March 12, 2020 — The Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS) program is seeking qualified female candidates in their early- to mid-career to join the SCinet volunteer workforce for the Supercomputing 2020 Conference (SC20), to be held in Atlanta, Georgia on November 15-20, 2020. The submission deadline is April 1, 2020.

Selected candidates will receive full travel support and mentoring by well-known engineering experts in the research and education community.

Each year, expert volunteers from academia, government, and industry come together to design, construct, and operate SCinet, a unique multi-terabit-per-second network built to support attendees’ revolutionary demonstrations that have become the hallmark of the SC conference. SCinet takes a year to plan, a month to build, a week to operate, and just one day to tear down.

Opportunities

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, software, and systems engineers and top network technology vendors.

More than 15 teams 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, and high-performing network demonstrations
• Participating in cybersecurity activities focused on prevention, detection, and countermeasures to protect the resources of the conference.

Travel for Professional Development with SCinet

This grant funds selected participants to travel for the staging, setup, and live support of the SC conference as a SCinet volunteer. Travel could include up to three weeks (or some portion of these three weeks) depending on the SCinet team needs. SC20 will take place in Atlanta, GA. Participation in the program requires travel in Atlanta for the following dates (not including travel days):

• SCinet Staging: Oct. 26-30, 2020
• SCinet Setup: Nov. 8-15, 2020
• SCinet Live Operations/SC20 Conference and SCinet teardown: Nov 16- Nov. 21, 2020

Participants also receive a complimentary conference registration, which includes the world’s leading technical program on all facets of high performance computing and networking.

WINS Selection Criteria

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

Project Measurement

After completion of the conference, participants are asked to report on their experiences, including: which parts of the training were new or useful, which learning experiences were 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, the SC conference leadership, project PIs, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation.

Access the 2020 WINS Application from the WINS website: http://www.women-in-networking.net/apply-to-wins/

** All early to mid-career women employed in the IT field who are located in the United States are encouraged to apply.**

About WINS

The Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS) program was developed in 2015** as a means for addressing the prevalent gender gap that exists in Information Technology particularly in the fields of network engineering and high performance computing. WINS is a joint effort between the Department of Energy’s Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER), and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). WINS provides travel funding for those selected, collaborates with SCinet leadership to match each awardee with a SCinet team and a mentor, and provides ongoing support and career development opportunities for the awardees before, during, and after the conference. Funding is provided through a National Science Foundation grant*, through direct funding from ESnet and contributions from other project collaborators.
* NSF 2016 grant #ACI-1640987
** NSF 2015 grant #ACI-144064

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Source: Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS)