Two innovative programs being launched at the University of Maine will allow college undergraduates as well as middle-school teachers and their students to experience firsthand the extraordinary educational potential of supercomputer technology. The Supercomputing Undergraduate Program in Maine (SuperMe), funded by a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, is an opportunity for 10 UMaine undergraduate students to spend the summer conducting the kind of sophisticated, meaningful scientific research that is usually reserved for more advanced students. "There's lots of really good research going on here, but it's predominantly done by faculty members and graduate students," says Yifeng Zhu, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering who established the three-year program with Bruce Segee, an associate professor in the department. "This kind of undergrad research is fairly unusual." The program runs for 10 weeks, from May 27 through Aug. 1. Any undergraduate in the science or engineering fields – only U.S. citizens are eligible under NSF rules -- is welcome to apply by the March 14 deadline. Those students selected will receive a $4,000 stipend, dining and housing support as well as reimbursement for traveling expenses. Under the guidance of nine UMaine faculty members, the students will be able to explore a wide range of research opportunities, from developing supercomputing techniques and tools to solving cutting-edge problems through parallel computing and scientific data visualization. The goal of the program, the professors say, is to allow students to perform modeling experiments with the university's 512-processor cluster supercomputer that would be impossible to create in real life because of time and safety considerations. By running simulation software on the supercomputer, students could examine the outcome of a chemical spill in the Penobscot River, for example, or study models of algae blooms in the ocean or the effects of fertilizer runoff in the environment. "We hope that this kind of research experience will motivate students to go on to higher degrees," says Zhu. With a separate $1.2 million NSF grant, Segee, Zhu and Peter Koons, an associate professor of geological sciences, will also begin a three-year program on March 15 that aims to integrate supercomputer modeling into the Maine middle-school science curriculum. Called Inquiry-based Dynamic Earth Applications of Supercomputing (IDEAS), the program will allow 20 middle-school teachers and 60 of their students each year to explore the myriad intricacies of UMaine's climate computer model by accessing the supercomputer with their state-issued laptops. "The students can ask questions by picking parameters," says Segee, the lead researcher on the IDEAS program, "and then see the results in an image on 20 laptop screens at once, set up in a tile display." Students and teachers will work in their schools with UMaine researchers during the academic year, and at the university during summer workshops. The workshops will coincide with the Master of Science in Teaching Program conference called "Integrating Science and Mathematics Education Research into Teaching" and the "Student Tech Team" conference of the Middle Level Education Institute. This year's IDEAS program will involve member schools of the Penobscot River Educational Partnership, and Segee and Zhu say they hope to eventually reach all middle schools in the state. "In targeting middle-school teachers," Segee says, "we're trying to make information-technology knowledge a happy side effect rather than just one more thing in the curriculum." UMaine undergraduate students can apply for a spot in the SuperMe program online at its Web site. More information about the IDEAS program can be found at its Web site.