Women
in IT Networking at SC (WINS)Call
for Participation
SC16
- Salt Lake City, UT
Please
apply or encourage women in the research & networking IT community
to apply
I.
SUMMARY
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,
the Supercomputing Conference’s (SC) 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):
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.
II.
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 over 12,000 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.
III.
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
IV.
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.
V.
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.
VI.
Proposal Submission:
Please
review and fill out the application at: https://form.jotform.com/hestem/wins-sc16-application
If you
have any questions about WINS, please email
to
:
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
