TRECC Cluster Helps High School Students Design Roller Coaster
released 06.23.04
Contact
Trish Barker
NCSA Public Information Specialist
tlbarker@ncsa.uiuc.edu
217.265.8013
WEST CHICAGO, IL —
Physics students at Hinsdale Central High School had a unique opportunity this spring—thanks to TRECC and the GK-12 program, the students had access to a supercomputer, which they used to help in the design and testing of roller coaster trusses.
Hinsdale instructor Joseph Liaw teaches physics to his students using real-world themes that help put concepts in context. The focus in the spring quarter was on roller coaster physics, which incorporates topics such as momentum, inertia, kinetic energy, and potential energy.
Working with Liaw was Rebecca Hartman-Baker, a graduate student in computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a participant in the Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) Program. GK-12—funded by the National Science Foundation and administered by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)—supports teaching fellowships for graduate students in the sciences, mathematics, engineering, and technology.
"In this project, students got a taste of what it's like to be a civil engineer," Hartman-Baker said. And in today's world, being a civil engineering often means working with supercomputers.
Although cutting-edge computational resources aren't typically accessible to high school students, the TRECC Technology Center at the DuPage County Airport houses a 26-processor high-performance computing cluster that is dedicated to educational and entrepreneurial applications. The facility also offers 16-processor graphics cluster with a 15-panel tiled display, optimized for visual simulations.
"People think supercomputers are amazing and esoteric, and somehow only available to university or government scientists," Hartman-Baker said. "However, we do have access to a supercomputer located at the TRECC facility, which is available for educational use."
TRECC, the Technology Research, Education and Commercialization Center, is a program of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is funded by the Office of Naval Research and administered by NCSA. Nancy Komlanc, TRECC director of education and training, was instrumental in facilitating the students' project.
Liaw's students designed a section of truss (the framework that supports the tracks) for a roller coaster. The requirement was that the truss be at least 10 meters tall and 5 meters wide. First they used graph paper to draw the structure to scale. Then they used a visualization program (GiD) to transform the drawing into a format that the computer understands. This file was transferred to the supercomputer at TRECC, where the effects of loading the structure with a large force were analyzed by a program called FElt. Finally, the output was transferred back to the students' laptop computers, where they again used GiD to visualize the stress analysis.
"We used a supercomputer in order to analyze a structure and get a feel for how civil engineers design structures," Hartman-Baker explained. "It has only been in the past couple of centuries that engineers began to rely more on experimentation and modeling. They would build small-scale models using novel construction techniques to see if they could produce a building that would stand. Eventually, physicists figured out some laws of nature that helped civil engineers to quantify their work. Today, civil engineers use a combination of tradition, experience, training, and computer modeling to build safe structures."
Liaw pointed out that while his students are accustomed to using technology in the classroom, the opportunity to work with a supercomputer was unique. "Not many high school students can say they have utilized a supercomputing cluster to analyze stresses on the support trusses of their dream roller coaster," he said.
"As computing power continues to evolve exponentially, it will be exciting to see the seamless creative integration of these powerful media and information tools into the teaching and learning process," he added. "I think anytime we are able to explore unique opportunities and provide rich experiences for our students, we are doing our jobs in public education."
Liaw also praised the TRECC facility for its "superb array of supercomputing tools, visualization formats, and conference facilities" and said that the resources there are "waiting to be tapped into for a variety of unique, creative, and practical applications."
NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) is a national high-performance computing center that develops and deploys cutting-edge computing, networking and information technologies. Located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, NCSA is funded by the National Science Foundation. Additional support comes from the state of Illinois, the University of Illinois, private sector partners and other federal agencies. For more information, see http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/.
The Technology Research, Education and Commercialization Center is a University of Illinois program funded by the Office of Naval Research and administered by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA).TRECC supports innovative research in advanced information technologies, and their application to meet the needs of the Navy R&D community. The center also provides the DuPage business and education communities access to next-generation technologies and offers opportunities for commercializing these technologies. TRECC's Technology Center is located at 2700 International Drive, Suite 305, West Chicago. Visit http://www.trecc.org/ for more information.
