Compute Canada Joins Women in HPC Network

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women in hpcCompute Canada has become the first international partner to join the Women in High Performance Computing (WHPC) network.

At an ISC Workshop hosted by WHPC to celebrate female leaders in advanced research computing, Compute Canada signed a memorandum of understanding with the goal of increasing the representation of women in advanced research computing in Canada.

The WHPC network aims to build a community where scientists, technicians, researchers, users and academics collaborate, share knowledge, and mentor to address the poor representation of women in the subject and achieve equal representation for all in HPC,” said Dr Toni Collis, founder of WHPC. “This new partnership with Compute Canada will lay the foundation for a truly global effort.”

Gender inequality is a key problem across all scientific disciplines, both in academia and industry. Research indicates that women educated to university or college level are more likely to have a technical or professional job than men with a similar level of education. Despite this, women are less likely to be scientists or engineers than men, and are less likely to use a science-based PhD in a research career than men.

Achieving gender balance in advanced research computing is an important goal for Compute Canada,” said Mark Dietrich, President and Chief Executive Officer Compute Canada. “This is not just an important equality and balance issue. We know achieving gender balance, and diversity in general, improves innovation and research outputs. In order to meet the growing demand for HPC skillsets that address the increasing requirements of key industrial and academic sectors we must support and grow our skill base in this area. Dr Collis’ work in this area both in research and outreach has been exceptional. We look forward to adopting these key learnings in Canada,”

Compute Canada’s first action will be to work with WHPC to understand why women are underrepresented and to create activities in training and outreach to address this issue.

In related news, WHPC will host Women in HPC UK, a day-long seminar Sept. 4 in London.

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