Sponsored in part by CCAPP, Annika Peter and Don Terndrup, the Ohio Supercomputer Center Summer Institute (SI) is a two-week residential program that gives gifted Ohio high school students entering their sophomore, junior or senior year project-based, hands-on learning. Working in small peer teams, the students use supercomputers for practical applications such as solving complex science and engineering problems, conducting network forensics to catch hackers, studying the spread of the bird flu and designing computer games.

 

This summer, the OSC SI students put together the following interactive animation on orbiting planetoids. Click the mouse to add objects to the system and click and drag it to give it a kick in a particular direction: physics.ohio-state.edu/~orban/NBodyPlanetoids

 

"We (Chris Orban and Annika Peter) are really proud of what the students were able to accomplish. The students did a really phenomenal job. ...we got a great group of students who worked well with each other. They created an impressive product. Especially given that only one of them had taken calculus and AP physics before."

 

Check out the NBC 4i news segment on the OSC's role in the Nepal earthquake and the Summer Institute. "Ohio Will Build a New Supercomputer for Research Education"