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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR Salazar

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

1/23/08

HB 131

SHORT TITLE Science & Math Supercomuputer School Training

SB

ANALYST Haug

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY08

FY09

$200.0

Recurring

General Fund

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

Higher Education Department (HED)

Public Education Department (PED)

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

House Bill 131 appropriates $200.0 from the general fund to the Board of Regents the New

Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology for a statewide program to provide training on

supercomputers for middle school and high school students in science, mathematics, engineering

and technology applications and to strengthen teaching techniques in science, mathematics,

engineering and technology.

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS

The appropriation of $200.0 contained in this bill is a recurring expense to the general fund. Any

unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2009 shall revert to the

general fund.

This request was not submitted by NMIMT to the New Mexico Higher Education Department

for review. The Department’s funding recommendation for FY09 is a continuance of FY08

recurring funding in the amount of $60,000.

House Bill 131 – Page

2

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

The HED states that:

New Mexico Tech is a long-time host of the New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge.

The New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge provides a learning experience for teams of

pre-college students in scientific inquiry, project management, computational analysis

and presentation skills. The challenge is a year-long state wide competition for prizes and

scholarships. The goal of The New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge is to have at least

one student team compete from each mid-school and high school in New Mexico and at

least one teacher/sponsor with the necessary skills to support student teams by 2012.

The opportunity to work on the most powerful computers in the world is currently

available to only a very few students in the entire United States; for New Mexico

students the program offers a unique experience. The New Mexico Supercomputing

Challenge is open to all interested students in grades 7 through 12 on a non-selective

basis. Participants come from public, private, parochial and home-based schools in all

areas of New Mexico. The program has no grade point, class enrollment or computer

experience prerequisites. Students and teachers are shown how to use supercomputers,

learn programming languages, how to analyze data and write reports.

The New Mexico Supercomputing Challenge is offered at minimal cost to the

participants and the New Mexico school districts sending representatives. The funds from

HB131 will be used to offset costs incurred by students, teachers, and school districts to

attend or send representatives to the supercomputing conference. The Challenge Year

opens with a Kickoff, held at the Glorieta Conference Center, a tour with talks and

demonstrations of technology at Sandia National Laboratory, and a Project Expo and

judging followed by an Awards Ceremony at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The New

Mexico Supercomputing Challenge is sponsored by a partnership of federal laboratories,

universities, and businesses who provide food and lodging for the kickoff conference.

The PED states that this legislation supports Goal 1 of PED’s A Strategic Action Plan for

Advancing Math and Science Education in New Mexico 2007-2010 : “Increase student interest,

participation and achievement in math and science".

GH/mt