Ahead of the second annual ISC Stem Student Day & Gala, taking place June 27, 2018, Nages Sieslack chats with Serge Bogaerts, PRACE managing director. PRACE is the lead sponsor of the ISC STEM Student Day & Gala. The program can admit 200 students and ISC has already reached those numbers. The proceedings kick off with a tutorial on HPC, machine learning and data analytics.

Q. What kinds of programs does PRACE run to educate STEM students on the importance of HPC to their careers?

Serge Bogaerts: The PRACE Training Centres (currently established in 8 countries: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Ireland, and Greece) make a continuous effort to attract students to PRACE trainings, which are all aimed at increasing their HPC skills, regardless of the field of research they are working in. Besides that, PRACE runs its annual Summer of HPC programme in July and August, and it co-organises the International HPC Summer School on HPC Challenges in Computational Sciences.

Q. What do you think are the main reasons STEM students aren’t very aware of HPC?

Bogaerts: HPC is a transversal discipline, and most researchers, whether students or tenured scientists, are focussed on the field of research and not so much on the “tool” they use to do that research. HPC is also virtual in a way, with scientists using the systems from a distance. Supercomputers are not very visible to them. This is why the HPC ecosystem should consistently focus on a multi-disciplinary approach.

Q. The European Commission announced an investment of EUR 1 billion to provide European researchers and companies world-class supercomputers by 2020. But the shortage of STEM skills is growing. How will this disparity affect Europe’s strategy to improve its competitive position in HPC?

Bogaerts: The EC is not just investing in hardware; they are well-aware that the entire ecosystem needs to be supported. Even though there are improvements needed, we are actually competitive in computational science.

Q. What do you think are the main challenges of finding and hiring qualified people for HPC work?

Bogaerts: To find and hire qualified HPC experts you would sometimes need to convince people to go out of their original field of research and develop an affinity with computer science and related topics. It also works the other way around where computer scientists evolve into a certain field of research away from their original expertise.

Q. Women and minority groups tend to be particularly underrepresented in science and engineering. What do you think are the best ways mitigate this imbalance?

Bogaerts: Diversity and inclusivity are topics that need continuous attention until they become so mainstream they become the norm. For HPC, there are opportunities when looking at research fields such as social sciences and humanities: these fields attract more women than the beta sciences that HPC predominantly serves currently. If we can get a more diverse portfolio of domains into HPC, we will also see a more diverse workforce taking shape

The ISC STEM Student Day & Gala is a full-day program and will take place on Wednesday, June 27, 2018. Admission is free for undergraduate and graduate students, both regional and international.