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Students from Mesa del Sol Charter School in Santa Fe visited the New Mexico Consortium in Los Alamos on September 21. Photo by NMC
By Carrie Talus
New Mexico Consortium
In an effort to expand science education and support local communities, the New Mexico Consortium (NMC) recently donated equipment and technology supplies to local schools. Recycling old equipment that is still in good condition can help reduce unnecessary waste.
NMC is coordinating this effort with the North Central Region’s New Mexico Math, Engineering and Science Achievement (NM MESA), a pre-college program that prepares New Mexico students for college and majors in mathematics, engineering, science or technology. Fields.
On September 21, 21 students from Monte del Sol Charter School came to the New Mexico Consortium for a presentation and tour of NMC’s server room facilities. NMC Director of Information Technology, Omar Contreras, met with the team to talk about the servers and server components, why the team received these servers, what they can expect, how NMC will help in the future, as well as a question and answer session.
Finally, the group of students were given computer nodes and various technological devices to take back to their schools.
These machines have now been redesigned for the 4th time. First at the LANL HPC, then the PRObE project, then the NMC and now it will be the turn of the students of Monte del Sol! Contreras said, “It was great to be involved and to be able to use those machines now and avoid them being salvaged for a few more years.”
Monte del Sol Charter School received 10 nodes from NMC. NMC also provided Ethernet cables, 2 small switches, and enough power cords to power the node. These nodes have approximately the following configuration:
- 4 x Quad-Core AMD processors
- 32 GB RAM
- 1 x 1 TB hard drive
When the nodes are part of a larger cluster while in use in NMC, they can run independently of each other. The students use them to learn about hardware and operating systems, and they can deploy them in services from web servers, and file servers, to many other services and configurations, with the goal of learning about IT infrastructure, computer science. And computers in general.
The students work with their school’s IT department to figure out the challenge of properly storing and cooling 10 nodes. NMC is committed to helping if needed.
As part of NMC’s community outreach efforts, this initiative can be scaled up in several phases. In the future, interested students may work at NMC to assist in various server room functions. NMC can develop modules for students to collaborate with each other. For example, it can be useful to have a portal where all students can connect and solve their problems, but also encourage other students by showing what they have done with the given nodes.
NM MESA North Central Regional Coordinator Nicholas Kunz comments, “We are grateful to Omar Contreras and his staff at the New Mexico Consortium for sharing their knowledge with NM MESA students. We were inspired by the hands-on learning opportunities provided by the workshop and it was especially valuable to hear their success stories on the road to great careers in the world of computer science. The teaching continues with the donation of hardware used at the school site, and we look forward to further collaborations in the future!”
About the New Mexico Consortium
The New Mexico Consortium (NMC) is a new effort to engage universities and industry in scientific research for the benefit of the state and to enhance the role of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in science, education and economic development. Formed by three New Mexico research universities, this non-profit corporation focuses on facilitating collaboration at the laboratory interface.
NMC utilizes capabilities in LANL, universities and industry to provide efficient and effective
Responsible for carrying out joint initiatives. NMC develops and manages self-sustaining research facilities to support these joint initiatives. Through NMC, the universities and LANL have developed more effective models to advance our nation’s interests and increase the impact of scientific research on local and national economies.
For more information, see the New Mexico Consortium website at https://newmexicoconsortium.org/.
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