In other news
Students from San Felipe Pueblo Elementary School designed a scale model virtual city for the Future City competition, which was themed “the Power of Public Space.”
Future City Competition
In January, San Felipe Pueblo Elementary School students designed and built a “future city” that included public recreational and commercial areas such as an abandoned field as part of a regional engineering design competition—which they won. Thirty-four students answered the question posed by the contest: How can we make the world a better place? The students researched, wrote, and constructed a model city they called “Katishyame,” the traditional name for the people of San Felipe Pueblo. Team Katishyame’s creativity earned them a special regional award as the best city for water resource engineering.
From left: Kathy Keith, director of the Lab’s Community Partnerships Office, Sean Cooper, the awards ceremony MC, and Supercomputing Challenge winners Lisel Faust, Ramona Park, Rowan Cahill, Hope Cahill, and their teachers Theo Goujon and Brian Smith.
Supercomputing Challenge
Four Santa Fe High School students won first place for their project, “Urban Installation of Smog Reducing Materials,” at the 27th Annual New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge Expo held April 25 in Albuquerque. In their project, Rowan Cahill, Lisel Faust, Theo Goujon and Ramona Park simulated the effects of using smog-reducing materials on the air quality in a congested city.
“The goal of the yearlong event is to teach student teams how to use powerful computers to analyze, model and solve real-world problems,” says David Kratzer of the Lab’s High Performance Computing division and executive director of the Supercomputing Challenge. “Participating students improve their understanding of technology by developing skills in scientific inquiry, modeling, computing, communications, and teamwork.”
Second place went to Anna Luisa Batista, Lily Shevitz and Sylvia Holesinger of Los Alamos Middle School for their project, “Adios! Aedes Aegypti.” They created a computer model that simulates the interaction between wild female mosquitoes and genetically modified organism males to fight the Zika disease to see how effectively they control the spread of Zika.
Los Lunas High School students Jen Marie Phifer, Zach Collins and Aaron Martin took third place with their project, “Rattlesnake Hunting Regulation.” They modeled the impact of rattlesnake hunting on rattlesnake populations.
The Los Alamos County Council read a proclamation authored by a member of the Motorcycle Safety Committee declaring May as Motorcycle Awareness Month at its meeting on May 2.
Motorcycle safety
The Lab’s Motorcycle Safety Committee would like to remind everyone that May is Motorcycle Awareness Month. Although being aware of motorcyclists on the roads is necessary year round, attentiveness is particularly important this month, as days become longer, temperatures warmer, and the number of bikers on New Mexico roads increase.
“Motorcyclists know the inherent hazards associated with riding a motorcycle, and we work hard to manage those hazards and reduce the probability of encountering them,” says Richard Sturgeon, chair of the committee. “A big part of reducing these hazards, however, is ensuring that all drivers on the road are continuously aware that motorcyclists may be present. We encourage all drivers to look before changing lanes, to share the road with appropriate spacing and speed, and to always remember that in Los Alamos, a motorcyclist is likely to be their friend, neighbor and/or coworker.”
Project Prom sends Pojoaque youth to prom in style.
Project Prom
The Community Partnerships Office and Buffalo Thunder Resort recently collected more than 160 gently used and new prom dresses for Pojoaque Valley High School (PVHS) students as part of Project Prom. Several formal jackets, dress shirts, and ties were also donated to the program that helps teens dress for prom.
“It was amazing to see how beautiful they looked,” says Jolene Vigil, a Lab employee and mother of a PVHS student. “One girl said that she felt as beautiful as Marilyn Monroe.”
Pojoaque’s Project Prom, part of The Closet program, collects clothing and monetary donations for those in need. For more information, contact jam@pvs.k12.nm.us.
