The student team of Carli McGee, Heather Wood and Joan Goldsworthy each took home a $1,000 savings bond for their supercomputer program "Pattern Analysis of High Throughput Flow Cytometry Data." Their teachers, Jori Bowen and Neil McBeth, received a computer loaded with software for their classroom.
A trio of computer aces from Albuquerque's Academy High School received second place for their project, "Lucifer's Hammer." The team includes Derek Mehlhorn, Adrienne Upah and William Pearl. They each received $500 savings bonds and a computer loaded with software for teacher Jim Mim's classroom. The Academy team also received the Microsoft Best Use of Powerpoint Award.
The Amy Boulanger Memorial scholarship, good for $2,400 a year for four years at any four-year New Mexico college or university, was awarded to Tony Easton of Silver City High.
Nearly 350 students competed in the challenge and about 130 students were at Los Alamos to take part in Wednesday's awards ceremony. Fifty teams, including 11 finalist teams, heard talks from researchers at Los Alamos and toured the supercomputers they used during the Challenge. Students from 41 schools spent the last year researching scientific problems and writing programs to solve them on supercomputers at Los Alamos and Sandia national laboratories.
The goal of the New Mexico High School Supercomputing Challenge is to increase knowledge of science and computing, expose students and teachers to computers and applied mathematics, and instill enthusiasm for science in high school students, their families and communities. Any New Mexico high school student in grades 9-12 can enter the Challenge.
The New Mexico High School Supercomputing Challenge is unique because it offers supercomputer access to students at every level of expertise and stresses student activity over work by teachers and coaches, said David Kratzer of Los Alamos' Customer Service Group.
Several participants can pursue their computing careers at New Mexico universities with scholarships awarded on Wednesday. About $36,000 in scholarships were awarded.
Loi Nguyen from Farmington received a $2,500 scholarship from Intel Corp.
Dennis Wentworth, Dustin Graham, and Jeremiah Giese from Lovington, and Bryan Hovart from Farmington each received a one year scholarship to New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro.
Travis Chavez from Cuba received a one-year scholarship to New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.
Alex Ortega from Cuba received a one-year scholarship to New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas.
Nicole Mumma from Bosque Preparatory School received a one-year scholarship to the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
Samuel Ashmore from Bosque Preparatory School received a one-year scholarship to Eastern New Mexico University in Portales.
Honorable mention awards were given to the Roswell Goddard High School team of Adrian Veseth-Nelson, Dennis Wentworth, Lindy Greer, Sean Wentworth, and Robert Willhelm for their project, "Organic Superconductors Using Rotating Electrodes;" to the Lovington High School team of Nick and Steve Tobkin, Dustin Graham, Beth Meyers, and Jeremiah Giese for their project titled What Causes Spin to Reverse Itself?;" to the Las Cruces Mayfield High School team of Stephen Miller and Aaron Soto for their project,"Tales from the CRYPTography;" and to Nina Weisse-Bernstein of Santa Fe High School for her project "The Verification for the Postulates, Theorems, and Axioms of Boolean Switching Algebra."
Teachers who have been instrumental in the success of the Supercomputing Challenge were honored at Wednesday's ceremonies. John Drabanski of Pecos High, Clem Hudson of Tularosa High and James Karlin from Kirtland Central High all received battery backup systems for their own computers for having participated in the Challenge every year since its inception. Teachers Debra Loftin from Bosque Preparatory School and Brady Wayt from Magadalena High each received an electronic personal organizer for participating in the Challenge five years.
Other students who went home with awards from the 10th New Mexico High School Supercomputing Challenge included:
Los Alamos National Laboratory Environmental Modeling Award: Albuquerque Academy -- Tom Widland, Ryan Davies, Ryan Duryea, Alex Feuchter and Kevin Oishi. The team received medallions and a trophy for a project that simulated a pond.
Technet Teamwork Award: Las Cruces Mayfield High School -- Stephen Miller and Aaron Soto. They received a plaque.
Tribune Lighthouse Award: Farmington High School -- Lori Nguyen, Jason Reeves, Bryan Horvat, Jerrie Fairbanks and their teacher Don McDowell. They received a trophy for the best overall presentation of their project about the formation of a galaxy. The team also received the KRQE Multi-Media Award for the best graphics suitable for television.
Search and Browse Award from the Council for Higher Education Computing Services, Inc.: Bosque Preparatory School -- Samuel Ashmore, Nicole Mumma and Kenny Sutherland, for their project dealing with bear migration into populated areas. The students received $100 cash and a trophy. This team also received the HTML Award for having the best version of a final report suitable for the Internet. They received medallions and a plaque.
Best Written Report Award from the Society for Technical Communicators: Roswell Goddard High School -- Adrian Veseth-Nelson, Dennis Wentworth, Lindy Greer, Sean Wentworth and Robert Wilhelm all received a $30 gift certificate to their favorite bookstore for their project on "Organic Superconductors Using Rotating Electrodes."
Creativity and Innovation Award from Sandia National Laboratories was awarded to Nina Weisse-Bernstein of Santa Fe High School. She received a plaque for her project about Boolean switching algebra. Weisse-Bernstein also received the High Performance Computing Award for the most computationally intensive program from SGI, formerly Silicon Graphics Inc. She received gifts from SGI.
The judges also gave a plaque for special recognition to the Sandia Preparatory School team.
Many of the final reports of teams finishing the Challenge can be viewed aon the Web at http://www.challenge.nm.org/.
Poster Contest winners: Students from Roswell Goddard High School won the technical poster award. The poster will become the cover of the book of final reports, which will be distributed to all New Mexico high school and college libraries by the State Department of Education.
The best graphical poster award, which will be the basis for next year's logo, was designed by a team from Bloomfield High School. The members of the team will split a $200 cash prize.
The Supercomputing Challenge was conceived in 1990 by former Los Alamos Director Sig Hecker and Tom Thornhill, president of New Mexico Technet Inc., a non-profit company that in 1985 set up a computer network to link the state's national laboratories, universities, state government and some private companies. U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., and John Rollwagen, then chairman and chief executive officer of Cray Research Inc., added their support.
The Supercomputing Challenge is sponsored by the Laboratory and New Mexico Technet Inc. Benefactors include: CISCO Systems Inc.; DP Signal; Intel Corp; Kinko's; and Microsoft Corp.
Patrons include: Sandia National Laboratories; University of New Mexico; New Mexico State University; New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology; Albuquerque Tribune; SGI; Council for High Education Computing Services, or CHECS Inc.; Eastern New Mexico University; New Mexico Highlands University; New Mexico Department of Education; San Juan College; Santa Fe Community College; Belew's Office Supply; Dean Gianopoulus Design; and Miller Bonded.
Los Alamos National Laboratory, a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security, is operated by Los Alamos National Security, LLC, a team composed of Bechtel National, the University of California, The Babcock & Wilcox Company, and Washington Group International for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration.
Los Alamos enhances national security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, developing technologies to reduce threats from weapons of mass destruction, and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health, and global security concerns.