Women in IT Networking Call for Participation @ SC16

SALT LAKE CITY–(BUSINESS WIRE)–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: wins-management-team@ucar.edu

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

*NSF 2015 grant #ACI-1440642

Contacts

For SC16
Brian Ban, 773-454-7423
BrianBan@SC16Utah.com