesis and study of new materials.
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