Summer Institute 2006

Overview

For the last 17 years, Ohio's gifted* high school students and their teachers have been given the educational opportunity of a lifetime.

Computing and technology are integral parts of our every day lives. Dramatic changes in technology have inpacted our work, play, education, and commerce. Those who remain on the pulse of technological change today will be the leaders in academia, business, and government tomorrow.

To prepare these future technology leaders, the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC), offers a two-week residential program that provides academically outstanding* Ohio high school freshmen, sophomores, and teachers hands-on experience with some of the nation's best supercomputers.

OSC employs a faculty of experts in high performance computing (HPC), networking, engineering and the sciences to teach students computing fundamentals such as programming language, parallel processing techniques, and visualization toolkits.

Students and teachers worked together on team projects to apply what they learned in lectures. With the guidance of an SI staff member, they worked in small groups to solve real-world, research level science and engineering problems in fields such as chemistry, structural engineering, and atomic physics. On the final day of SI, students formally presented their findings to an audience comprised of family members, SI staff, and OSC guests.

Activities are not limited to the projects. Experts from computer science and the sciences spoke about their latest research and give rare insight into careers in science, engineering and computing. Outside of the walls of OSC, students participated in a team-building day, as well as science-related field trips in the Central Ohio area.

Objectives:

  • Get hands-on experience on supercomputers and cutting-edge technologies
  • Work collaboratively with a team to complete a research level project
  • Experience working in a real-world research environment
  • Actively learn programming language, parallel processing techniques, and visualization toolkits
  • Follow the scientific method used by researchers all over the world
  • Learn about careers in computing, networking, science and engineering
  • Learn and socialize with students with common interests

* Gifted according to OAC 3301-51-15

Participants

Kevin Bhasin
Rocky River High School
Game Programming and Motion Capture

Ronak Buch
Lakota East High School
Game Programming and Motion Capture

Andrew Burkett
Lakota Freshman School
Cryptography

David Burl
Chagrin Falls High School
Cryptography

Soham Chakraborty
Shaker Heights High School
Comet Project

Abishek Ganesh
Dublin Jerome High School
Game Programming and Motion Capture

Nickolas Halliday
Elyria High School
Puzzle Image Processing

Stephen Halter
Glen Oak High School
Parallel Processing

Joey Huntley
Upper Arlington High School
Comet Project

Kevin Jiang
New Albany High School
Parallel Processing

Daniel Kaplun
Richmond Heights High School
Parallel Processing

Dominic Labanowski
Upper Arlington High School
Parallel Processing

Alex Lesman
Dublin Coffman High School
Parallel Processing

Nathan Malkin
Upper Arlington High School
Puzzle Image Processing

Jacob Peddicord
Buckeye Valley High School
Cryptography

Joseph Wang
Western Reserve Academy
Puzzle Image Processing

Cullen Wong
Dublin Coffman High School
Parallel Processing

Susan Xie
Hudson High School
Comet Project

Projects

The students worked together in small teams on diverse and challenging research-level projects. Teams were comprised of a project leader (staff member who conceived and designed the project), students in the project group, a high school teacher and a student leader (in charge of dividing project tasks).

The team projects offered vary from year to year. This year's projects included: Parallel Programming, Cryptography, Puzzle Image Processing, Game Programming and Motion Capture and the Comet Project.

Students did a vast amount of work in a short period of time to finish their projects. It was a crash course in time management. First, they learned UNIX, the operating system of the computers they used. Then they learned a programming language, such as C, C++ or Python, to write the code to solve their problem. Students were required to do their own work from code implementation to final presentations. The ability to develop algorithms and an understanding of the project's science/engineering basis were needed to facilitate code writing. Finally, the students made a video animation displaying their simulation data -- which was the ultimate goal of each project. Groups presented their findings and animations to family members, OSC staff, and guests attending the SI Closing Ceremonies.

Schedule

Click here to download a detailed schedule.

Photos

Final Presentations Friday, July 28th 2006

Center for Automotive Research Tuesday, July 25th 2006

Ohio Supercomputer Center Monday, July 24th 2006

Outdoor Adventure Education Center Tuesday, July 18th 2006

Advanced Computing Center for Art and Design - Motion Capture Lab Monday, July 17th 2006

State of Ohio Computer Center Monday, July 17th 2006

The OSC's Summer Institute program is sponsored in part by:

Mathworks
ODE