Biomolecular modeling earns Eldorado team victory in 14th Adventures in Supercomputing Challenge

Contact: Jim Danneskiold, jdanneskiold@lanl.gov, (505) 667-1640 (04-036)

Contact: Steve Sandoval, steves@lanl.gov, (505) 665-9206

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LOS ALAMOS, N.M., April 27, 2004 -- Four intrepid young computer scientists from Eldorado High School in Albuquerque journeyed into the atoms that make up the human body and walked away with $1,000 each as the top prize Tuesday in the 14th New Mexico High School Adventures in Supercomputing Challenge at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Daniel Appel, Jeffrey Dimiduk, Thomas Dimiduk and Ryan Shea worked all year to develop their project, "Atomistic Modeling of Biomolecular Interactions." Each won a $1,000 U.S. Savings Bond, while their teacher, David Dixon, received a Hewlett-Packard computer for his classroom.

The Eldorado team created efficient, realistic techniques to model the long-range electrostatic interactions that help determine the structure and behavior of such motor proteins as kinesin, mysosin and dynein, with potential applications to the design of nanoscale robots. The team, which was mentored by University of New Mexico professor Susan Atlas, also won the Cray High Performance Computing award.

A trio of researchers from three different Albuquerque schools -- Kellan Bethke, Sam Boling and William Laub from Manzano High, the Public Academy for the Performing Arts and Eldorado -- took second place with their project, "Who Said That," in which they developed equations to train a computer to sort through a cacophony of voices and determine the source of different statements. Their work could be used to improve hearing aid performance, record negotiations or heated debates or aid in intelligence gathering.

They each received $500 savings bonds and one of their teachers, David Dixon of Eldorado, received a combo fax, scanner and printer. The other teacher for the team was Steve Schum of Manzano, and Tom Laub of Sandia National Laboratories served as coach. The trio also captured the IBM Teamwork award and was presented with the Governor's First Annual Award for Excellence by Rep. R. Bobby Gonzales, Jr, D-Taos.

Winner of the First Runner-Up Award was Santa Fe Preparatory School, for "Automated Theorem Proving in the Mathematica Language." The one-member team is Dylan Allegretti; his teacher and mentor is James Taylor.

The Second Runner-Up winner was Albuquerque Academy, for "Plasma Limits and Stresses Mesh Analysis." Members of that team are Jim Adolf, Zach LaBry, Josh Langsfeld, Ryan McGowan and Matt Strange; their teacher is Jim Mims. The Academy team also received the Students' Choice Award.

Nearly 200 students on 45 teams spent the day Monday presenting their research to a team of volunteer judges and setting up and discussing poster displays of their computing projects at the Adventures in Supercomputing Challenge Expo at the Los Alamos Research Park. They also took part in tours of Los Alamos' supercomputing centers and heard talks and demonstrations by Laboratory technical staff members. Students from 20 schools throughout New Mexico spent the last year researching scientific problems and writing programs to solve them on supercomputers at Los Alamos.

The goal of the Challenge is to increase knowledge of science and computing; expose students and teachers to computers and applied mathematics; and instill enthusiasm for science in middle- and high-school students, their families and communities. Any New Mexico high school or middle school student is eligible to enter the Adventures in Supercomputing Challenge.

Rep. Ben Lujan, D-Santa Fe and Speaker of the New Mexico House, and his chief of staff, Regis Pecos, presented the first- and second-place awards during ceremonies Tuesday in the Laboratory's Physics Building Auditorium at Technical Area 3. Joe Watts of Los Alamos' Actinide and Fuel Cycle Technologies Group served as master of ceremonies.

"The Adventures in Supercomputing Challenge provides high school and junior high students with the opportunity of a lifetime, the chance to run a program on a high-performance computer at one of the nation's premier institutions, Los Alamos National Laboratory," Watts said. "Beyond that, the Challenge gives young minds obstruction-free interactions with a tremendous group of dedicated mentors that includes scientists, business leaders, educators and government officials. These mentors care deeply about young people and their educations, great science and the creation of a successful new crop of highly educated New Mexicans."

At the awards ceremonies, several other student supercomputing projects received prizes:

Zetdi Runyan of Cliff High School received the one-time scholarship of $2,500 from Intel Corp., good at any accredited institution of higher education in New Mexico.

Several other students who took part in the Challenge will be able to pursue their computational science careers at New Mexico universities with about $16,000 in individual scholarships that were awarded on Tuesday. Winners included the following:

• Erin Ogilvie, Cliff High School, $2,500 scholarship from New Mexico State University;
• Eric Martinez, Manzano High School; and Jerrick Morsey, Goddard High School, $2,400 scholarships each to New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology;
• Kimberlee Smith, Melrose High School; Rebecca Strohm, Melrose High School; and Chance Means, Cliff High School, $1,300 from Eastern New Mexico University;
• Christopher Taylor, Cliff High School, award of excellence from Jontz Dawe Gulley and Crown, P.C.; and
• Leonard Biemer, Farmington High School, $500 scholarship from Mesa Analytics & Computing.

Four teams from four schools across the state were recognized with honorable mentions for their supercomputing projects: Bosque School, "The Effectiveness of a Cervical Cancer Vaccine," team members Conner Hite, Alison Trimmer, Chloe Williams and Colin Williams; Monte del Sol Charter School, "Teen World," team members Caroline Critchlow and Sonja Romero; Alamogordo High School, "Modeling the Metabolism of Ethanol to More Accurately Predict Blood Alcohol Content," team members Levi Blackstone and Matthew Woller; and Santa Fe High School, "A Comparison of Numerical Solutions to the General Neutron Point Reactor Kinetics Equations," team member Leif Hopkins.

The Ben Lujan Leadership Award went to the SER/SFPS Career Academy for "Genetics and the Likelihood of Disease." Team members are Sarah Anaya and Mario Larranaga, and their teacher is Rhonda Ward.

The Best Written Report Award from the Society for Technical Communications went to Robert Cordwell of Albuquerque Public Schools Career Enrichment Center for his project, "Using Adaptive Algorithms for Better Racing." His teacher is Ken Greenberg.

In addition, Kyle Fuerschbach and Adam Davie of Manzano High received Fat Cow's Best HTML Award for their project "Traffic Waves."

The Albuquerque Tribune Lighthouse Award for best overall presentation went to Levi Blackstone and Matthew Woller from Alamogordo High for "Modeling the Metabolism of Ethanol." The pair also received the Teachers' Choice Award.

Kimberlee Smith and Rebecca Strohm of Melrose High received the Search and Browse Award from the Council for Higher Education Computing Services Inc. for best research for their project, "Murder or Magnetism."

Dylan Allegretti of Santa Fe Prep captured the Creativity and Innovation Award from Sandia National Laboratories for "Automated Theorem Proving in the Mathematica Language."

The "Best Use of StarLogo," presented by the Santa Fe Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, went to the "Teen World" project by Caroline Critchlow and Sonja Romero of Monte del Sol Charter School in Santa Fe.

The Los Alamos National Laboratory Environmental Award went to "Modeling Forest Fire: Fighting It and Its Effect," a project by Punit Shah of Albuquerque Academy.

A team from Desert Academy in Santa Fe who used computers to build a giant, water-balloon-launching trebuchet, took home the Science is Fun award for "The Engineering Beauty of Trebuchet." Team members are John Corff, Alex Grunstein, Tory Passalaqua, Aaron Salman, Stuart Pollock, Jon Wheeler and Jessie Johnson.

The Judges' Special Recognition awards went to four teams: Rio Vista Middle School, for "Komodo's Return," which was named the Best Middle School Project; Cliff High School, for "Couch Potato Syndrome, the Slothful Killer," Best Science Methodology Award; Shiprock High School, School Wide Recognition Award; and Bosque School, Research Award.

New Horizons Computer Learning Center awarded a free class at their Albuquerque center to six teachers for the outstanding support they provided their teams. The teachers were Vernetta Noble, Shiprock High; Debbie Loftin, Rio Rancho Mid High; Becky Raulie, Melrose High; Sue Giovanini, Rio Vista Middle School, Bloomfield; Dianne Kemp, Yucca Middle School, Clovis; and Makoena Simon, Chaparral, Santa Fe.

Reports by all the teams finishing the Adventures in Supercomputing Challenge can be viewed at http://www.challenge.nm.org/FinalReports/ online.

After sharing poster exhibits of their work in the Adventures in Supercomputing Challenge Expo on Monday, students and teachers chose two projects for special awards.

The best Graphic Poster Award, which will be the basis for next year's Challenge logo, Web page and t-shirts, went to Sean Gentry, Jamal Osman and Matt Tlush of Manzano High, who shared a $100 cash prize.

The Albuquerque Academy team of Jim Adolf, Zach LaBry, Josh Langsfeld, Ryan McGowan and Matt Strange captured the best Technical Poster Award. They will split a $100 cash prize.

The Supercomputing Challenge was conceived in 1990 by former Laboratory Director Sig Hecker and Tom Thornhill, then president of New Mexico Technet 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, R-N.M., and John Rollwagen, then chairman and chief executive officer of Cray Research Inc., added their support. The Adventures in Supercomputing and the New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge merged in 2002 to create the Adventures in Supercomputing Challenge.

The Adventures in Supercomputing Challenge is sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory, the National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of Defense Programs and NASA's Ames Research Center. Educational Partners are CHECS, Eastern New Mexico University, MIT Starlogo, New Mexico Highlands University, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, New Mexico Department of Education, New Mexico State University, University of New Mexico, San Juan Community College, Santa Fe Community College, the Santa Fe Institute and Tennessee State University.

The Gold Commercial Partners are Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed-Martin, Public Service Co. of New Mexico, Sandia National Laboratories and the Siemens Foundation. Silver Commercial Partners are Cray Inc., DP Signal, Gianopoulos Design, Gulfstream Group and bigbyte cc, Intel Corp., New Mexico Economic Development Department, VanDyke Software Inc. and ZiaNet. Bronze Commercial Partners are the Albuquerque Tribune, Larry Donahue, FatCow, IBM, Mesa Analytics and Computing, New Horizons CLC, New Mexico Student Loans and New Mexico Internet Professionals Association.

Friends of the Adventures in Supercomputing Challenge are Network New Mexico, George and Vera Pulley and the Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists.

Los Alamos National Laboratory is operated by the University of California for the National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy and works in partnership with NNSA's Sandia and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories to support NNSA in its mission.

Los Alamos enhances global security by ensuring the safety and reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, developing technical solutions to reduce the threat of weapons of mass destruction and solving problems related to energy, environment, infrastructure, health and national security concerns.

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