The 23rd international Women in HPC workshop will be held at SC25 with the goal of fostering a diverse and inclusive HPC community. The WHPC workshop aims to raise awareness and address issues around diversity and inclusion within the HPC community and workforce. Traditionally, our workshop series has focused on gender diversity and issues primarily facing women. Since the workshop at SC23, we have had an increased emphasis on diversity and inclusion of all people from under represented groups. By explicitly broadening our scope, we hope to increase participation from other minority groups and particularly those individuals who feel marginalized across multiple dimensions.

WHPC@SC25 will focus on the following topics:

• Building community through real-time networking
• Improving diversity and inclusion for all in the HPC workforce
• Highlighting and supporting early career researchers from under-represented groups
• Building a deeper understanding of what diversity, equity, and inclusion means for different groups
• Learning from, and valuing, different experiences and career paths

The WHPC workshop has two main priorities. First, our morning sessions focus on improving diversity and inclusion in the HPC workforce through building community. Second, our afternoon sessions focus building connections within our community. One of the critical contributions of this workshop series to SC, and the wider community, is providing the workshop’s early career presenters with their first justifiable reason for attending not just the WHPC workshop, but the broader SC conference. We elevate the profile of these early career researchers through peer-reviewed abstract submissions for lightning talks. This year, we will also provide first-time SC attendees a chance to meet up and network with other newbies.

Call for Participation

***DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: AUGUST 8, 2025, MIDNIGHT, AoE***

Submission via Linklings: https://submissions.supercomputing.org/

23rd international WHPC workshop: Building Community, Building Careers

SC25, St. Louis, MO, USA

A key part of our workshop is to provide a welcoming and inclusive environment for early-career researchers to present their work at a major international conference, forge valuable networks, and attend their very first SC.

Submissions for talks are invited as extended abstracts (up to 2 pages) in any area that utilizes High Performance Computing. Successful authors will be asked to provide a version of their work highlighting its goals, accomplishments, and impact to present in a short lightning talk (3 minutes) at the workshop.

HPC is a large community that encompasses many different roles, we welcome both technical and non-technical contributors to submit in order to broaden the knowledge of all those to attend our workshop. All abstracts should emphasize the impact of the work, such as the problem you are seeking to solve, the community benefits from investigating this work with or alongside HPC, any challenges noted and/or overcome, as well as any other challenges you wish to highlight. The extended abstracts will be published in a small proceedings to acknowledge your participation in the WHPC workshop.

Our proceedings from previous years are available to view:

• WHPC@SC23 https://zenodo.org/communities/whpc-sc23
• WHPC@SC24 https://zenodo.org/communities/whpc-sc24

We encourage anyone from an underrepresented group who considers themselves to be ‘early career’ (i.e., still studying, within five years of graduation, within five years of transition into the field) to participate. We are also offering mentorship to all successful authors to help with preparations for presentations, structuring lightning talks and making the most of attendance at an international conference. We hope to increase participation from all people from underrepresented groups and particularly those individuals who feel marginalized across multiple dimensions.

WHPC Travel Fellowships: 

The WHPC Travel Fellowships ensure everyone has equal opportunity to attend and present at the conference. Thanks to our supporters, we are delighted to provide reimbursable travel fellowships of up to $3,800 (approximately £3,000) for two (2) of our early career speakers. This fellowship can be used for travel and accommodation needs, including flights/trains, hotels, conference passes, food and drink.

If you wish to be considered for this opportunity, please submit an optional personal statement alongside your submission. A personal statement is 2 – 4 paragraphs on why you, as an individual, should be selected as our WHPC Travel Fellow. We find that those who best express their passion for the field of HPC coupled with what they hope to achieve as travel fellows and representatives of our community to be the most complete and successful statements.

We shortlist our speakers based on the extended abstract scores only. Once our speakers have been confirmed, we will then decide on the travel fellowship awardees. These fellowships will be awarded based on the combined score from the extended abstract and the personal statement.

Another Travel Funding Opportunity!

The NHR|WHPC Chapter of the NHR Alliance is offering five travel grants to support women and individuals from underrepresented groups within Germany who are students or are in the early stages of their HPC careers to attend the 2025 SC conference. Each scholarship recipient will receive up to €3,000 in funding. The funding encompasses the costs for the conference fee, airfare, visa application costs, and transportation to the conference.

Candidates are required to complete the application form and submit the following documentation:

• A brief curriculum vitae.
• The submission of a reference letter from the advisor.
• A motivation letter that includes the following information:
  • The reasons for wanting to attend the conference.
  • How the conference will benefit the applicant’s research experience and career in the field of HPC.

The call for applications and the application form are expected to be available at https://www.nhr-verein.de/whpc in mid-July 2025. In case of further questions, don’t hesitate to contact Ayesha Afzal (ayesha.afzal@fau.de).

Benefits of participating: 

• Showcase your work to an international HPC community!
• Networking: build your HPC network, meet peers and potential employers.
• Advice and mentoring: Receive expert advice and mentorship to help prepare for your presentation, including slides, how to structure a lightning talk for effective communication and how to make the most of the networking time afterwards.

Ready to submit? 

This submission requires an extended abstract (up to 2 pages), CV and optional personal statement to apply for travel fellowship funding. Ready to go? Submit via Linklings.

Good luck, and we hope to see you presenting in St. Louis this November!