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April 28, 2004

Eldorado High Wins Supercomputing Contest


   
The Associated Press
       LOS ALAMOS   —   An Eldorado High School team did more than win this year's Adventures in Supercomputing Challenge   —   they added to a research project at the University of New Mexico.
    "This was not a toy problem; it was a useful part of an actual research project," said the team's mentor, Susan Atlas, a physics research professor at UNM. "These kids are very smart and very talented and did a lot of work. Their project was similar to something I would give to a beginning graduate student."
    Their project, "Atomistic Modeling of Biomolecular Interactions," took first place Tuesday in the challenge held at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
    Schools all over New Mexico participate in the yearlong competition to design projects making the best use of a supercomputer.
    The team from Albuquerque's Eldorado High created a computer model of proteins in human cells, which one day could help doctors design and test drugs and their effects on patients in virtual reality, rather than actual human tests. It also could help nanotechnology scientists design machines smaller than a blood cell, the team said.
    "We actually wanted to work on something useful that would have real applications in science," said Thomas Dimiduk, a senior and one of four boys on the team. "It was neat to contribute to a real research project, and it taught us a lot about biology and other sciences in the process."
    The project will be plugged into a larger biological model Atlas is developing and will become part of a University of New Mexico research project funded by the National Science Foundation.
    Atlas said a couple members of Eldorado's team have expressed interest in further work on the project.
    "I am hoping I can recruit a few of the students to work for me this summer," she said.
    Dimiduk and the team's other senior, Ryan Shea, plan to use knowledge they gained from the supercomputer project when they go to college in the fall. Dimiduk has a scholarship to Cornell University; Shea has one to New Mexico Tech.
    The team's two juniors, Daniel Appel and Thomas' brother Jeffrey Dimiduk, want to participate in the challenge again next year.
    "I learned a lot about programming, but I think we also learned a lot about scientific writing and the tools you need to do that," Appel said. "I think it helped me with some of my classes this year, too."
    The four, who attended the same elementary and middle schools, have participated in several math and science competitions together over the years and are on the school's chess team. They won the New Mexico Science Bowl competition last year and came in second this year.
    Their teacher, David Dixon, said he hopes their success will entice more Eldorado students to participate in the supercomputing contest next year.
    "Winning certainly helps recruitment," he said.
    AP-WS-04-28-04 1426EDT