Supercomputing Challenge brings New Mexico students to Los Alamos
The 36th Annual Supercomputing Challenge brought 16 teams of middle and high school students from across New Mexico to Los Alamos April 20 and 21 to present the results of their yearlong computing projects and celebrate the award winners.
Judges selected the winners at the expo at the J. Robert Oppenheimer Study Center at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The students also toured facilities, including the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies and the Data Communications Center.
In the challenge, students work in teams and follow their own interests to choose a topic to computationally model with help from mentors. Through the yearlong program, they learn coding skills and teamwork as well as practicing grit and persistence.
“I am always impressed with the students in our state. We are so proud to be able to show their abilities,” says David Kratzer, executive director of the challenge.
The winners of the main prizes were:
First Place: Tate D. Plohr, Los Alamos High School
Project: Dust Busters: The effects of dust scattering on observations of X-ray binaries
Second Place: Jaden Rand, Santa Fe Preparatory School.
Project: Pacing optimization for cycling performance through neural evolution
Third Place: Harrison Schiek, Albuquerque Academy
Project: Understanding 3D printing through atomistic polylactic acid segmental dynamic analysis
Read the full LANL news release.
Academy students also received this additional recognition:
- Zoheb Barrantes ’31: Middle School Award
- Mekhi Bradford ’28: Teacher Appreciation Award, Longevity Award, Human Computer Interaction Award
- Ahana Koushik ’28: New Mexico Network for Women in Science and Engineering Award
- Harrison Schiek ’26: Professional Presentation Award, High Performance Computing Award
