TRECC to Host Students from across the State

released 06.17.03

Contact

Trish Barker NCSA Public Information Specialist tlbarker@ncsa.uiuc.edu 217.265.8013

WEST CHICAGO, IL  — The Technology Research, Education and Commercialization Center (TRECC) in DuPage County will be a mathematics mecca on June 30 when students and teachers from across the state gather there for a one-day SummerMath conference.

SummerMath, now in its third year, was designed by the Math, Science & Technology Education program (MSTE) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to spark excitement about mathematics among junior high and high school students through hands-on activities, such as designing Web pages, programming robots, and filming digital movies. It is supported by TRECC, the Boeing Foundation and Partnership Illinois at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

As a home for high-tech collaboration resources and a hub of advanced R&D, TRECC is the ideal location for SummerMath students to learn more about math in a cutting-edge context. Part of TRECC's mission is to serve as a venue for meetings, workshops, conferences and seminars that can use the facility's networking, video conferencing, supercomputing, and 3D visualization assets.

"The opportunity to have this event at TRECC is exciting," said Gail Tate, TRECC's director. "The center's technological capabilities will enable the students to experience tomorrow's technology today. The students will see and use tools that are cutting-edge now but that will most likely be a part of the standard work environment when they enter the work force. Hosting SummerMath at TRECC helps energize these creative minds to continue pushing the technology in new directions."

During the SummerMath conference, students will tour TRECC and the DuPage Airport, exchange programs to run their robots, participate in a GPS treasure hunt and share the work they did during the program. This year's participating schools are:

• Bloom Trail High School, Chicago Heights


• Champaign Central High School, Champaign


• Kankakee High School, Kankakee


• Technology Center of DuPage, Addison


• Westmont High School, Westmont

Members of the media are welcome to visit TRECC during the SummerMath conference. Please call TRECC Director Gail Tate at 630.845.6584 to arrange a tour or press credentials. TRECC is located at 2700 International Drive, Suite 305, West Chicago, Illinois.

TRECC aims to meet the critical need among Illinois' educators, researchers, businesses, and entrepreneurs for access to cutting-edge technology. The center's mission is to support and accelerate the development of innovative ideas, to develop new education applications and learning systems, and to demonstrate on-the-horizon information technologies. TRECC is a program of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, funded by the Office of Naval Research and administered by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. For more information on TRECC, see http://www.trecc.org/.

NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications) is a national high-performance computing center that develops and deploys cutting-edge computing, networking and information technologies. Located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, NCSA is funded by the National Science Foundation. Additional support comes from the state of Illinois, the University of Illinois, private sector partners and other federal agencies. For more information, see http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/.

For more information on SummerMath, go to http://www.mste.uiuc.edu/summermath/.