PEARC17 Seeds Next Generation of HPC Professionals

Today PEARC17 announced that 66 students will attend their conference coming up July 9-13 in New Orleans as part of their Diverse Cohort program. The PEARC17 (Practice & Experience in Advanced Research Computing) show is for those engaged with the challenges of using and operating advanced research computing on campuses or for the academic and open science communities.

Since this is PEARC’s maiden voyage, we’re especially pleased at the number and diversity of students who qualified to participate,” said Student Program Chair Alana Romanella from Virginia Tech. “It was our goal to attract candidates from a variety of research domains and demographics that are traditionally under-represented in computational and data science degree programs and careers. Adding diversity to the national advanced research computing workforce pipeline is also a priority for organizations that supported PEARC student travel, including STEM-Trek, XSEDE, Google, Micron Foundation, Science Gateway Community Institute, and San Diego Supercomputer Center,” she added.

Among 46 students who will receive travel support to attend PEARC17, 32 percent are female, and 50 percent are from demographics that are under-represented in research computing academic tracks and careers. Twenty students are entirely self-funded, and those with partial support received an average of $450 from their home institutions. Fifty-one are expected to participate in the general conference technical program and in targeted student program activities, including a presentation by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents on cybersecurity and FBI careers; an intensive collaborative modeling and analysis challenge; a session on careers in modeling and large data analytics; a mentorship program; and volunteer opportunities to assist with conference activities.

This year’s inaugural conference offers a robust technical program, as well as networking, professional growth and multiple student participation opportunities.

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