Currently, Ellingson serves as an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, where she also manages High-Performance Computing Services at the Markey Cancer Center. Her research combines simulations, big data analysis, and machine learning to improve drug binding predictions.

Beyond her research, Ellingson is committed to mentoring and outreach, particularly for underrepresented groups in the field of computational sciences. Her involvement in the SC Conference, dating back to 2014, has been extensive. She has contributed significantly to various programs within the conference, such as the Broader Engagement program, Student Volunteer program, Mentor-Protégé program, and School Tours. Currently serving as the Students@SC Chair, her volunteer efforts have had a lasting impact on the community.

Momentum & Mentoring

In Ellingson’s I Am HPC blog, she emphasizes the importance of maintaining the momentum of diversity and inclusion efforts within the HPC community and underscores the significance of mentoring the next generation to ensure a more inclusive and diverse environment.

Sally ellingson

Assistant Professor, Division of Biomedical Informatics, UK College of Medicine

Sally on LinkedIN

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Ellingson: Touring the computer room at Oak Ridge National Laboratory when I was interviewing for graduate school. 

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Ellingson: My volunteer work through the SC Conference.

Q: In the past 35 years, what is the most significant overlooked breakthrough that has impacted the field in your eyes?

Ellingson: I’ve been pleased to witness the growing emphasis on diversity and inclusion within the Supercomputing conference and the HPC community. During my grad school days, I participated in a program aimed at enhancing diversity and fostering a sense of community within the conference. While it was disappointing to see it discontinued, I’m proud to see these initiatives gaining momentum. Today, inclusivity stands as a top-tier priority for the conference, influencing every facet of the event. This underscores the commitment to cultivating a diverse workforce and nurturing inclusive work environments to sustain the vibrancy and diversity of our community.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Ellingson: As we move forward, it’s crucial that we maintain our momentum and remain steadfast in our commitment to DEI initiatives. Additionally, we should not lose sight of the significance of mentoring students. This investment in the next generation is pivotal for the continued growth and strength of our community. By providing guidance and support to emerging talent, we not only contribute to their personal development but also fortify the collective knowledge and capabilities of our community. Together, we can ensure a more inclusive, diverse, and thriving environment for all.

A Role Model for Success

Angie’s IT background and journey in a male-dominated field make her a role model for women in tech, particularly in Colorado. We believe her story could inspire countless young women considering careers in the tech sector.

Angie Asmus

Manager of Network and Security Operations, Colorado State University

Angie on LinkedIN

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Asmus: I was first introduced to HPC/computing while attending the SC Conference in 2016. At the time, I was a network engineer contributing to SCinet, where I played a role in constructing the high-performance network for the conference. This experience broadened my perspective on HPC and exposed me to the diverse career paths within both HPC and networking. Since then I have remained a part of the HPC community by attending the conference and participating in SCinet, working with some of the best engineers who support HPC networks.

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Asmus: My most significant impact on the HPC/computing community lies in my dedication to fostering diversity and supporting related programs. In 2016, I became a WINS (Women in IT Networking at SC) awardee, marking the beginning of my ongoing involvement in this valuable initiative. WINS addresses the acknowledged diversity gap in HPC and networking, taking intentional steps to support a varied group of SCinet participants. As the SC24 SCinet Chair, I am actively advancing diversity efforts, particularly in advocating for a diverse representation of women in leadership positions.

Q: In the past 35 years, what is the most significant overlooked breakthrough that has impacted the field in your eyes?

Asmus: The strides made in the past 35 years have been remarkable, but one often overlooked breakthrough that has significantly impacted the field is the increasing recognition of the value of diversity. While technological advancements grab the headlines, the acknowledgment that diverse perspectives drive innovation is a game-changer. Embracing a variety of voices, backgrounds, and experiences has not only enriched the field socially but has also proven to be a catalyst for groundbreaking ideas and solutions. It’s a breakthrough that goes beyond algorithms and processors, shaping a more inclusive and dynamic future for computing.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Asmus: As we move forward, it’s crucial that we maintain our momentum and remain steadfast in our commitment to DEI initiatives. Additionally, we should not lose sight of the significance of mentoring students. This investment in the next generation is pivotal for the continued growth and strength of our community. By providing guidance and support to emerging talent, we not only contribute to their personal development but also fortify the collective knowledge and capabilities of our community. Together, we can ensure a more inclusive, diverse, and thriving environment for all.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Asmus: I currently hold the position of the manager of network and security operations at Colorado State University and am also serving as the Interim Director of Network & Telecommunications. My involvement with SCinet began at SC16, where I participated as a WINS awardee, contributing to the construction of the conference network. Since then, I’ve been an active participant in SCinet every year. The honor of being chosen as the SCinet Chair for SC24 is especially significant, as I am the first WINS awardee to assume this role where I will be leading a team of exceptional volunteer network engineers to create the fastest and most powerful volunteer network for SC24.

Dr. Arnold boasts an accomplished career, that includes being recognized as an ACM Distinguished Speaker and an IEEE Senior member, with the honor of receiving two R&D 100 Awards. Dr. Arnold’s commitment to diversity and inclusion is evident through his roles as the General Chair for the 2017 ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity and the co-founding of “The HPC Pipeline Workshop: Diversifying the HPC Workforce.”He is a researcher, that addresses the challenges of making extremely large computing systems accessible to experts from various domains. Dr. Arnold’s contributions, both academically and in advocacy, mark him as a leader in the field, pushing the boundaries of high-performance computing while ensuring that it remains inclusive and relatable to all. In his role as SC23 General Chair, he has been pivotal in making the Supercomputing Conference (SC) more relatable and inclusive. Drawing inspiration from the “I am Tiger Woods” campaign, which conveyed the message that anyone, regardless of their background, could aspire to greatness just as Tiger Woods did in golf, the “I am HPC” tagline aims to humanize the field of High Performance Computing and ensure it’s accessible to all.”

SC23 General Chair

Now, let’s delve deeper into the world of Dr. Dorian C. Arnold and learn more about his journey, perspectives, and contributions in the realm of High Performance Computing as he answers insightful questions about his career, experiences, and the future of the HPC community.

Dorian C. Arnold

Associate Professor of Computer Science, Emory University

Dorian on LinkedIN

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Arnold: While studying for my master’s degree at the University of Tennessee, I took a course from Dr. James Plank; his engaging, fun, and effective teaching style sparked my curiosity in computer systems. Dr. Plank later became my M.S. research advisor. While at UTK during a department-wide event, Dr. Jack Dongarra who was already renown at the time, introduced himself to me, a lowly student, and asked me about my interests. I was struck by his humble, welcoming demeanor. My data points were computer systems are cool, HPC is cool, and the people are cool; what more could I ask for!

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Arnold: I don’t know if it’s my biggest contribution, but perhaps the one that has had the biggest practical impact: during my PhD, I wrote the code for two software systems: MRNet, a highly-configurable software overlay network for large scale data communication and aggregation, and STAT a debugging tool that is built on top of MRNet. Both these codes have been used and still are in use in production mode on supercomputers across the world.

Q: In the past 35 years, what is the most significant overlooked breakthrough that has impacted the field in your eyes?

Arnold: Overlooked? Perhaps high-level programming languages and environments, coupled with compilers, that have helped to make HPC admissible and accessible to a broad range of scientists and engineers, who no longer have to understand all the low-level nuances of these complex systems to develop correct and efficient codes.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Arnold: More access, more diversity, more equitable opportunities, more inclusivity — for all definitions of those terms.

A Loyal SC Committee Member

Brian Smith is a loyal SCinet volunteer, participating in numerous teams throughout the years. His first SC conference was in Orlando in 1998 and he has been to many more over the years. He has served on the Planning Committee a few times, usually in the Tech Program area as a reviewer for the Papers and Posters programs. He has been active in SCinet for the past 5 years and currently co-leads the Contributor Relations Team and the Logistics Team.

Brian Smith

Director of Technology, Cornelis Networks

Brian on LinkedIN

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Smith: My first job in college was at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Ames Laboratory at the Scalable Computing Lab (SCL). Despite being a very small DOE lab, the SCL had a lot of high-end HPC hardware, including two MasPars, two NCubes, an Intel Paragon, and several large SGI multiprocessor machines. We built multiple “Beowulf” clusters as well and provided compute resources to other groups on the Iowa State University campus. Getting to play with such high-end hardware at the time made me realize I needed to stay in HPC.

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Smith: I was a team leader for the IBM BlueGene L, P, and Q communication stacks. I really feel the BlueGene program was one of the best things in HPC in a long time and I’m very proud of my work on the project. We had a very balanced machine (memory per CPU, network per CPU, etc.) and pushed the envelope on a number of fronts, including a scalable messaging stack that is still being used in products today.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Smith: More diversity. HPC has gotten more diverse in the last 25+ years, but it still has a long way to go. The WINS program is a great program but we can definitely do more as a community.

Brian Smith (left) with fellow SCinet volunteer Wes DeWitt.

Brian Smith (right) with Marcia Elliot.

Dan’s journey began with a focus on high-performance computing, leading him to work on numerous initiatives that bridge scientific research and advanced technologies. His leadership at various institutions and his work as an NSF program officer have been instrumental in fostering collaboration between different disciplines, bringing together experts to solve complex challenges.

Beyond his technical prowess, Dan’s commitment to open science, research software sustainability, and data sharing is evident in his advocacy for the importance of transparent and accessible research. This dedication is evident through his involvement in creating policies that encourage open-source software, data sharing, and reproducibility, thereby shaping the future of scientific research.

Dan’s role as an educator at the University of Illinois further solidifies his impact. By mentoring students and collaborating with fellow researchers, he imparts his vast knowledge and enthusiasm for computational science to the next generation. This dedication to education ensures that his influence extends beyond his own work, leaving a lasting mark on the wider scientific community.

Advancing Research & Innovation

Dan stands as a luminary in the world of computational and data-enabled science. His technical expertise, commitment to open science, and passion for education collectively underscore his significant contributions to advancing research and innovation in the digital age. In this I Am HPC blog, Dan graciously shares with us.

Daniel S. Katz

Chief Scientist, NCSA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Daniel on LinkedIN

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Katz: I was excited as a graduate student to realize the power of computational simulation to model the physical world to make it understandable and predictable, and quickly realized that HPC was essential to using simulation for understanding of the world with detail and at scale.

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Katz: Raising awareness about the importance of research software—that it must be maintained by people in order to continue to be useful over time, and that those people (many of whom are now known as Research Software Engineers or RSEs) need to have career paths in academia as well as national labs, and that these career paths depend on the use and impact of their work being seen, measured, and valued.

Q: In the past 35 years, what is the most significant overlooked breakthrough that has impacted the field in your eyes?

Katz: The commoditization of HPC at many levels, from the systems (starting with the Beowulf project and moving through GPUs) to the usage modalities (such as cloud and AI/ML).

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Katz: While there have been improvements during my career, we still need much more work on diversity, ranging from demographics (e.g., gender, ethnic background, etc.) to discipline (e.g., STEM vs. other fields) to opportunities (e.g., students in non-research-focused universities and community colleges). The best ideas aren’t limited to those who are currently in HPC, but also exist in those who aren’t in HPC and may not even be aware of it.

Dan Katz (left) with 2023 REU students and team members.

Dan Katz, Chief Scientist, NCSA (right) with Bill Gropp, Director, NCSA.

Who Is Your HPC Hero?

Send your suggestions to the SC23 Communications Team. Share their name and a brief description of why they’re your HPC hero.

Suggest your hero

Early in his career, Reed spent a lot of time working on activities tangentially related to inclusion. He volunteered in his community doing various things, such as coding sessions at a Girls Club in rural Massachusetts, visiting local universities, participating in career panels, and, in his words, “other generic let’s-fill-the-STEM-pipeline endeavors.” Reed “eventually understood that these things [were] not compatible with [his] personal strengths,” and that “the median software engineer can execute any of the aforementioned volunteer activities just as well as himself.”  

Instead, Reed opted toward finding an outlet aligned with his personal qualities. “There were times when I noticed that I had the skills, experience, and perspective to undividedly contribute,” he said. This revelation provided the motivating factor for his time away from the corporate world doing various HPC projects.

In 2021, Reed took a career break for a few months to move abroad and dedicate more time to things he is passionate about outside of work, including fitness, learning, and traveling to experience new cultures. During that time, he lived in East Africa doing volunteer work in HPC capacity-building. Reed built low-cost, low-powered HPC mini-clusters and created basic HPC learning content for local researchers, which he continues to do today. This experience also expanded Reed’s interest in the prevailing problem of accessibility and inclusivity within HPC.

“While a large entry barrier for today’s aspiring computer scientist and computational scientist is access to specialized equipment, this was not a problem during my undergraduate years studying computer science,” Reed explained. “When I first arrived at the University of Illinois, very few students had coding experience; almost no one owned a laptop; and specialized equipment, such as FPGAs, GPUs, and HPC clusters, were not commonly used by most engineers.”

According to Reed, this allowed everyone to be on approximately equal footing with respect to learning. 

“These days, it is very common for computer science students to begin their university studies after years of coding (by the way, I hate coding),” he said. “But, this is not necessarily true in HPC, where the resource gap is large and possibly growing. 

“I was fortunate to have both a university and research advisor that provided me with several resources to explore what was still a niche specialty at the time. This has motivated me to work on improving access—to equipment, people, resources, etc.—and removing as many barriers as possible for inclusion,” Reed continued. “For example, at the moment, I run a small but powerful HPC cluster from home and allow free compute time for researchers and students in rural areas around the world to use it as a sandbox for learning and debugging. The purpose of my volunteer work is to improve inclusivity for rural areas without access to HPC equipment, as I strongly believe there should be as few barriers as possible for joining, participating in, and contributing to HPC, as well as the wider fields of science and engineering.”

Lowering the Entry Barrier to HPC

For his I Am HPC profile, Isayah Reed further shares how he became part of this community and how he envisions its future.

Isayah Reed

Senior Technical Program Manager, HPC/AI Benchmarking, Microsoft

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Reed: During my college years, I was looking for a research advisor in computer architecture and was offered a project that looked into heterogeneous computing with GPUs. This was well before GPUs were a “thing.” Few people knew how to use them. I was fascinated by the problem statements and different trade-offs that come from offloading certain tasks to different computing units. My advisor, Maria Garzaran, recommended some HPC courses; I fell in love with the field; and I never looked back.

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Reed: Outside of my day job, I try to focus my efforts on expanding accessibility and lowering the entry barrier to HPC. For years I’ve run a mini HPC cluster at home, to which I allow free access for several students, researchers, and enthusiasts in less developed countries. I try to help them learn and practice HPC or perform HPC research. I also donate my older equipment to various research teams and universities in these countries. Things like mid-tier GPUs and interconnect switches are typically inaccessible to people outside of western countries due to challenges such as price, maintenance, or availability. I strongly believe anyone should be able to enter HPC without needing access to an expensive government-funded or university supercomputer or spending a ton of money for time on a cloud provider.

Q: In the past 35 years, what is the most significant overlooked breakthrough that has impacted the field in your eyes?

Reed: Introduction of the dual core processor in the early 2000s. It completely changed the approach to software design and started the ascendance of parallel programming as a specialty. Even today, many applications have unnecessarily lower performance due to not making efficient use of available cores.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Reed: Tearing down walls between the different HPC sub-groups. We are missing opportunities to solve certain problems by failing to collaborate across different fields of study. I’m seeing, for example, that the AI people all know each other, while the fluid dynamics people also know each other. But, I don’t see much cross-collaboration between the two groups. There are some HPC computing issues that other sub-disciplines unnecessarily struggle with—issues that I, myself, could easily resolve in a few seconds. Yet, they rarely reach out for collaboration.

Who Is Your HPC Hero?

Send your suggestions to the SC23 Communications Team. Share their name and a brief description of why they’re your HPC hero.

Suggest your hero

Unlocking the Potential of Diversity

Lofstead was the SC22 Inclusivity Committee Chair and currently serves as the SC23 Reproducibility Committee Co-Chair along with many other committee roles at SC23. In this I Am HPC profile, Lofstead shares his experiences in making inclusive workspaces a reality, as well as his plans for implementing change to make SC23 a truly reproducible and inclusive environment for all participants.

Jay Lofstead

Principal Member of Technical Staff, Sandia National Laboratories

Jay on LinkedIN

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Lofstead: I’ve been seriously involved in computing starting when I was about 10. As a middle-aged man (that was a long time ago), I found that computers were the ultimate tool that could be made to do almost anything. I loved science but didn’t enjoy math once I got into upper-level undergrad classes and focused more strongly on computer science. When I went back to grad school, I saw that I could work to support science while doing computing, entered the HPC field, and never looked back.

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Lofstead: I do a lot of mentoring. As a first-generation college student, I had no guidance growing up about how to navigate an education. All anyone could tell me was I needed a “good” GPA [grade point average]. What “good” even meant was unknown. I was lucky and managed to make a number of good decisions that eventually helped me make it into a Ph.D. program then through it into my career at Sandia. Since joining Sandia, I have spent a tremendous amount of time and effort helping other students (any level, including grade school) understand what their career options really are, what education made that easiest, and what is necessary to enter these programs. As I’ve hired summer interns, I’ve paid 13 different students, and all 13 have generated an external to Sandia peer-reviewed publication. In most cases, I have taken the students to the conference venue and had them present to the research community. While I have had a few other students I did not pay, not all of them were able to succeed at the same level largely due to conditions I could not control. Building a more diverse and inclusive workforce will make science, computing, and the world a better place. I strive every day to make that a reality.

Q: In the past 35 years, what is the most significant overlooked breakthrough that has impacted the field in your eyes?

Lofstead: For HPC, the Raspberry Pi is used to make “toy” clusters as an educational tool. I don’t think enough people see the power that having such a tool has in shaping minds. Seeing that you can make things work on a pretty cheap machine you can build yourself is empowering. It can get more people into HPC rather than just computing in general.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Lofstead: We need to accelerate diversifying the community. Students today expect a diverse and inclusive environment. If we do not offer a place where they feel comfortable, they will find something else to do. Related to this is reproducibility. Incorporating strong reproducibility standards for all computing will raise the quality standard for research and make learning new things from primary sources easier. Textbooks are expensive. Through a research library, research papers are available at no cost to library visitors. Having these other resources can help people explore new areas and help drive building a more diverse computing environment. We need everyone that can do the work to join us in building a better tomorrow.

This opportunity provides a dedicated space on the exhibit floor for 24 newly established and/or underrepresented research teams or institutions that lack the means to present their work at SC through the usual channels.

SC hopes this new initiative will attract content that would otherwise go unseen, and to foster quality discussions and interactions as part of a larger effort to better highlight the breadth and depth of the HPC community.

The Benefits

Participating organizations may showcase technical material, presentations, and demos from a kiosk provided in the HPC Illuminations Pavilion. Areas designed for informal discussions and networking will also be provided. Travel support will be available for a limited number of under-resourced participants. Qualified applicants will be invited to apply for travel funding.

HPC Illuminations Pavilion Kiosk

Complimentary

Includes:

• Cabinet with desktop, stem light, and stools
• Back drop panel
• Header graphic panel
• Electrical outlet
• Carpeted area

Application Requirements

Ready to Apply?

You Belong Here

For Klinvex, the true test of I AM HPC will be when there are opportunities available throughout all computing communities for anyone with interest regardless of race, gender, disability status, or sexual orientation.

Alicia Klinvex

Naval Nuclear Laboratory, Department of Energy

Alicia on LinkedIN

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Klinvex: When I was in high school, one of my teachers made a comment about the movie The Net. He didn’t think Sandra Bullock looked like a hacker. I didn’t like the idea that certain people look like they should work with computers and certain people don’t, and I wondered whether I was in the category of people who don’t. I always loved computers and all the math you could do with them, and I thought it was unfair that anything objective and scientific belonged to a small group of people who refused to share. I guess you could say that I became a programmer because I wanted programmers to look like me.

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Klinvex: I wrote an automatic conference scheduler! It’s new, so I don’t know what the impact will be yet, but I hope that it stops very smart people from manually scheduling conferences. For reference, we used it to schedule SIAM CSE23, a conference with roughly 400 minisymposia, in a few hours. Beyond reducing the amount of time accomplished scientists spend moving Post-it notes around on a whiteboard, I hope it is used to reduce the amount of unconscious bias in scheduling. With a few modifications, we were also able to use the code for the Sustainable Research Pathways to connect students in underrepresented groups with lab scientists based on their research interests.

Q: In the past 35 years, what is the most significant overlooked breakthrough that has impacted the field in your eyes?

Klinvex: Well, I’m 37, so it’s tough to say. I think the most significant change that’s occurred during my life so far is the ubiquitousness of high-speed Internet and low-cost computing devices. Children are now growing up with access to smartphones and tablets, frequently through their schools. These children have much greater access to information than we did, and I hope that decreases the barrier to entry in our field. I’m curious to see whether this development changes the demographics of the tech space as these children grow up and enter the workforce.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Klinvex: I would like to see the community become more inclusive. I’ve been the target of behavior that makes women feel unwelcome in computing, and I hope the community makes it clear that this behavior will not be tolerated by the time my nieces are old enough to attend their first computing conference. It’s not enough to simply not be sexist or not be racist or not be homophobic on an individual level. We have to be anti-sexist, anti-racist, and anti-homophobic. When we see bad behavior, we need to counter it, and we need to take action to welcome the people we have traditionally left out.

Learn More:

A Genetic Scheduling Code for SIAM CSE23, https://github.com/tgkolda/genetic_scheduling (Date accessed: June 5, 2023)

Creating Understanding

In his I AM HPC profile, Miller, who also serves on the SC23 Inclusivity Committee as Vice Chair and Demographics Chair, focuses on the sometimes overlooked value and capabilities of scientific data modeling and its contribution to computing. He also draws a line from cool science fiction to his current role as an engineer at LLNL.

mark miller

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Mark on github

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Miller: Two movies with early awesome computer graphics, Tron (1982) and The Last Starfighter (1984).

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Miller: Helping the community understand the impact of scientific data modeling technologies on our ability to share, interoperate, and exchange not only data but, more importantly, software.

Q: In the past 35 years, what is the most significant overlooked breakthrough that has impacted the field in your eyes?

Miller: Data abstraction through formal, math-based, scientific data models. Most abstractions are ad hoc, unnecessarily constrained, and fail to support wide appeal across application domains and/or computing technologies.

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Miller: To understand that what we are ultimately building is not just hardware or software but the virtual equivalent of scientific instrumentation such as you might see in any real experimental facility (laser, accelerator, reactor, observatory, cleanroom, etc.) and to expect that what we build meets the same standards of rigor, certainty, and quality as our real-world counterparts.

Early Career Support

The Early Career program is intended for people still starting their computing career journey and is designed to prepare participants for significant contributions in their chosen career paths. Early Career encompasses panel sessions, hands-on activities, and pre-conference webinars with the goal of enhancing participants’ skills pertaining to funding opportunities, publication venues, mentor relationships, resiliency, communication, and time management.

The program will feature networking opportunities with the panelists from industry, academia, and government labs, who will share their expertise and discuss what it takes to succeed in a chosen career path. Ultimately, these exchanges are expected to encourage participants to continue seeking broader engagement and find their own place within the HPC community. Here, Stephanie shares her perspectives on what it means to say, “I AM HPC.”

Stephanie Dempsey

Software Test Engineer, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Stephanie on Linkedin

Q: What single event most made you realize you wanted a career in HPC/computing?

Stephanie: There was no single event that led me to a career in HPC. I worked in private industry for several years and found the tech industry to be exciting in general, but it was after coming to LLNL and working in the WSC [Weapons Simulation and Computing] division on the supercomputers that I became hooked on HPC. The work is always challenging, the problems are world-class and meaningful, the collaborations have been exciting, and the people in the HPC community are inspiring.

Q: What do you consider your biggest contribution to the HPC/computing community?

Stephanie: My career journey is unique in that it has spanned from large tech companies to startups to research.  It’s been a path of making choices about how, when, and why I work. Building relationships is a valuable part of my work-life experience, and the collaborations provided in the HPC environment and community have provided me with the best opportunities to grow professionally and personally. As the Early Career Chair, I want to bring a focus on inclusivity and relationship building as it pertains to successful collaborations in one’s career. 

Q: What would you like to see change about, within, or among the HPC/computing community?

Stephanie: It’s been proven over and over that inclusivity and psychological safety are keys to building great collaborations and successful teams. I would like to see how investment in these areas will change work-life experiences to enable more individuals to contribute to the amazing science enabled by HPC.

Accepting Applications