DENVER, CO—One of the hot topics in academia, government and industry is whether the United States is producing enough trained students to meet the growing demand for workers in the computing and information technology fields. One point not under debate is the fact that more than 135,000 jobs in the field are expected to open each year, at least until 2020.

To encourage more students to enter the field and support those who are embarking on careers in computing, the SC13 conference to be held November 17-22, 2013, in Denver is offering a range of activities as part of a program known as HPC Interconnections.

“In the field of HPC, or high performance computing, we know that interconnections are critical components in supercomputers, data systems and networks,” said HPC Interconnections Chair Liz Jessup, professor of computer science at the University of Colorado, Boulder. “But just as important for our field are the interconnections between people and our programs are aimed at developing and strengthening those ties.”

SC13, an international conference on high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis, is expected to draw more than 10,000 attendees to the Denver Convention Center from around the world. Among them are students and early career researchers, some of whom are experiencing their first professional conference.

“Not only do we want them to feel welcome among the thousands of other attendees, but we also want to help them make connections that will be beneficial in the longer term,” Jessup said. “And we’re hoping that many of the 350 companies and research institutions in the SC13 exhibition will connect with potential future employees.”

To support these goals, the HPC Interconnections program is offering:

• Student Job/Opportunity Fair: This face-to-face event is open to all students and postdocs at SC13 conference, giving them an opportunity to meet with potential employers from research labs, academic institutions, recruiting agencies and private industry. Read more.
• HPC Educators Program: The HPC Educators Program focuses on undergraduate educators and SC attendees interested in integrating HPC and computational and data-enabled science and engineering into classrooms. It also engages government and industry with the HPC educator community and provides a forum to share best practices. HPC Educators Program sessions are focused on teaching these topics to undergraduate students with emphasis on curriculum development and pedagogy and on best teaching practices of interest to undergraduate HPC educators and general SC attendees. Read more.
• Broader Engagement: The Broader Engagement (BE) Program’s goal is to increase the participation of individuals who have been traditionally under-represented in HPC. The program offers special activities to introduce, engage, and support a diverse community in the conference and in HPC. BE is also sponsoring a Mentor-Protégé program to support newcomers to the conference and HPC and enable them to fully benefit from the conference. Experienced conference attendees are invited to become mentors. Read more.
• Experiencing HPC for Undergraduates: The Experiencing HPC for Undergraduates program provides exposure to HPC research topics and techniques for undergraduate students at the sophomore level and above. The program introduces various aspects of HPC research to increase awareness of opportunities for doing research as an undergraduate and potentially in graduate school or in a job related to HPC. Read more.
• Doctoral Showcase: The Doctoral Showcase program showcases the dissertation research of Ph.D. students in high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis and gives them an opportunity to present their research and engage with the SC community. Read more.
• Student Cluster Competition: Teams of students from schools around the world will demonstrate their expertise in this real-time, non-stop, 48-hour challenge as they assemble small cluster computers on the SC13 exhibit floor and race to demonstrate the greatest sustained computing performance across a series of applications. Read more.
• Student Volunteers : Undergraduate and graduate student volunteers help with the administration of the conference and also have the opportunity to participate in student-oriented activities, including professional development workshops and technical talks by famous researchers and industry leaders. Read more.

 

About SC13

SC13, sponsored by the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) and the IEEE Computer Society, offers a complete technical program, programs for students and educators in HPC, and an exhibition that together showcase the many ways high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis lead to advances in scientific discovery, research, education and commerce. This international conference includes a globally-attended technical program, workshops, tutorials, a world-class exhibit area, demonstrations and opportunities for hands-on learning.