Student Cluster Competition        

• What is the name of your team and why did you choose it?
  
  Team Aggie
  
  An "Aggie" is a student at Texas A & M. In the early 1900s, Texas A & M students were referred to as "Farmers." The term Aggie began to be used in the 1920s, and in 1949, when the yearbook changed its name from The Longhorn to Aggieland, Aggie became the official student body nickname." - Texas A & M Website
  
  
• Why do you think your team will have an edge in the event (what's your secret sauce)?
  
  Half of our team members participated ASC18 at Nanchang University in China in May 2018, and we gained a lot of experiences and learned a lot from the event as well as other teams. Those experiences and knowledges will definitely be helpful to reduce stress and build up confidence in such a competitive event.
  
  
• What have you done to prepare that makes your team unique?
  
  Our team is formed via a general engineering course ENGR 485-515 at the College of Engineering at Texas A&M. Such general engineering courses are organized under an umbrella program called AggiE_Challenge, which is designed to engage engineering undergraduate students with multidisciplinary team research projects related to engineering challenges facing our society. ENGR 484-515 introduces high performance computing to undergraduate students and provides opportunities for the students to get hands dirty on some real world applications. Our team is supported by the Texas A&M High Performance Research Computing where we could get a close look at how large scale systems are maintained and how various scientific and engineering applications are optimized and deployed on high-end computing systems.
  
  
• What are you most looking forward to in the competition?
  
  We look forward to meeting other teams and researchers at the SC18 conference. We are eager to explore the new high-end computing, networking, and storage technologies demonstrated at the conference.
  
  
• How long will it take you to get to Dallas?
  
  It will take us a 3-hour long drive from College Station.
  
  
• What do your team members do for fun?
  
  We are a fairly tech oriented group. We enjoy playing a variety of video games, and participate in LANs together. Many of us also participate in extracurricular software development projects.
  
  
• If your team had a theme song, what would it be?
  
  The Aggie War Hymn.
  
  
• Can you share an interesting fact about your team?
  
  No one can sing in key~