The Deucalion supercomputer opened its doors to a group of 25 high school students as part of the “Verão no Campus” initiative run by the University of Minho. The visit took place at the Azurém campus in Guimarães on 22 July, as part of “Computing Without Borders”, an activity run by INESC TEC within the University of Minho’s “Verão no Campus” initiative, where our team promoted advanced computing and engineering paths in a real environment.
The morning began with an introductory session on high-performance and parallel computing, led by Rui Silva and Francisco Vide, from Deucalion’s user support team. The team also explained what supercomputing is and how Deucalion contributes to scientific research and industrial innovation in Portugal.
During the session, students from various schools across the Braga region took part in two hands-on group activities. In the first, they had to sort a deck of cards in parallel as quickly as possible, illustrating the principles behind large-scale computation. In the second, using Lego bricks to represent processors, students simulated how a supercomputer works.
The visit ended with a tour of Deucalion’s data centre, where students got a close-up look at the infrastructure, guided by a member of the supercomputer team.
“It’s always rewarding to see these young people’s interest once they understand, hands-on, how a computer can process millions of calculations at once. Initiatives like this help demystify supercomputing and show them it can be a real career path,” said Rui Silva, from Deucalion’s user support team.
The 18th edition of “Verão no Campus”, promoted by the University of Minho, welcomed around 400 young people from the 9th grade through secondary school between 20 and 24 July, in activities spread across the Braga and Guimarães campuses. For Deucalion, visits like this are an opportunity to bring supercomputing closer to younger generations, while showcasing the advanced computing resources Portugal has available for scientific research.
