Student Cluster Competition
2017 Competition
Denver, Colorado
Illinois Institute of Technology / Maine South High School /
Adlai E. Stevenson High School
United States
Students: Alexander Ballmer * , David Ghiurco * , Iva Veseli + , Hasan Rizvi * , Ryan Mitchell # , Ryan Prendergast $
Mentors: Ioan Raicu *‡ , William Scullin ^ , Ben Allen ^ , Alexandru Iulian Orhean *
* Department of Computer Science, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago IL, USA
+ Department of Biology, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago IL, USA
‡ Mathematics and Computer Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne IL, USA
^ Advanced Leadership Computing Facility, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne IL, USA
# Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire, IL, USA
$ Maine South High School, Park Ridge, IL, USA
Mentors: Ioan Raicu *‡ , William Scullin ^ , Ben Allen ^ , Alexandru Iulian Orhean *
* Department of Computer Science, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago IL, USA
+ Department of Biology, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago IL, USA
‡ Mathematics and Computer Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne IL, USA
^ Advanced Leadership Computing Facility, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne IL, USA
# Adlai E. Stevenson High School, Lincolnshire, IL, USA
$ Maine South High School, Park Ridge, IL, USA
The team is composed of 4 IIT undergraduate students (3 CS majors and 1 Biology major) and 2 high school students; the final team is composed of 5 male students and 1 female student. The team had 3 mentors that met regularly with the students since June 2017: William Scullin from ANL, Ioan Raicu faculty mentor from IIT, and Alexandru Orhean graduate student mentor from IIT.
- What is the name of your team and why did you choose it?
Our team name is Chicago Fusion. The original thought was that we would have students from all over Chicago representing all the major universities on the team. Although we had applicants from many institutions in Chicago, in the end the final student makeup consisted of 4 students from IIT and two high school students from two different high schools.
- Why do you think your team will have an edge in the event (what's your secret sauce)?
A steady supply of candy, but there's a rumor that there will be cake a the end if we can just solve all the puzzles...
- What have you done to prepare that makes your team unique?
Weekly meetings all summer and all fall have come with acknowledgement of great successes and great failures in the form of candy. Some teams might be afraid of a trojan horse, we know it's only really trouble if there's a piñata.
- What are you most looking forward to in the competition?
No more candy. And partying all night long with a half a million-dollar toy doesn’t sound too shabby.
- How long will it take you to get to Denver?
About eight months from start to finish - if we practice, practice, practice.
- What do your team members do for fun?
What is this fun? Compiler optimization flags, here we come!
- If your team had a theme song, what would it be?
As we're from Chicago and on a mission from God, we nominate Everybody Needs Somebody To Love by The Blues Brothers.
- Can you share an interesting fact about your team?
An anagram of all team member last names is: "Her grandest encircled prize algorithm gives vital slumber" or "Her grand prize algorithm can give vilest derelicts slumber".
