Students@SC is a platform for students to learn, connect, and grow professionally at the SC conference. The Students@SC cohorts (Student Volunteers, Student Cluster Competition, HPC Immersion, Computing4Change) will all be executed in a fully virtual manner. Students@SC will also be hosting a variety of additional events specifically targeting students!

Students@SC Sessions

Students@SC will host sessions on the SC virtual event platform and via additional external meeting platforms during the day. Recordings will be made available soon after each of the live events. Information on how to join all these events will be clearly displayed on the Students@SC page in the virtual event platform. In addition to the events below, the Students@SC channel will also host SCC Talks, Student Lightning Talks, and Students@SC Alumni Presentations.

Mentoring

SC20 will host two mentoring programs for all conference attendees. You must sign up for these programs by November 2.

Job Fair

Available now and running through January 15, 2021, SC is inviting attendees of all skill levels (students, post-docs, and professionals) to participate in the Job Fair. As applications and résumés submitted will be provided to recruiting organizations, submit your résumé today and help recruiting organizations find you. Employers will be posting their job listings through January. Search the job postings by skill level, area of interest, and more.

Résumé Workshops

SC20 will be providing two virtual résumé workshops during the conference. During these sessions, industry and academic leaders are being asked to provide one-on-one feedback on résumés. These sessions will be held right after each instance of the Perfecting Your Elevator Speech and Growing Your Professional Network Workshop.

To participate in the Résumé Workshops, you must:

• Submit your résumé to the Job Fair.
• Pre-register by October 29 with Sally Ellingson, the Students@SC Programming Chair.

Webinars & Session Videos

For the latest Students@SC webinars and additional student content, visit the Students@SC playlist on the SC Conference Series YouTube channel. Recorded sessions and student interviews will be published there as well.

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Dr. Christine E. Harvey
SC20 Students@SC Chair

The Students@SC program is implementing innovative ideas for SC20 in light of the new challenges that COVID-19 is presenting.

“I’m very excited we’re able to offer remote participation for the Student Volunteers program, the Student Cluster Competition, and HPC Immersion. With the coronavirus pandemic and travel restrictions currently in place, we have realized that many students in our community won’t be able to participate in Atlanta. It is critically important to the SC Conference to continue to create educational, networking, and career opportunities for students unable to attend SC in person,” says Christine Harvey (MITRE Corporation), SC20 Students@SC Chair.

Student Volunteers

The SC20 committee is dedicated to providing the community with the best possible conference experience for all participants. To that end, while we are still planning for an in-person experience, SC20 will also provide remote participation opportunities for the conference in November 2020 for those who are unable to travel to Atlanta due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that we will have both a virtual and on-site Student Volunteers Program for SC20. Due to the uncertainty at this time with international travel, only students residing within North America as of November, 2020 are eligible for the on-site Student Volunteers Program. Anyone residing in North America that is concerned with traveling to the conference can also apply for the virtual Student Volunteers Program.

Check out the FAQ for more details on the Student Volunteers program! The deadline for applications is June 26.

Apply to be a student volunteer

Student Cluster Competition

The SC Conference is modifying the Student Cluster Competition to a Virtual Student Cluster Competition (VSCC) at SC20 in order to support remote participation. The computation for this year’s competition will be held completely in the cloud allowing student teams to participate remotely from their home institution, or in person at the conference. This implies that acceptance to and participation in the VSCC will not require on-site participation in Atlanta.

“The entire VSCC will be run on the Microsoft Azure cloud. We are still working on updating the rules to make sure we add new ones that apply to the cloud, and change the ones that don’t make sense when hardware is not on the floor. We will most likely have students manage their cloud dollars rather than their power budget. I don’t want to say too much today though, as we would like to keep some suspense,” shares Scott Michael, VSCC Co-Chair and Manager, Research Applications and Deep Learning, at Indiana University.

Dr. Harvey adds, “Participation in the Student Cluster Competition is an incredible commitment that requires months of planning, coordinating with vendors, and learning cluster management skills. We recognize that for many students and mentors planning travel to Atlanta in November can be overwhelming. Moving the entire SCC to the cloud will help us facilitate teams from around the world while still allowing those that can participate in Atlanta to do so on a level playing field.”

Accepted teams will therefore be given the option to travel to Atlanta and participate in person. This decision must be made by each team by September 1, 2020 to enable the SC Conference sufficient time to plan for accommodations. Depending on restrictions that will be in place in November, the VSCC may need to limit the number of teams allowed to participate and receive accommodations on-site.
The deadline for applications closes July 3.

Apply to the VSCC

HPC Immersion

The SC20 committee is dedicated to providing the community with the best possible conference experience for all participants. To that end, while SC20 is still planning for an in-person experience, it will also provide remote participation opportunities for the conference in November 2020 for those who are unable to travel to Atlanta due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that both a virtual and on-site HPC Immersion Program will be implemented. Due to actual international travel uncertainties, only students residing within North America as of November 2020 will be eligible for the on-site HPC Immersion Program. Anyone residing in North America that is concerned with traveling to the conference can also choose to apply for the virtual HPC Immersion Program.

Dr. Harvey shares, “HPC immersion is a brand new program at SC20 to really engage undergraduate students in the field. With the option for remote participation, we should be able to reach a wide range of students and introduce them to a future in HPC. ”

The deadline for applications is June 26.

Apply to HPC Immersion

Networking Opportunities

Students@SC is being very creative in organizing special team building and networking events that make SC such a unique experience for student volunteers.

Dr. Harvey discloses, “Social distancing has forced networking to virtual platforms, which can be limiting to many who are getting started in HPC and working on building their community. We plan to offer virtual networking events for students in our programs and general student attendees. While we’re still working on logistics, we’re looking forward to hosting our annual Mentor-Protégé Program and Speed Mentoring events at SC20.”

Onward and Upward

Dr. Harvey and the whole Students@SC committee are imagining a new era for Students@SC with the goal of retaining the SC philosophy of inclusivity, sharing, and opportunity.

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Christine Baissac-Hayden
SC20 Students@SC Communications Liaison (Easy English 4 All)

Christine Baissac-Hayden created Easy English 4 All, which provides multilingual communication tools for clients from diverse backgrounds in the renewable energy, medical, defense, marine science, and film industries. Easy English 4 All provides English as a Second Language (ESL), French, Spanish and Japanese tutoring from certified native-speaking teachers and organizes international student exchanges with personalized objectives and goals.

SC20 marks the first time that SC will take place in Atlanta, Georgia, a vibrant city that – home to the busiest airport in the world – will be an easily reached destination for many of our national and international attendees and exhibitors.

Like you, I am passionate about all aspects of HPC: the operation of supercomputers themselves, the education of students and future leaders about the opportunities available to them in the field of HPC, and the transformation of algorithms, mathematics, programs, and computational power into once-impossible scientific discoveries.

By bringing that passion to my role as SC20 General Chair, my goal is to ensure that SC focuses on the entire world of HPC: applications, systems, storage, networks, and the people who bring it all to life.

As a community we broaden the impact of HPC by increasingly collaborating with researchers, scientists, and influencers who have a major impact on our industry, but who are not operating directly in the HPC sphere. Together, we’re more than HPC.

SC20 Focus

SC attendees interpret the annual conference tagline each year according to their own experiences in the world. Here’s what “More Than HPC” means to me, as we continue to prepare for next year’s conference.

“More Than HPC” is meant to evoke our view of the expanding impact of HPC on our daily lives, and the increasing degree to which scientific advances are the result of deep partnerships between HPC providers and science teams. From targeting disease mechanisms leading to more effective treatment, to creating the neural networks for driverless cars, to refining the vehicles that will take the general public into space, our impact is growing daily.

It’s “More Than HPC” when we use machine learning and data analytics to improve the forecasting and tracking of natural disasters, bringing together previously unrelated disciplines to help keep natural disasters from becoming humanitarian catastrophes.

It’s “More Than HPC” when we target disease mechanisms for more effective treatment by blending molecular dynamics, the latest advances in microbiology, and new approaches to scientific software.

When we apply artificial intelligence to address socially relevant issues like poverty and homelessness, and learn how to grow more crops in a smaller space with less resources, we’re employing “More Than HPC” to find those answers.

The Details

HPC Immersion

I’m especially excited about the tremendous potential of our new HPC Immersion program. Designed to create a pathway to conference engagement and HPC community involvement for undergraduate students traditionally underrepresented in HPC and HPC-related fields, the program will specifically target students majoring in electrical engineering, computer engineering, and computer science.

Participants will be fully involved in the existing Students@SC program, and will be guided by experienced HPC leaders and mentors through technical program sessions, including post-session discussions to further illuminate the session topics and how the participants can become involved in those specialties.

State of the Practice

SC20 also features a renewed focus on the state of the practice. Those who work tirelessly behind the scenes to design, install, house, secure, network, and operate supercomputers and the supporting infrastructure have a wealth of knowledge to share, but few opportunities to reach fellow practitioners directly and relate their experiences.

To bridge that gap, SC20 will feature three full days of dedicated State of the Practice Talks as a venue to deliver practical, up-to-the-minute improvements in all areas of interest to SC attendees. Presentations will cover best practices across a broad range of topics at the forefront of HPC including system management, networking, education, and data management.

HPC in the City

We are also launching HPC in the City, an initiative to engage leaders, decision-makers, educators, and students in the greater Atlanta area to work together and combine our collective talents to address problems that are both relevant to the local community and suitable for HPC. One notable such issue is environmental justice, which aims to address complex issues such as adequate access to healthy food, clean air and water, transportation, and safe living areas.

HPC in the City will also tackle health disparities to provide potential solutions to eliminate preventable differences in the burdens of disease, injury, violence, and access to care, offering all people the ability to achieve optimal health. We hope this collaborative experience will engage all voices to bring the power of HPC to make a lasting impact in these issues.

Technical Program & More

And as always, SC20 will feature an extensive Technical Program featuring those who know HPC best – you. Add to that a dynamic Students@SC program and Exhibits featuring the freshest technologies and capabilities developed all over the world, and you’ll find just about everything you need to enhance your HPC involvement.

Spread the Word

In his SC15 keynote address in Austin, Alan Alda – author and six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner – asked us to try harder to communicate our scientific discoveries clearly with the public. Our community thrives when we bring people together and share what we’re learning, and when we work together to change the world.

I encourage you to watch for exciting developments about the conference throughout the year as we prepare to help you get the best out of Atlanta, SC20, and everything about HPC. Get involved – sign up to receive the SC20 newsletter and read articles in the blog, consider submitting a paper, speaking, or volunteering. It will be a rewarding experience no matter how you choose to engage.

Bring your passion and energy for HPC to Atlanta, where together we can be more than HPC.

Watch the preview video

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Christine E. Cuicchi, SC20 General Chair