Communications of the ACM
Programming Competition Allows Students to 'Geek Out' and Gain Crucial Skillsets
The Second Annual Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) conference hosted the XSEDE13 Student Programming Competition, a contest in which student participants arranged in 10 teams tackled computational challenges. Among the problems the teams faced were calculus-based strategies for calculating the area under simple curves, producing prime numbers large enough to be used for computationally-intensive tasks, and using ensemble-based approaches to generate a probability distribution of expected outcomes. "We want students to realize their potential with analytical thinking in joining the competition," says Ange Mason with the San Diego Supercomputer Center.
Mason says participants are not necessarily interested in following a science, technology, engineering, or math career path, which is why making the contest a yearly event, paying attention to student feedback on how to improve the event, and employing social media to maintain students' engagement were essential this year. The ultimate goal of the XSEDE competition is to help students cultivate problem-solving skills.
"Students . . . need to change how they look at their education," says Contra Costa College's Tom Murphy. "They have the potential to become impactful contributors whether they are scientists, artists, or economists, and computation affects all fields."
From HPC Wire
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