Jan112023

Women in HPC’s Supercomputing 2023 Workshop Recap!

After two years online, the volunteers for Women in High-Performance Computing (WHPC) were pleased to return in person to SC22 in Dallas, Texas to present their fourteenth annual WHPC workshop. Focused on providing a platform for the HPC community to discuss diversity and inclusivity issues, this year’s full-day event was able to explore professional skills development, highlight women who are early in their careers of research, and engage with leaders and managers in HPC to improve the inclusion and retention of diverse teams.

This year’s workshop was divided into two themes: during the morning session, talks were focused on promoting the visibility of women and under-represented groups in HPC. The afternoon session began by highlighting early career women. The workshop concluded with a set of high-impact talks around with tips and practices to help with personal well-being and levelling up your career.

The workshop kicked off with an inspiring invited talk from Trish Damkroger from HPE. Trish spoke about three different ways that you can get support during the lifetime of your career: mentors, sponsors, and coaches.  We were honoured to have Trish open our conference and give personal insight into growing your career in HPC.

“A mentor is someone who has been in your shoes and can help give perspective on situations you encounter. Some mentoring relationships are short-term, while some can last for years. When seeking a mentor, have a specific topic in mind. It is up to the mentee to drive and invest in the relationship.” — Trish Damkroger

Next we heard from Kate Carter, a technical recruiter at ORNL, on how to effectively negotiate to land the job that you want. She advised everyone to use a confident, firm, and logical speaking voice, rather than coming from an emotional perspective. Negotiation should start with having data to back up your request. Point out accomplishments and how your skills will benefit the company and why you feel you deserve the higher salary. Kate also reminded everyone that there you can negotiate for more than just salary. She also shared some websites (such as Fishbowl, glassdoor, and reddit) where you find information about a potential employer/job.

 

Cristin Merritt, of Alces Flight, gave an interesting talk on diversity tax. This is the price women and underrepresented groups pay by participating in diversity groups or events in addition to their own regular work in STEM [4]. Cristin’s  takeaway for the group: if you feel pressured to participate, take a step back and think about whether this will help or hinder your career. Be sure to ask yourself if it is really worth it and don’t be afraid to negotiate the role or request.

 

The morning’s short talks concluded with Alan Real from Durham University sharing his experience with fostering an inclusive HPC environment at Durham’s Advanced Research Computing centre(part of the N8 Centre of Excellence in Computationally Intensive Research). Alan shared the ways in which dramatic change is possible, progress can be gradual such that it is most noticeable only over the course of someone’s career. He spoke of the ways that change must be fully supported by management and how small actions, such as improving the wording in a job description, can contribute to the momentum of change.

 

The afternoon started with the workshop’s regular spotlight for early career women. We heard about six interesting research projects from a group of talented researchers in HPC.  These included:

  • Lishan Yang, George Mason University
  • Ke Fan, University of Alabama at Birmingham
  • Nesrine Khouzami, Technische Universität Dresden
  • Anjus George, ORNL
  • Cassandra Rocha Barbosa, Atos
  • Jean Sexton, Berkeley Lab

 

Manisha Salve from thinkparq lead an interactive discussion which engaged the whole audience. She started by asking the audience about how to support early career professionals and encourage them to take risks. The wide ranging discussion touched on the importance of female mentors, way to improve visibility within the community, and how open source contributions can be used to develop and grow new skills.

The workshop concluded with a set of powerful, and personal, talks. First was a talk from Helena Liebelt, Deggendorf Institute of Technology. She advocated for diversity, equality and inclusion as an organizational imperative.

“Organizations with above-average diversity are 8x more likely to be in the top 10% for financial performance”. — Helena Liebelt

Lack of support, work-life imbalance, and unclear job expectation are some of the reasons that lead to burnout in the workplace. Some of the next steps Helena shared are:

  • Seek day-to-day support by reaching out to co-workers, friends, loved ones or an employee assistance program (if your organization has one).
  • Set realistic performance goals by reminding yourself that neither “above and beyond” or perfection is expected. Look for clear guidance, as ambiguity can lead to anxiety and stress; be clear about what needs to be done and how to best get it done.
  • Combat work-related stress by setting time aside for sports and wellness programs as well as quality down time. Also look for wellbeing or stress management programs through Employee Assistance Programs.

 

Next, AJ Lauer from NCAR shared interesting statistics on the percentage of the HPC workforce as part of her work-life balance talk.  These include:

  • An HPC Community that is 84% white, 27% woman/nonbinary, 7% LGBTQ, 60% age 35-54 years old [1]
  • Parenthood is noted as having a negative impact on career [2]
  • White men are having a significantly different experience of HPC occupational climate than other gender/race groups for: Workplace Atmosphere, Perspective Taking, What Companies Do, and Colleagues’ Bad Behavior. [3]

 

“Work-life balance looks different to everyone and may even look different at different times in our lives. The important thing is having the support to ‘balance’ work and home in a way that minimises stress and maximises joy.” — AJ Lauer

 

Jay Loftsted, of Sandia National Laboratory, shared best practices on how to overcome imposter syndrome and how mentoring can help with that. His advice included practicing having a strong presence, appearing confident, and using positive self-talk. Jay encouraged attendees to stop apologizing and to not undersell yourself. He also touched on how colleagues and mentors can help by giving support by asking the right questions: Instead of “How can I help you?”, ask “How can I advocate for you?”.

 

The workshop concluded with a passionate talk from Fernanda Foetter, of Voltran Data. She spoke about her own career path and how that led her to being a developer advocate. Her goal now is to build a better work environment for growth and results. She gave some key characteristics of a toxic workplace, including ambiguous expectations, micromanaging, and lack of boundaries. She left us with solutions to understand the signs of burnout and skills to overcome it. Books suggestions (links go to non-affiliated sites) included:

Our time at SC22 in Dallas, TX also included some great experiences with the HPC including:

We look forward to continuing our workshops in 2023!

Our WHPC Workshops would not take place without our stellar volunteers!

SC22 had the talents of:

  • Workshop Co-Chairs:
    • Misbah Mubarak, NVIDIA
    • Mozhgan Kabiri Chimeh, NVIDIA
    • Gokcen Kestor, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
  • Mentoring Co-Chairs:
    • Elsa Gonsiorowski, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
    • Lisa Claus, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
  • Submission Co-Chairs:
    • Jessica Dagostni, UCSC
    • Elisabetta Boella, Lancaster University & Cockcroft Institute
  • Communications Chair: Cristin Merritt, Alces Flight
  • Invited Talks Chair: Mariam Umar, Intel
  • Digital Experience Co-Chair:s
    • Wil Mayers, Alces Flight
    • Stu Franks, Alces Flight
  • Logistics Co-Chairs:
    • Matt Vaughan, AWS
    • Ed Keeley, AWS