Getting young people interested in STEM careers is a big concern for the HPC community. While ongoing efforts like STEM-Trek and the Student Cluster Competition, have proven to be very popular with college kids (and even high schoolers in the most recent competition) we still face a huge challenge as today’s practitioners look to retirement.
Maybe what we really need is a superhero.
A new mascot at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) has the mission to bring supercomputers closer to young people and stimulate their interest in science and technology. The first public appearance of the Supergeek mascot has been in the form of a shirt during the YoMo Barcelona 2018 Festival, in which the BSC has held workshops and talks, and has also set up an interactive stand for the students. SuperGeek has also been in charge of guiding the interactive quiz with didactic purposes developed by the BSC for the YoMo Festival.
This initiative is part of BSC’s efforts to bring its technological and research activity to every part of society. The center organizes guided visits to the MareNostrum supercomputer, which was visited by more than 10,000 people last year (the public can request a guided visit to visits@bsc.es), and participates in numerous informative events such as the OpenHouse open day, the BIYSC program of the La Pedrera Foundation, the Festa de la Ciència organized by the Barcelona City Council or the Mobile Week, among others. BSC also collaborates in the organization of several Hackathons and Datathons, such as the one recently organized by the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB).
I wish we would have had Supergeek around when my son was just a little kid. Nowadays, I just wish I could find some kind of Kryptonite to keep him away from video games.
