PRACE Educates Tomorrow's Researchers

The PRACE Dare to Think the Impossible pilot outreach project will be showcased at the PRACE booth (#725) throughout the ISC‘13 Exhibition in Leipzig. The Dare to Think the Impossible online campaign illustrates how PRACE supercomputing resources are being applied in research and innovation and just how much research being done with it impacts our lives.

The ambitious Dare to Think the Impossible pilot campaign is designed to educate young students, secondary school teachers and the public by inviting them to explore the world of supercomputing and its applications through a Facebook page, YouTube videos and a challenging online video game all focused on driving traffic to the Dare to Think the Impossible (http://www.daretothinktheimpossible.com) informative portal and the PRACE website (http://www.prace-ri-eu). The content is designed and written in a language young people can understand, with bold images that allude to exciting discoveries and real-life stories from cutting-edge researchers on the forefront of scientific discovery. The material and rich media engages, challenges and invites students to join a journey, imagine, dream and learn more about what part they can play in future inventions and developments. The free video game was developed as a cross platform (web, iOS, android) application and visitors are invited to play it during the Exhibition.

The pilot outreach campaign underscores PRACE’s commitment to culture, science and creativity, and putting education at the forefront. Several member countries are already developing HPC curriculum modules for local high schools, with the pilot campaign content at the core.

Exhibition participants are invited to visit Booth #725 and try their hand at simulating astronomical forces by playing the challenging Shooting Stars (http://daretothinktheimpossible.com/shootingstars/) video game and learn more about how PRACE is putting education front and centre, inviting young people to lead the way toward the next generation of discovery and innovation.

The downloadable Dare To Think the Impossible Shooting Stars game is available for iPhones and iPads at https://itunes.apple.com/fi/app/shooting-stars-prace/id642566566?l=en&mt=8 and for Android devices at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.venimis.shootingstars

For further information on the campaign and the game, please contact Barbara Toth tbarbara (at) niif.hu Project Assistant, National information Infrastructure Development Institute Hungary.

About PRACE
The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE) is an international non-profit association with its seat in Brussels. The PRACE Research Infrastructure provides a persistent world-class high performance computing service for scientists and researchers from academia and industry in Europe. The computer systems and their operations accessible through PRACE are provided by 4 PRACE members (BSC representing Spain, CINECA representing Italy, GCS representing Germany and GENCI representing France). The Implementation Phase of PRACE receives funding from the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreements RI-261557, RI-283493 and RI-312763. For more information, see http://www.prace-ri.eu.