Finalist Reports 2011-2012 www.supercomputingchallenge.org Printed in cooperation with Los Alamos National Laboratory High Performance Computing Group (HPC-3) and New Mexico Public Education Department Cover: The Intersection of Lines to Find Points Team 87 from Melrose High School Randall Rush, Quinton Flores, Jon Tello, and Kaleb Broome Teachers Allen Daugherty and Rebecca Raulie Winner in the Technical Poster Competition Notification: These final reports are presented in an abridged form, leaving out actual code, color, and appendices where appropriate. Complete copies of most of the final reports are available from the archives of Supercomputing Challenge web site: http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org . New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge 2011 – 2012 Finalist Reports Table of Contents About the New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge For more information, please visit our website at http://www.supercomputingchallenge.org …………………………………………… 2 2011—2012 Challenge Awards ……………………...…………………………. 4 Scholarship winners ………………………………………….…………………. 8 Sponsors ………………………………………………………………………… 10 Participants …………………………………………………………………….. 11 Judges………………………………………………………………….………... 17 Finalist Reports ………………………………………………………………… 19 1. Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease Plaque in a Transgenic Mouse Brain Using Image Analysis of SPION-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Images Manzano High School, Team 82 2. Computer Simulation of Dark Matter Effects on Galaxy Rotation, Los Alamos Middle School, Team 72 3. Optimizing Community Detection, La Cueva High School, Team 56 4. The Impact of Forest Fires on Water Resources, Desert Academy, Academy for Technology and the Classics, Santa Fe High School, Team 2 5. Language Acquisition in Computers, Desert Academy, Team 36 6. Duel of the Fuel, Edgewood Elementary, Team 41 7. Warehouse Layout and Picking Simulation, Los Alamos High, Team 64 8. ExcellAnts, Los Alamos High School, Team 66 9. Simulation of Multi-Agent Based Scheduling Algorithms for Waiting-line Queuing Problems, Los Alamos Middle School, Team 73 10. Ant Colony Conundrum, Saturday Science and Math Academy, Team 118 1 Supercomputing Challenge Vision The Vision of the Supercomputing Challenge is to be a nationally recognized program that promotes computational thinking in science and engineering so that the next generation of high school graduates is better prepared to compete in an information-based economy. Supercomputing Challenge Mission The Mission of the Supercomputing Challenge is to teach teams of middle and high schools students how to use powerful computers to analyze, model and solve real world problems. About the Supercomputing Challenge The Supercomputing Challenge (the Challenge) is an exciting program that offers a truly unique experience to students in our state. The opportunity to work on the most powerful computers in the world is currently available to only a very few students in the entire United States, but in New Mexico, it is just one of the benefits of living in the "Land of Enchantment." The Challenge is a program encompassing the school year in which teams of students complete science projects using high-performance supercomputers. Each team of up to five students and a sponsoring teacher defines and works on a single computational project of its own choosing. Throughout the program, help and support are given to the teams by their project advisors and the Challenge organizers and sponsors. The Challenge is open to all interested students in grades 6 through 12 on a nonselective basis. The program has no grade point, class enrollment or computer experience prerequisites. Participants come from public, private, parochial and home-based schools in all areas of New Mexico. The important requirement for participating is a real desire to learn about science and computing. Challenge teams tackle a range of interesting problems to solve. The most successful projects address a topic that holds great interest for the team. In recent years, ideas for projects have come from Astronomy, Geology, Physics, Ecology, Mathematics, Economics, Sociology, and Computer Science. It is very important that the problem a team chooses is what we call "real world" and not imaginary. A "real world" problem has measurable components. We use the term Computational Science to refer to science problems that we wish to solve and explain using computer models. Those teams who make significant progress on their projects can enter them in the competition for awards of cash and scholarships for the individuals and computer equipment for the school. Team trophies are also awarded for: Teamwork, Best Written Report, Best Professional Presentation, Electronic Search & Browse, Creativity and Innovation, Environmental Modeling, High Performance, Science is Fun and the Judges' Special Award, just to name a few. 2 The Challenge is offered at minimal cost to the participants or the school district. It is sponsored by a partnership of federal laboratories, universities, and businesses. They provide food and lodging for events such as the kickoff conference during which students and teachers are shown how to use supercomputers, learn programming languages, how to analyze data, write reports and much more. These sponsors also supply time on the supercomputers and lend equipment to schools that need it. Employees of the sponsoring groups conduct training sessions at workshops and advise teams throughout the year. The Challenge culminates with an Expo and Awards Ceremony in the spring at Los Alamos National Laboratory. History The New Mexico High School Supercomputing Challenge was conceived in 1990 by former Los Alamos Director Sig Hecker and Tom Thornhill, president of New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technologynet Inc., a nonprofit company that in 1985 set up a computer network to link the state's national laboratories, universities, state government and some private companies. Sen. Pete Domenici, and John Rollwagen, then chairman and chief executive officer of Cray Research Inc., added their support. In 2001, the Adventures in Supercomputing program formerly housed at Sandia National Laboratories and then at the Albuquerque High Performance Computing Center at the University of New Mexico merged with the former New Mexico High School Supercomputing Challenge to become the New Mexico High School Adventures in Supercomputing Challenge. In 2002, the words "High School" were dropped from the name as middle school teams had been invited to participate in 2000 and had done well. In the summer of 2005, the name was simplified to the Supercomputing Challenge. In 2007, the Challenge began collaborating with the middle school Project GUTS, (Growing Up Thinking Scientifically), an NSF grant housed at the Santa Fe Institute. 3 2011—2012 Challenge Awards • Albuquerque Manzano High School student takes top award in 22nd New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge Computer algorithm for image analysis of Alzheimer’s plaques LOS ALAMOS, New Mexico, April 24, 2012—Jordan Medlock of Albuquerque’s Manzano High School took the top prize in the 22nd New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge for his computer algorithm that automates the process of counting and analyzing plaques in magnetic resonance images of persons diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The program vastly speeds up the process of identifying the very small and difficult to see plaques. For his project, "Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease Plaques in a Transgenic Mouse Brain Using Image Analysis of SPION-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Images," Medlock received a check for $1,000. Los Alamos Middle School student Cole Kendrick took second place for his project, "Computer Simulation of Dark Matter Effects on Galaxy Collisions." Kendrick received a check for $500. He also received the $100 Crowd Favorite Award chosen by teachers and students and the Best Presentation Award. Kendrick took the top prize in last year’s Supercomputing Challenge for his computer program to model the rotation of a galaxy including dark matter. The Albuquerque La Cueva High School team of Alexandra Porter, Stephanie Djidjev and Lauren Li took third place for their project "Optimizing Community Detection." The trio also received the Women in Science and Engineering Award. The third place team members each receive $250. Seven other teams were finalists in the yearlong competition culminating in Tuesday’s awards ceremony in Los Alamos. These finalist teams received plaques and banners for their school; team members also each received $50. The Supercomputing Challenge is open to any New Mexico high-school, middle-school, or elementary-school student. More than 200 students representing about 60 teams from schools around the state spent the school year researching scientific problems, developing sophisticated computer programs, and learning about computer science with mentors from the state’s national laboratories and other organizations. The goal of the yearlong event is to teach student teams how to use powerful computers to analyze, model, and solve real-world problems. Participating students improve their 4 understanding of technology by developing skills in scientific inquiry, modeling, computing, communications, and teamwork. Each finalist team received plaques for their school trophy cabinets plus a large banner for their gym and $50 for each student. The New Mexico EPSCoR Climate Change/Water Resources award goes to Team 94 from the New Mexico School for the Arts. Their title is Water You Waiting For Santa Fe? Team members are Mohit Dubey, Samuel Thompson, Milada Guenther,