Morgan City student attends Okla. symposium

Submitted
Nine students from the Louisiana School for Math, Science and the Arts attended the Oklahoma Supercomputing Symposium Oct. 1 to 2.
The symposium was held at the Oklahoma Supercomputing Center for Education and Research located on the campus of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla.
The annual event highlights the role of high performance computing in enabling scientific and industrial research in Oklahoma.
This year’s symposium highlighted the growing role of university libraries in archiving large data sets and making them accessible to a broader group of researchers. Oklahoma recently received a large National Science Foundation grant to build the OneOklahoma Friction Free Network, building a “Science DMZ” dedicated research network shared by OU, Oklahoma State University, Langston University and the Tandy Supercomputing Center. Louisiana has a similar network, the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative.
This is the second year that mathematics lecturer Brad Burkman has organized the trip.
 “We were graciously hosted by their sister school, the Oklahoma School of Science and Mathematics in nearby Oklahoma City,” said Burkman. “Frank Wang, president of OSSM, attended the symposium on Wednesday.”
Seniors Katherine Prutz and Annalise Labatut gave a poster presentation on Tuesday and a talk on Wednesday.
Students attending the symposium were Justin Blanchard, a sophomore from Des Allemands; Joshua Bright, a senior from Fort Polk; Lauren Broussard, a sophomore from Morgan City; Connor Elsea, a sophomore from Denham Springs; Alex Fontenot, a senior from Ville Platte; Labatut, a senior from Batchelor; Temi Olatinwo, a sophomore from Natchitoches; Margarite Picone, a junior from Covington; and Katherine Prutz, a senior from Baton Rouge.