SSP2 0 1 3

Acknowledgements:

e editors-in-chief of the yearbook would like to thank all the people who made this project a reality. People contributed photos, editing skills and their aesthetic senses. Special thanks go to those who stayed up on the night of the due date. It is because of this dedication that we are able to present to you this incredible work. anks to the layout editors who spent countless hours designing the spread of the yearbook and striving to perfect it. Naveen Arunachalam, who brought knowledge of InDesign, played a leading role in creating the structure of the yearbook. Bio Liu, though new to the designing so"ware, also made indispensable contributions to the layout e$orts.

anks to the photo editors who devoted their time to collecting images of our memories at SSP. Karl Otness’s meticulous attention to detail gave a more profes-sional feel to our yearbook. Matthew Estrada-Millican painstakingly collected and photoshopped many of the images used in this publication.

anks to the copy editors who proofread every word and checked every sentence for clarity. Drew Scha$er, an enthusiastic editor, clari%ed many a murky phrase. Matthew Zhu also scrutinized the text and found many previously-unnoticed er-rors.

Special thanks also go to those who were originally not part of the yearbook com-mittee but volunteered their time to ensure the yearbook is completed. David Wang contributed to the design of the layout and helped with text editing. Katie Dunn made essential comments on the dra" of the yearbook. Ceidric Platero provided crucial sources of pictures and aided the editing of the text. Nancy Wei also brought many great ideas to the committee.

Finally, the editors in chief would like to convey their thanks to all the unmentioned people who supported and contributed to the success of the yearbook. Editors in Chief,Luya Wang, Karen Yang,

SSP NM Tech 2013

Introduction: Sweet PotatoesPeople

StudentsTeam PagesSta$ and TAs

All About SSP LifeGuest LecturesTalent ShowSleep and Stalkers

"Fundatory"Field TripsPranks and Cows

All the Other ingsSuperlativesData CrunchingQuotesFun Stu$MapsContact

Sweet Potatoes: The �SP� in SSP

We at SSP have a special relationship with a certain tuberous root vegetable: Ipomoea batatas, the sweet potato. When we arrive at the Fidel Center for lunch and dinner, necks crane at the bu$et line to see whether sweet potatoes will be gracing our plates. e starchy roots have the color of pump-kin and the versatility of their namesake. e sweet potatoes come most commonly in the form of fries, both wa(e and traditional, but they have also appeared mashed, baked and sautéed. e cafeteria has even served sweet potato tater tots (sweet tater tots?) a few times. But no matter what the form, all share the same rich /avor of nature’s chef-d’œuvre.

is love a$air began a"er just a few days at camp. One evening, Drew skipped merrily to his dinner table and sat down next to Rebekah. He immediately noticed perfectly-formed orange wedges on her plate. Drew asked whether they were carrots, but Rebekah corrected him: this was SSP’s %rst night of sweet potato fries. Intrigued and exhilarated, he shot up and skipped to the bu$et where he %lled his plate with rays of crispy sunshine. Over the next few nights Rebekah and Drew devised a system whereby one would

alert the other if their favorite food showed up. One day in the computer lab, Dr. Faison and Drew were chatting about dinner options when the wise teacher expressed his love for the tuber. Drew told him about his arrangement with Rebekah and jokingly proposed making a Twitter feed. A few minutes later, @SSPSweetPotato was a reality. Due to the needs of the students, a Facebook page was created to showcase photos of SSP students enjoying sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes have become an integral portion of SSP culture. ey adorn our class shirts and captivate our taste buds. For the students at SSP 2013, the “SP” will always stand for “sweet potatoes”.

PEOPLE

e people in SSP make up a very diverse group. Out of the 36 students, six are residents of other countries. e remaining thirty come from all over the United States. We have people from all backgrounds, races, and cultures.

Not only are we a geographically and ethnically diverse group, we are also diverse in our interests. Some of us are more oriented towards astronomy and physics, while others are more interested in mathematics or programming. Some of us are even interested in non-science %elds such as literature, economics, history, and linguistics. As a group we are also very muscial. Our days are %lled with melodies and communal song.

Based on our strengths, the faculty split us into 12 balanced teams. We have an outstand-ing faculty supporting us. We have excellent professors in Dr. Andersen, who teaches math and physics, and Dr. Faison, who lectures on astronomy. Both are easily accessible outside of class and are happy to dicuss the problem sets and general questions with interested students. We also have four teaching assistants (TAs) who are SSP alumni. ey help us with probelm sets and code, but they also hang out with us and participate in tea parties and basketball games.

e people that are a part of SSP are one of the greatest reasons it is such a memorable program. Not only are we intellectually challenged by our peers, but we are also enriched by the social experiences. Whether we are slaving over our OD with team members or just staying up late to have bread with Nutella while chatting with friends, we are forging relationships that hopefully last for the rest of our lives.

STUDENTS

ANDREI CUCEU

ROMANIA

APARNA NARENDRULA

OHIO

ASHLEY TAYLOR

NEVADA

BIO LIU

CHINA

BRADLEY EMI

CALIFORNIA

BRAYDEN SMITH

ARKANSAS

CATALINA MIRITESCU

ROMANIA

CATHRYN CHEN

CHINA

CEIDRIC PLATERO

NEW MEXICO

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COLEEN HOLDEN

ARIZONA

DAHLIA BAKER

TEXAS

DAVID WANG

OREGON

DREW SCHAFFER

TEXAS

ELIANA LORCH

NEW YORK

GIMIN CHOI

CALIFORNIA

GUADALUPE BUENROSTRO

CALIFORNIA

JACKIE LIU

NEW JERSEY

JAMES PARKES

ALABAMA

JIWHAN SON

TEXAS

KAREN YANG

TEXAS

KARL OTNESS

MINNESOTA

KATIE DUNN

CALIFORNIA

KIM DAUBER

ILLINOIS

LUYA WANG

MASSACHUSSETS

MANJUL PAHWA

INDIA

MATTHEW MILLICAN

TEXAS

MATTHEW ZHU

FLORIDA

NANCY WEI

CALIFORNIA

NATALIE NICOLAS

CALIFORNIA

NAVEEN ARUNACHALAM

TEXAS

RAJA ATLURI

NEW JERSEY

SADHANA SENTHILKUMAR

INDIA

STEPHANIE GU

CALIFORNIA

SUSAN NIEDERHOFF

COLORADO

WALLY WIBOWO

MISSISSIPPI

WYATT MACKEY

UTAH

TEAM PAGE 1

Team 6 Narwhals�1998 QE2

The Narwhal

TEAM PAGE 7

TEAM 8

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE ASTRONOMERS

#TheTeamThatisAlwaysTooGoodatTeamwork

M13 2007 TX18

TEAM PAGE 9

Team 10

Déjà vu

TH

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TEAM PAGE 11

STAFF AND TAs

Dillon Liu: e ex-tremely bu$ yet nerdy TA who enjoys reading about physics in his spare time. He is ad-dicted to working out.

Ryan Handoko: Emma Watson’s big-gest fan and dump-ster diver extraordi-naire. He loves free food.

Elaine Johnson: SSP’s resident dancing expert and world-healer. She is closest of anyone here to attaining Englightenment.

Rebekah Cramerus: e polyglot and world traveller not afraid to take her life into her own hands. She is not fond of bats.

Dr. MICHAEL FAISONAstronomy professor at Yale who swing dances and listened to NPR before it was cool. Better known as Dr. Fay-Fay Zay-Zay.

Dr. WILLIAM ANDERSEN

Physics professor at Eastern New Mexico University who would happily die for geom-etry.

Bernice AnayaBernice is the leader of our weekly caravan to ex-otic lands: Albuquerque, Three Rivers, White Sands. On certain special days she takes us to mysterious merchants of Walmart.

Barb MartinezBarb is best described as our “mother away from home.” She is in"nitely car-ing... but just don’t steal her claps at announcement time.

ALLABOUT

SSP LIFE

SSP is a di$erent world from our normal lives. It is a world of simple joys. We eat Nutella and sweet potato fries, swing dance, and stay up late with friends. We take glee in dodging the un-reasonably powerful sprinklers that come on around 2am. We adore pranking the TAs. Besides that, it is a world of extremes. We experience a rare frustration a"er coding for six hours, yet a rare elation during one of Elaine and Dr. Fay-Fay Zay-Zay’s swing dancing lessons. We push ourselves hard to work on problem sets, and play just as hard a"erwards. At SSP, you truly push and probe and thrash against your own limits. For example, we at the yearbook commit-tee did not know it was possible to stay up until 8:30 am formatting and editing and typing the yearbook. As we work, a mental fog descends upon us as we somehow stave o$ the Sandman’s invitations to slumber. We refuse to fall onto the ground in a much-needed repose. No, we must continue our work so that the people of SSP can have a yearbook! It is daytime and we have just returned from breakfast, our %"h or sixth meal of the day, but we have the will to stay on the job until our work is %nished.

Perspicacious

Voluble

Protean

Guest Lectures

< Dr. Jill Tarter Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI, SETI Institute“Are We Alone?: Current Status of SETI Research”A presentation about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

^ Mika McKinnon Geophysicist, Physics Today, “Disaster Science Fiction”Discussing depictions of science in the media.

< Dr. Lawrence Sverdrup, Jr. Senior Scientist, Trex Enterprises“Mad? Science!”Using science to blow stu$ up!

^ Dr. Charles Zender Prof. of Earth System Science and Computer Science, UC Irvine“Global Warming: Science Mistaken as Politics”An analysis of the intersection between scienti%c issues and political interests.

SSP TA L E N T SHOW

Today, rainingasteroids from the sky, good for obser-vations.July 18th, 2013

“All the News We Hope to Print.” The SSP Daily

Talent shows are meant to display talent, but what kinds of talents would be presented by the thirty-six kids, six semi-adults, and one site director at one of the nerdiest camps on the planet? Well, the program included neither a proof of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle nor Fermat’s little problem. Instead, the talents on display at the SSP talent show were artsy things not typically associated with scientists and mathematicians. From piano to mandolin to ukelele, from dancing to singing to acting, from Coldplay to Ingrid Michaelson, SSPers displayed an incredible range of talents that demonstrated hard work, dedication, and sometimes a little bit of craziness.

You may be wonder-ing why this 17 year old guy with stubble is wearing a pair of pink short shorts. It turns out he is dressed up for the lead role in the SSP production of Goldi-

Half of the students combined their creative talents to write and perform a parody of Mulan that re/ected our experience at SSP, complete with song lyrics that describe the metamor-phosis into a scientist, references to our favorite movies and TV shows, and allusions to our favorite SSP memories. Remember, you must be swi" as a supercomputer!

In one of the most surprising acts of the talent show, Jackie Liu showed o$ her glowsticking skills, much to the amazement of the audience.

Beginning with a cacophony of “Drops of Jupi-ter”, Coleen, Jackie, Aperna, Karen, and Dahlia transitioned into a ukelele-accompanied chorus. Interrupting the song with “we forgot to introduce this,” they dedicated their performance of “Get Lucky” to a particular TA and their luck observing at SSP.

Sleep is good for your healthespecially a"er an all-nighter...

Dear those who know more than all else:

We, your fellow students, have seen it %t to thank you for all the im-pressive e$orts that you have put into the di5cult task of stalking us. A"er much soul-searching we realize that we owe you so much. It has been mostly through your invasive use of Google, Facebook, and other (perhaps illicit) methods that we have come to discover the personal parts of each other’s home lives, especially those parts which most would like to remain hidden. Also, thank you for taking every chance to snap all those photos of us despite our desire for your cameras to remain powered o$. anks to your dedication we now have count-less gigabytes of pictures that most of us wish had never been taken. Years from now we will all be thanking you again for supplying those embarrassing photos at some of our weddings, photos that will make us cringe in your honor. ey are valued and yet feared. So thank you. You have been among the most amazing and most appreciated of us all. roughout the entire summer you somehow—despite the incred-ible odds against you—managed to keep track of the events going on in most of our lives. At times you even tried without consent to in/uence them in the way you believed right. And all this, despite our steadfast opposition! Because of this we feel obligated to acknowledge all that you have done for us and the pains that you have undergone in order to perfect the role of camp stalkers.

ank you,

Your fellow students

A Thank You Letter

to Stalkers

“FUN”

Here at SSP, we have many activities that are “fundatory”. In

other words, attendance is mandatory for these supposedly

“fun” activities. The wide range of activities include "eld trips,

swing dancing, yoga classes, pool parties, and movie nights.

Each is held on a weekly basis, and is generally a relaxing event

to look forward to in the middle of a stressful or hectic week.

Among them, swing dancing has left the biggest imprint on

the culture here; students often break into spontaneous swing

dancing in the computer lab around 2:00am. SSP also organiz-

es fabulous "eld trips. From EMRTC, which is close by, to Santa

Fe, far enough for a train ride, each one is enriching and gives

us a refreshing break from the intensive workload here at SSP.

It’s what we call

D A T O R Y

ALBUQUERQUE

Trinity/EMRTC

4th of July

VLA and MRO

PETROGLYPHS

VALLEY OF FIRE

WHITE SANDS

Unexplained Phenomena

e Disappearance of Drew:

e “M” on the Mountain

“As everyone at SSP knows, I was missing for nine hours in White Sands National Monument. By the time I was found, I had hiked over seven miles barefoot with nothing but the clothes I had on. In ret-rospect it is unbelievable. A lot of people have asked me what it was like, or what I was thinking about. I know it sounds like something from a sappy movie, but the entire time I was on the dunes I kept thinking about everyone back at SSP. I knew they were worried about me and I was determined to %nd the bus and stop any further distress I was causing. I am forever grateful for the care and concern dem-onstrated by everybody here. e bear hugs from all my friends when I got back made me realize how lucky I am to be part of this community.”

-Drew Scha$er

We students here at SSP appreciate the dedication and care of the professors and TAs, so we thought of some ways to show them some love. Pranks im-mediately came to mind.

�� ��

Question of the Day:

ALLTHEOTHER THINGS

DATA CRUNCHING

DATA CRUNCHING

�You know, physics is like poetry and grammar is like mathematics. Poets break the rules of grammar whenever they want.� - Dr. Andersen, 7/16/13, on physics, math, poetry

�Metaphorical whips on all of you who are not done!� - Wyatt Mackey, 7/16/13, to those who nearly prevented the trip to Santa Fe by not having completed the Baby OD, among other home-work

�People have gone from sleeping to long blinks.� - Dr. Faison, 7/9/13, on semi-attentive students in lecture

�It�s like a kid on a swing, and you go up and start shaking the swing. It�s not very nice, and you�ll end up going to jail.� - Dr. Andersen, 7/11/13, on bathing a particle with frequencies so high that avoids all resonances and acts like a free electron

�My normal has such a wide range, from calm normal to insanity normal.� - Stephanie Gu, 7/14/13, on herself

�I never say anything, but rather let people put words in my mouth via Google Docs� - Karl Ot-ness

�It�s a curious thing.� - Dr. Andersen on any tricky problem any day

�Raj, will my insurance pay for spectacles?� - Manjul on his broken glasses which were broken by a racquetball to the face

-lipses

�Oh, hold on, no, no - I didn�t mean to kill him yet. Let�s make that the velocity, not acceleration.� - Dr. Anderson, 7/3/13

[E&M is having a mental breakdown from too many hugs.] Kotness: �Do you need a hug?� 7/4/13

�Right! Right! Left! Left! Forward! Backward! One - two - three!� - SSP Penguin Dancers, 7/4/13, doing the Romanian penguin dance on the Fourth of July

Drew stands up during dinner announcements: �I got a fortune that says I will soon be the center of attention. It was right.� - 7/5/13

�Some amazing stuff happens here. You could base a religion off of this.� � Dr. Andersen on prob-ability and Poisson Distributions

�Stupid computer error. It�s erasing the universe.� - Dr. Faison, 7/4/13, on Python programming

�I love drinking comet juice.� -Dr. Faison, on his love of water, 6/28/13

�Sleep is for the weak.� - Everyone in SSP

SSP QUOTES

FUN STUFF

“I cannot address more how impor-tant it is for nerds

to learn swing dance.”

-- Dr. Faison

“You can always sleep on the bus”

-- Dr. Faison

Tea party:A chance for relax-ation and nail polish.

Signatures

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