Summer Institute 2001

Overview

In its 13th year, OSC's Summer Institute (SI) 2001 was a success for all involved: student participants, returning student helpers, OSC and Advanced Computing Center for the Arts & Design (ACCAD) staff! Everyone who participated can take credit for the great outcome of SI2001 and its rewards.

Students gained an increase in computer science knowledge, new friendships, an enhanced ability to work on a team, a unique opportunity to use state-of-the-art supercomputers, and exposure to campus life. Students left SI2001 with a greater confidence in their individual learning abilities and their ability to adapt while working and living in a new environment with new friends of similar interests.

Participants

Ben Adams
Upper Arlington High School, sophomore
project: Motion Capture & VRML

Hana Adaniya 
Westerville North High School, sophomore
project: Computational Chemistry

Ryan Bunn 
Lakota West High School, sophomore
project: Parallel Processing

Nan Chen
New Albany High School, sophomore
project: Wave Motion & Sound

Jessica DeQuach
Solon High School, sophomore
project: Computational Chemistry

Rishi Dalsania 
Strongsville High School, freshman
project: Motion Capture & VRML

Jonathan Duran 
Columbiana High School, sophomore
project: Motion Capture & VRML

Christopher Fenton
Lima Senior High School, freshman
project: Mechanical Engineering (Cosmos Space Shuttle)

Josh Fledderjohn 
Lakota West High School, sophomore
project: Wave Motion & Sound

Aditya Gummadavelli 
Sycamore High School, sophomore
project: Mechanical Engineering (Cosmos Space Shuttle)

Chris Hamons 
Norwalk High School, sophomore
project: Parallel Processing

Grant Johnson
Sidney High School, sophomore
project: Computational Chemistry

Robert Klayman 
Beachwood High School, sophomore
project: Parallel Processing

Lann Martin 
Ridgewood High School, freshman
project: Wave Motion & Sound

Jack Tao
Hudson High School, freshman
project: Mechanical Engineering (Cosmos Space Shuttle)

Projects

Students worked together in five teams on five diverse and challenging projects.

The projects presented to this year's Summer Institute class were the most challenging ever. The students aptly met this challenge and produced excellent programming, scientific visualizations, and an understanding of these research-level topics.

The Mechanical Engineering project consisted of simulating the vibrational motions of the Cosmos-1 satellite, which is currently being built. Students' high-quality work caught the engineers' attention from the companies building the satellite. The engineers were in constant contact with the group, helping direct their work and using the results themselves. This is the first time the results calculated in any SI project were used by outside organizations.
Click here for the animation.

The Parallel Processing project was designed mainly to teach the parallel processing language needed to split up a problem and assign different tasks to different processors. Their parallel code was run on supercomputers containing 128- and 256- separate processors. They simulated wave motion in one, two, and three dimensions.
Click here for the animation.

The Wave Motion project this year concentrated on the study of acoustics. An auditorium was designed and sounds were traced throughout the room to see how distortion and volume changed. Input to the equations governing sound motion was the rock song, "Layla." How the song would be heard by members of the audience in different seats was studied.
Click here for the animation.

In the Computational Chemistry project, actual molecules were built up from individual atoms using the laws of physics and chemistry. This challenging process was accomplished using software called Gaussian: the same software used by academic Chemical researchers. In just one week, students were able to analyze 8 molecules starting with simple water and ending with "Bucky Balls:" 60 carbon atoms bound together in a sphere-like shape. Their visualizations consisted of showing the actual vibrations and rotations that were possible for the molecules.
Click here for the animation.

The VRML gave students an opportunity to work with the new Motion Capture Laboratory (MOCAP) developed by ACCAD while putting choreographed movements in a virtual world of their own creation. In the MOCAP lab, students wore special suits which had 44 reflecting balls attached at critical points of the body. While two students ran through a choreographed swordfight, 16 cameras on the periphery of the studio calculated the position of each body marker. The output was an identical reproduction of the actual sword fight motions. The data describing the sword fight was converted into two gladiators fighting in a Roman coliseum. This technology is similar to that used by Industrial Light and Magic to produce many of the effects in their "Star Wars" movies.
Click here for the animation.

The students in each project group had to do a vast amount of work, in a short period of time, to finish their projects. This was a crash course in time management. First, they had to learn UNIX, the basic operating system of all the computers they used, and then they had to learn a high-level programming language such as Fortran or C++ to write the code for their project. For the three-dimensional project, students learned a virtual reality modeling language (VRML). OSC and ACCAD staff taught the students these fundamentals before they tackled their projects.

The students were required to do their own work from code implementation to final results. Excellent programming skills and an understanding of the project science/engineering were necessary for the completion of their projects. Lastly, the students made a video animation displaying their simulation data. This short animation was the ultimate goal of each project. They concluded with formal presentations of their findings at the SI Closing Ceremonies.

Schedule

Click here to download a detailed schedule.

Photo Gallery

Click on the thumbnails for a larger image.