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When
Tue 23, Jun, 2026
2:15 pm - 3:00 pm
Where
CCH – Congress Center Hamburg
Congressplatz 1
Hamburg, , 20355
Germany
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Finding Your People in HPC

A WHPC Community Meet-Up

Tuesday, June 23, 2026 2:15 PM to 3:00 PM

Hall H, Community Stage – Ground floor

Whilst at ISC 2026, you’ll be immersed in technical updates, discussions about what’s happening across our industry and the world, workshops, Birds of a Feather sessions, networking opportunities, and countless conversations in between. Such a large and prestigious event can be overwhelming and it can be surprisingly easy to feel isolated amidst all the activity. It can be particularly challenging if you are from an underrepresented group, as finding the people you relate to, connect with, and feel comfortable approaching can take time.

 

This is where WHPC comes in.

Join us for our Community Meet-up, at the very beginning of the conference, to meet people you can connect with throughout the week:

  • People to grab a coffee with.
  • People to join for lunch.
  • People to wave to in the corridors.
  • People who help make ISC feel a little more familiar.

 

What to expect:

First, we’ll hear from some of our Chapters and Affiliates, who will showcase how WHPC brings this philosophy beyond ISC and into your everyday lives. Meet our representatives below!

Then we’ll more into some informal networking. Make sure to be curious and ask questions, introduce yourself to someone new, listen as much as you talk, and keep it light, friendly, and fun!

Want to prepare? Here are some examples of the questions we might ask:

  • What would you not put on your LinkedIn profile?
  • What’s a skill that’s surprisingly useful but completely unrelated to your job?
  • What’s something that someone assumes about your job that’s completely not true?

 

Come along and find your people in HPC!

Introducing our Session Leaders

Eleanor Broadway, EPCC, University of Edinburgh, UK

Eleanor Broadway is an Architect at EPCC at the University of Edinburgh. She is a co-I for the Computational Abilities Knowledge Exchange (CAKE) project, supports the users of the UK’s national supercomputing service and works on technical research projects.

She is passionate about supporting people to succeed in their chosen career, so dedicates time to advocate for diversity and inclusion in HPC. She serves on the Executive Board of Women in HPC (WHPC) and Chairs the CAKE-CoSeC EDI working group, actively working to broaden participation and representation in computational research communities.

Cristin Merritt, Alces Flight, UK

Cristin Merritt is Head of Communications at Alces Flight, with over 15 years of experience in enterprise technology and more than 9 years in High-Performance Computing (HPC). She specialises in helping organisations navigate the complex landscape of platforms, tools, and technologies required for successful HPC outcomes.

At Alces Flight, Cristin leads the delivery of complex projects, develops business cases and strategic reviews, and supports clients in maximising the impact of their HPC solutions. She is particularly focused on translating technical complexity into clear, actionable insight.

Cristin is an active member of the HPC community, serving as Executive Advisor for Women in HPC and contributing to the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC), Supercomputing Conference (SC) series, and Computing Insight UK conference series (CIUK).

Originally from the United States, she holds a degree in Classics from the University of Florida and is now based in Oxford, England, with her family.

Introducing our Chapter & Affiliate Representatives

Click here to learn more about our international network!

WHPC MENA: Miss Mennatallah Samier Saleh, NYUAD, United Arab Emirates

Menatallah Samier Saleh is an HPC Application Specialist at NYU Abu Dhabi and an M.S. candidate at Georgia Tech. She architects the software ecosystem for the 47,000-core “Jubail” cluster and pro

vides technical expertise for interdisciplinary research, notably optimizing neuroimaging and MRI pipelines. Her thesis research focuses on dynamic graph optimization and the architectural tuning of large-scale scientific applications.

A graduate of Alexandria University with honors, she previously served as an HPC software engineer at BrightSkies, leading optimization projects for Intel and Saudi Aramco. She is the Founder of the Women in HPC (WHPC) MENA affiliate, a regional initiative she spearheaded to increase visibility, mentorship, and representation for women in high-performance computing across the Middle East and North Africa.

Linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mennatallah-samier-saleh-53087aa9/

WHPC MENA: https://www.linkedin.com/company/whpc-mena-middle-east-north-africa/ 

NHR | WHPC: Dr. Ayesha Afzal, Erlangen National High Performance Computing Center (NHR@FAU), Germany

Ayesha Afzal is a researcher at the Erlangen National High Performance Computing Center (NHR@FAU), Germany. She holds a PhD in Computer Science, an MSc in Computational Engineering, and a BSc in Electrical Engineering. Her PhD, “A Holistic White-Box Approach to Performance Modeling for Supercomputing,” focuses on analytic performance models, performance tools, and parallel simulation frameworks in HPC. She is involved in HPC initiatives including KONWHIR (LRZ), DFG MOD4COMP (TU Dresden and Jülich), and the NHR EEC (NHR centers). Within the IEEE Computer Society, she serves as Vice Chair of both the Germany Section Chapter and Region 8 Area 2, and Secretary of IEEE TCHPC. She founded the NHR Women in HPC chapter and organizes workshops at international conferences (SC, ISC, ACM HPDC, and SCA/HPCAsia). She is a member of professional societies (ACM, IEEE, SIAM, and PRACE), and contributes as chair, vice chair, PC member, Journal reviewer, panelist, and speaker. She was listed among the Top 100 Future Leaders Role Model List (2022–2025) supported by Yahoo Finance and YouTube, and received WeAreTheCity’s Global Award for Achievement (2023). She has authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, and her work has been recognized through distinctions: ISC PhD Forum Award (1st place, 2021), IEEE TPDS Best Paper Runner-up Award (2023), SC PMBS Best Short Paper Award (2023), SC Best Research Poster Finalist (2024), ISC Best Research Poster Award (1st place, 2025) and PhD with highest distinction (summa cum laude, 2026).

WHPC Ireland: Buket Benek Gursoy, Irish Centre For High-end Computing (ICHEC), Ireland

Buket joined Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) in 2012 as a Computational Scientist. At ICHEC, she has contributed to user support activities as part of the National Service and worked on various PRACE and EuroHPC projects within Performance Engineering. She has also participated in graduate-level teaching as part of the Training and Education programme. Before joining ICHEC, she received Ph.D. from the Hamilton Institute, Maynooth University and M.Sc. in Computational Science and Engineering, Istanbul Technical University.

Buket is a member of the Women in HPC Ireland Chapter committee. Her primary interests include performance engineering particularly in optimising complex hybrid HPC workflows.

 

WHPC at Purdue University: Ms. Taylor Rose Graham, Purdue University – RCAC, USA

Taylor is an Associate Research Solutions Hardware Engineer at Purdue University, specializing in high-performance computing (HPC) server hardware and infrastructure. With a strong interest in growing on the compute side, Taylor is actively building skills in Linux, Bash, and system administration to deepen her impact across the HPC stack. She is also engaged in community-building and outreach efforts, including initiatives that support diversity, education, and professional development in computing. Taylor loves learning new technologies and continually expanding her skill set to better support scalable, reliable research computing systems.