May 25 — The Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS) program, introduced in November 2015 at the SC15 conference in Austin, Texas, developed as a means for addressing the prevalent gender gap that exists in Information Technology (IT) particularly in the fields of network engineering and high performance computing (HPC).

The 2015 program enabled five talented early to mid-career women from diverse regions of the U.S. research and education community IT field to participate in the ground-up construction of SCinet, one of the fastest and most advanced computer networks in the world. WINS, is a joint effort between the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER), and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR).

SCinet, SC’s dedicated high-performance research network and backbone of information and communication, is seeking qualified female U.S. candidates in their early to mid-career to join the SCinet volunteer workforce for SC16. Selected candidates will receive full travel support and mentoring by well-known engineering experts in the research and education community.

SCinet provides an ideal “apprenticeship” opportunity for engineers and technologists looking for direct access to the most cutting-edge network hardware and software, while working side by side with the world’s leading network and software engineers, and the top network technology vendors.

There are more than 15 teams that comprise SCinet, all focused on specific areas of expertise involved in setting up and operating a research network. Selected candidates will be matched with a mentor in one of these areas based on interest and background.

Learning and training opportunities include (but are not limited to):

• Operating and maintaining traditional “IT” services for SCinet;
• Installing fiber optic network connections;
• Installing and configuring wireless access points;
• Installing and configuring wired network devices for conference meeting rooms;
• Managing internet routing protocols;
• Configuring wide-area network connections to national telecom providers;
• Supporting conference attendees, high-performance computing (HPC) and high-performing network demonstrations;
• Participating in cybersecurity activities focused on prevention, detection, and countermeasures to protect the resources of the conference.

Background:

SC is an annual conference co-sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society. The conference focuses on the science and application of HPC and communication technologies. Since 1988, volunteers funded from academic, government and corporate organizations in the HPC industry have worked together to produce the SC Conference series.

The conference attracts more than 10,000 technical program attendees, exhibitors and exhibit visitors. SC has been the breeding ground for the technologies that now underpin services ranging from cloud computing, high-speed Internet services, and current ubiquitous computing architectures.

Attendees are primarily computer engineers, computer scientists, computational scientists and managers/executives of computing facilities who use high-speed and high-performance computers for research and other technical applications. Executives, sales and engineering managers from companies involved in producing and selling HPC products and services also attend and participate.

SCinet provides the essential advanced and commodity networking capabilities the conference needs to support large-scale HPC demos. In recent years, SCinet has delivered bandwidths exceeding 1 terabit per second and has had the opportunity to utilize new services and technology, such as pre-production software-defined networking and intrusion detection systems.

Travel for SCinet Training:

This grant funds selected participants to travel for the staging (if applicable), setup, and attendance of the SC conference and SCinet. Travel could include up to three weeks (or some portion of these three weeks) depending on the SCinet team needs.

• SCinet Staging: October 20-28
• SCinet Setup: November 7-12
• SC Exhibit Show and Conference: November 13-19

Project Measurement:

After completion of the conference, participants will be asked to report on their experiences and touch on topics such as: what part of the training was new or useful, which learning experiences were not effective or valuable, and other targeted questions that will help drive the future of gender diversity outreach efforts. This reflection will be shared with their home institution, SCinet leadership, project PIs, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation.

Selection Criteria:

Candidates will be reviewed by a panel of experts from the research and education community for current job relevance, stated support from applicant’s employer, ability to attend the conference (we will take care of the travel costs but you must be able to set aside time to attend), areas of interest (see application form), and desire to participate in SCinet!

The review committee will select up to seven candidates to receive funding to set up SCinet at the SC conference in Salt Lake City from October 20-28 and November 7-19, 2016. Final candidates will be notified by mid to late August 2016.

Proposal Submission:

Please review and fill out the application by clicking here.

If you have any questions about WINS, please email to: [email protected]

The WINS project team includes: Marla Meehl – NCAR/UCAR (PI), Mary Hester (ESnet), Wendy Huntoon (KINBER), Kate Petersen Mace (ESnet), Lauren Rotman (ESnet).

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Source: SC16