When
Wed 29, Apr, 2020 - Fri 01, May, 2020
9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Where
Simon Fraser University
515 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC, V6B 5K3
Canada

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Postponed: Women in HPC Summit

In Partnership with Simon Fraser University

Overview

WHPC and COVID-19

It is with heavy hearts that we have decided to postpone the Women in HPC Summit, which was to be held April 28-May 1, 2020 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. WHPC leadership has been monitoring the spread of COVID-19 and the impacts of its spread on global travel and human health and well-being. We have seen many events in the next month be cancelled or move to an online format, and many employers restrict non-essential business travel.

Above all, we value the safety of the women and supporters of diversity we were looking forward to welcoming to our Summit. We determined that under the circumstances, we could not ensure the health and well-being of our attendees, volunteers, vendors, and members of the Vancouver community at the present time.

We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your understanding in this unexpected situation. If you have already registered for the Summit we will be in touch by email.

We intend to hold the Summit at a later date and we look forward to welcoming you there.

If you have any questions please contact us.

Building on our success as an internationally recognised organization that is actively addressing gender inclusion in the HPC/AI/Big Data  workforce worldwide, the Summit is designed to celebrate the contributions, careers and leadership of women in High Performance Computing,

We are bringing together HPC leaders and innovators with career women in corporate organizations, research institutions, academia, and business for networking, mentoring, and sharing of knowledge in ways that challenge and change existing norms and culture in the technology world.

Together with our supporters and leaders in the community, we create unique opportunities for women to network, learn, and build connections and identify opportunities, whether they be for their next career step, training, education or skills.

The WHPC Summit will provide a broadened scope and the first-ever dedicated event for women in the field of advanced computing.

The first WHPC Summit will be a 3-day event, held in downtown Vancouver in Spring 2020. The event will include:

  • Technical presentations from professionals in the community;
  • Career skills-building sessions;
  • Strategies for workforce inclusion, and engagement of under-represented groups;
  • Tutorials.

 

Welcome from the WHPC General Chair

Trish Damkroger, Vice President and General Manager of the Technical Computing Initiative (TCI) in Intel’s Data Center Group

“I am honored to be the General Chair for the WHPC conference and to support and advocate for the voices of women in the workforce and HPC community. This conference will bring together like-minded women from the HPC industry to learn from each other and build our networks. WHPC is a supportive group, designed to advocate for one another and encourage continued growth and development in HPC. Together, we can empower, lead and inspire, not just each other but the businesses and organizations that we work for.”

Organizing Committee

  • General Chair: Trish Damkroger, Intel, USA
  • Summit Co-chair: Toni Collis, Women in HPC, UK
  • Summit Co-chair: Kelly Nolan, Talent Strategies & Women in HPC, USA
  • Organization Committee Chair: Mozhgan Kabiri Chimeh, NVIDIA, UK
  • Evaluation Chair: Lorna Rivera, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
  • Finance Chairs: George Beckett & Tanya Brown, Simon Fraser University, Canada
  • Sponsorship Chair: Tessa Derksen, Compute Canada
  • Catering & Logistics Chair: Tanya Brown, Simon Fraser University, Canada
  • Communications Co-chair: Aditi Subramanya, Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, Australia
  • Communications Co-chair: Jana Makar, New Zealand eScience Infrastructure
  • Social Media & Artwork: Cristin Merritt, Alces Flight, Ltd, UK
  • Website Chair: Caitlin Ross, Kitware Inc, USA
  • Students Activities/Broader Engagement: Jay Lofsted, Sandia National Laboratory, USA
  • Registration Chair: Aiman Shaikh, Hartree Centre STFC, UK
  • Awards Chair: Andrea Carson, Intel, USA
  • Program Committee Chair: Misbah Mubarak, Amazon Web Services, USA
  • Invited Program Chair: Kelly Nolan, Talent Strategies & Women in HPC, USA
  • Submissions Chair: Gokcen Kestor, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA
  • Posters Chair: Weronika Filinger, EPCC, UK
  • Papers Chair: Mariam Umar, Intel Corporation, USA
  • Tutorials Chair: Pravi Devineni, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA
  • Mentoring Chair: Elsa Gonsiorowski, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA
  • Mentoring Co-chair: Sarvani Chadalapaka, University of California Merced, USA

Who is attending?

WHPC has consistently aimed to provide an environment that is welcoming to the entire HPC community, which we would aim to continue at the WHPC Summit. Look for these communities to be well represented:

  • Women working in the HPC community, irrespective of their role/job title/employment sector
  • Allies of women and other under-represented groups (irrespective of career stage or managerial position)
  • Recruiters
  • Managers, leaders, HPC system buyers and operators, executives and leaders, recruiters, suppliers, supervisors who aim to diversify the workforce
  • Organizations that have technologies or opportunities of interest to women and who are open to engaging and supporting a women-majority audience

Code of Conduct

All attendees, speakers, sponsors, organisers, and volunteers at WHPC Summit Conference are required to adhere to the following code of conduct, whether they are at the conference venue, conference-related social events or interacting on the multiple digital platforms (Slack, Twitter, mailing list, etc). 

This code of conduct and its related procedures may also apply to unacceptable behaviour outside the scope of conference activities when such behaviours have the potential to adversely affect the safety and well-being of the affected participants.

The WHPC Summit Conference is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference experience for everyone, regardless of sex, age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and parenthood, race, religion or belief (or lack thereof), gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, technical choices, experience level or any other dimension of diversity. We do not tolerate harassment of community members in any form. 

All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate for any conference venue, including conference dinners, social events.

Participants who are asked to stop any inappropriate behaviour are expected to comply immediately. This applies to any event or platform, either online or in-person. If an event participant engages in behaviour that violates this Code of Conduct, the organizers may warn the offender, ask them to leave the event or platform (without refund), or engage the committee and impose an appropriate sanction.

Thank you for helping make this a welcoming, friendly event for all.

Call for Submissions

Building on our success as an internationally recognised organization that is actively addressing gender inclusion in the HPC/AI/Big Data workforce worldwide, the Summit is designed to celebrate the contributions, careers and leadership of women in High Performance Computing. We are bringing together HPC leaders and innovators with career women in corporate organizations, research institutions, academia, and business for networking, mentoring, and sharing of knowledge in ways that challenge and change existing norms and culture in the technology world.

Together with our supporters and leaders in the community, create unique opportunities for women to network, learn, and build connections and identify opportunities, whether they be for their next career step, training, education or skills.

List of Topics

Technical Topics

Papers, tutorials and posters are solicited on a diverse range of technical topics including but not limited to:

  • Programming models and applications for High Performance Computing (HPC), Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Architectures and accelerators on high performance platforms
  • Computational Models and Algorithms for HPC, Big Data and AI
  • Addressing cyber security issues in HPC, Big Data and AI
  • Large-scale data analytics and machine learning trends
  • Using machine learning to analyze large-scale system
  • Performance modeling, analysis and benchmarking of HPC, AI and Big Data applications/architectures
  • Intersection of cloud and HPC
  • System software to accelerate the performance of data-intensive applications

Diversity, Inclusion, and Leadership Topics

In addition to technical topics, we also solicit submissions on topics related to diversity, inclusion and leadership:

  • Methods and techniques to create a diverse workforce
  • Inclusive leadership and retention strategies
  • Building diversity advocates and allies
  • Dealing with unconscious bias and sexism in the workplace
  • Achieving the right work/life balance
  • Fostering creativity through diversity
  • Statistics about women’s representation in HPC community

Submission Guidelines

Paper Submissions

Authors are invited to submit their work with a maximum of 4 pages (excluding references) in IEEE conference format.

Deadline: January 10th, 2020 AOE

Submission link: https://easychair.org/cfp/WHPCSummit2020

Poster Submissions

  A poster submission should have a two-page extended abstract in the ACM format.

Deadline: CLOSED

Please note that there is still an opportunity to present a poster for authors who have not already submitted, by participating in the student program.

Submission link: https://easychair.org/cfp/WHPCSummit2020

Tutorial Submissions

Tutorials may be proposed for either a full day (six hours) or a half day (three hours). Tutorials must last for the full three or six hours. If your topic can be covered in less than three hours you can combine multiple related subjects into a  single “themed” submission.

     Your information will be submitted via a web form and file upload. Submitting samples of visual aids is strongly encouraged, either via a file upload or via a URL.

    The file you upload should contain the following sections, each beginning on a separate page:

  • Abstract in text format (200-word maximum).
  • A detailed description of the proposed tutorial (two pages maximum) with the following sections:
    1. Tutorial goals – specifically how attendees will benefit

    2. Why the topic is relevant to conference attendees

    3. Clearly describe the target audience (researchers, students, developers, practitioners, etc.) and what they will learn

    4. Content level (% beginner, % intermediate, % advanced)

    5. Audience prerequisites

    6. Description of tutorial content – discuss in detail the tutorial content, schedule, and organization

    7. If your presenters are from different institutions, how you will ensure cohesive tutorial content (not just a disparate set of talks).

  • Résumé or Curriculum Vitae for each presenter (six presenters maximum, two pages maximum each). Make sure this includes a list of short courses each presenter has taught.

Deadline: December 13th, 2019 AOE
Acceptance Notification: January 17th, 2020

Student Program

Applications are now open for the Women in HPC Summit Student program. The program is aimed at students of all levels interested in HPC. All students are required to submit a poster related to HPC topics they work on. These posters are an integral part of the program, but can be for new work or existing work.

Applications are accepted in the “WHPC Summit Student Program” track at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=whpcsummit2020

Applications close on 28 February 2020.

Responses to applicants on 6 March 2020.

Application materials include two documents:

  1. A student prepared document that includes
    1. A brief bio including background in HPC
    2. Statement of why you wish to attend the WHPC Summit
    3. Career aspirations
    4. A 1-2 page extended abstract describing your poster contents. An A0 sized poster is required at the Summit.
  2. A letter of support from an academic advisor supporting your attendance

Programming during the summit specifically aimed at students minimizes overlap with regular Summit sessions. These student oriented sessions include

  • General presentation skills discussion and practice for a variety of presentation scenarios both written and verbal
  • A small group poster presentation practice session to give feedback about the poster, presentation, and how to entice poster session attendees to interact
  • A lightning presentation session to the whole Summit as a teaser to attend your poster at the poster reception.
  • A poster session to interact with other attendees with your poster
  • A 2-hour career fair focused on internships, postdocs, and other positions.

 

Accepted students are provided with complimentary registration for the Summit, but no travel support is available. Students will also help with running of the conference with a 2-3 hour shift (e.g., tracking/reporting attendance at a session, helping with AV, or working the registration desk). Particular shifts will be determined closer to the Summit date with students able to bid on the particular slots they prefer.

 

The tentative agenda includes the following, but is subject to change:

Wed 29-April

9:00-10:30 Meeting and getting to know each other.

11:00-13:00 Presentation confidence and skills presentation/discussion

14:00-15:30 poster presentation practice

16:00-18:00 poster presentation practice

 

Thur 30-April

9:00-10:30  Keynote Talks

11:00-13:00 Ask us anything (different career paths and options focus, but truly anything)

14:00-15:00 poster lightning talks 

15:00-15:30 posters networking (with the main poster session)

15:30-16:30 Career Fair

 

Fri 1-May

12:00-13:00 Careers Panel

 

Please check back here for the latest schedule and/or contact the Student Programs Chairs.

Student Program co-chairs

Jay Lofstead (gflofst@sandia.gov) and Rebecca Hartman-Baker (rjhartmanbaker@lbl.gov). 

Registration

Please note that registration will take you to a registration portal hosted by our conference hosts, Simon Fraser University.

Early bird Registration Pricing (Deadline extended to Mar. 2nd, 2020)

Registration Type Member Non-Member
Standard $300 CAN $350 CAN
Student $170 CAN $200 CAN

 

Regular Registration Pricing (After Mar. 2nd, 2020)

Registration Type Member Non-Member
Standard $400 CAN $400 CAN
Student $250 CAN $250 CAN

Registration FAQ to be added soon!

Speakers

Stephanie Simmons, Simon Fraser University

Talk: The International Race for a Quantum Computer

Abstract: Silicon transistors, the essential building block of most modern electronic devices, cannot shrink much further without being rendered inoperable by quantum mechanics. This classical-quantum threshold in fact presents a tremendous opportunity: if we harness quantum mechanics, rather than attempt to avoid it, we could build a quantum computer. Quantum computers will open up a world of opportunities — they could accomplish certain computational tasks exponentially faster which would otherwise be forever impractical. During this lecture, Dr. Simmons will discuss quantum computing approaches (including her own, based upon CMOS-compatible silicon photonics), how quantum technologies will change our lives in a very fundamental way, and provide a snapshot of the accelerating worldwide race to build a prototype.

Bio: As a Simon Fraser University professor and Canada Research Chair in Quantum Nanoelectronics, Stephanie Simmons works on silicon-based spin quibits with the particular aim to develop CMOS-compatible scalable quantum technologies. Her work on silicon quibits was awarded a Physics World Top Ten Breakthrough of the Year of 2013, and again in 2015. Simmons’ work has been covered by the New York Times, CBC, BBC, Scientific American, the New Scientist, and others. She earned her PhD in Materials Science at Oxford University in 2011.

Simmons is a Principal Investigator for the Silicon Quantum Technology Lab. They work to build quantum technologies using silicon, which hosts arguably the best quantum bits (‘qubits’) in the industry. They are linking the excellent spin qubits associated with a number of luminescent defects in silicon with photon qubits. Much of their current work concerns the development and proof of principle of this ‘photonic link’ in silicon. Photonic qubits enable links between various spin qubits and can be used to link multiple quantum chips — towards what some call a ‘quantum internet’. This approach will also have concrete scale-up advantages including higher-temperature operation, ease of manufacturing, and robust and atomically identical qubits. If successful, this platform will be used not only to make a quantum computer but also to make provably secure quantum communication, quantum sensors, and more.

Toni Collis, WHPC Chair, Collis-Holmes Innovations

Dr Toni Collis is the Chair and co-founder of (WHPC) and Director of Collis-Holmes Innovations. With a background in business, physics and parallel computing Toni specialises in assisting women make the most of their career, from providing strategy for start-ups to coaching women in leadership and management. Toni provides technical and business insight on a range of projects and is passionate about enabling everyone to effectively and efficiently use the HPC resources that will help their work. Her role in WHPC is a natural extension of this as her vision for WHPC is to bring HPC to those who may not be able to access or participate in the community for reasons beyond access. She has been on the organising committee for a variety of workshops and conferences including leading the team for the previous WHPC workshops and is a member of a variety of international HPC advisory bodies.

Kelly Nolan, WHPC Vice Chair, Talent Strategy

Kelly Nolan is the founder of TalentStrategy.org and is a seasoned expert in strategic affairs. Kelly works with executives and boards on diversity and governance approaches. Her clients include research and government institutions, corporations and global initiatives. Kelly develops targeted programs to improve gender equity and engage and retain diverse talent pools for a variety of industrial sectors. Kelly specializes in organizational diversity frameworks, training, assessment, and strategic affairs for external and internal relations for complex evidence-based, multi-stakeholder STEM organizations. A regular conference presenter, Kelly has chaired diversity and workforce development streams for several conferences.

Agenda

Wednesday April 29th

Time Room: 1500 Room: 1505 Room: 1510 Room:1525 Room: 1535
9:00 - 10:30 AM Registration Open Student Program
10:30 - 11:00 AM BREAK
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM Student Program
1:00 - 2:00 PM Lunch (students only)
2:00 - 3:30 PM Tutorial 1: HPC Strategy, Procurement, Cost Models and Metrics Tutorial 2: More Science, Less Programming: Parallel Programming with OpenACC Tutorial 3: Better Scientific Software Tutorial 4: Best Practices for HPC in the Cloud on AWS Student Program
3:30 - 4:00 PM BREAK
4:00 - 6:00 PM Tutorial 1 continued Tutorial 2 continued Tutorial 3 continued Tutorial 4 continued Student Program

Thursday April 30th

Time Segal Centre Room Room: 1700 Room: 1535
7:30 - 8:30 AM BREAKFAST and registration
8:30 - 9:30 AM Welcome from WHPC, hosts and the General Chair (Trish Damkroger) N/A N/A
9:30 - 10:30 AM Keynote: STEPHANIE SIMMONS, SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY, THE INTERNATIONAL RACE FOR A QUANTUM COMPUTER N/A N/A
10:30 - 11:00 AM Coffee break
11:30 AM - 12:00 PM Tech paper TBC Equity & inclusion paper TBC Student Program
12:00 - 12:30 PM Tech paper TBC Equity & inclusion paper TBC
12:30 - 1:00 PM Tech paper TBC Networking session facilitated by Cristin Wiedemann N/A
1:00 - 1:30 PM Tech paper TBC N/A
1:30 - 2:00 PM Lunch
2:00 - 2:30 PM Poster Lightning talks (students authors only) Equity & inclusion paper TBC N/A
2:30 - 3:00 PM Equity & inclusion paper TBC N/A
3:00 - 3:30 PM Poster networking Equity & inclusion paper TBC N/A
3:30 PM - 4:00 PM Coffee break including posters
4:00 - 5:00 PM Transportation to evening reception
5:00 PM - 9:00 PM Evening reception, networking and supecomputer tours, including return transportation

Friday May 1st

Time Segal Centre Room Room: 1700
7:30 - 9:00 AM BREAKFAST and registration, including mentoring breakfast
9:00 - 9:30 AM Plenary: Kelly Nolan, Women in HPC: The business case for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (Title TBC) N/A
9:30 - 10:30 AM Keynote: TBC N/A
10:30 - 11:00 AM Coffee break
11:30 AM - 12:00 PM Tech paper TBC Equity & inclusion paper TBC
12:00 - 12:30 PM Tech paper TBC Equity & inclusion paper TBC
12:30 - 1:30 PM Careers Panel Chapters Program - how to setup a WHPC chapter and run one like a pro
1:30 - 2:30 PM Lunch and careers fair
2:30 - 3:00 PM Tech paper TBC Equity & inclusion paper TBC
3:00 - 3:30 PM Tech paper TBC Equity & inclusion paper TBC
3:30 - 4:00 PM Coffee break
4:00 - 4:30 PM Plenary: Toni Collis: The past, present and future of Women in HPC, where we are now and where to go from here N/A
4:30 - 5:00 PM Final comments from the Women in HPC Board and closing remarks N/A

Tutorials

Tutorial 1

Title of the tutorial: More Science, Less Programming: Parallel Programming with OpenACC

Event Type: Lecture-style, hands on tutorial

Prerequisite: Please bring a laptop and make sure to have ScaleFT Client installed on it.

List of authors and their affiliations:

  • Dr Mozhgan Kabiri Chimeh (NVIDIA)
  • Dr Neelofar Banglawala (EPCC)

Description:

Accelerated computing is fueling some of the most exciting scientific discoveries today. For scientists and researchers seeking faster application performance, OpenACC is a directive-based programming model designed to provide a simple yet powerful approach to accelerators without significant programming effort. With OpenACC, a single version of the source code will deliver performance portability across platforms.

OpenACC is designed to deliver powerful performance that is portable across platforms such as GPUs and multi-core CPUs. Performance portability allows researchers to optimize their code just the once with expected accelerated results on different processors and platforms.

With OpenACC, programmers can keep existing code as is whilst delivering faster performance when an accelerator is available on a system. This tutorial is designed to help attendees start accelerating their code with OpenACC. The tutorial is comprised of three instructor-led sessions that include interactive lectures and hands-on exercises.

Throughout this tutorial, we present examples to show how OpenACC extends existing serial CPU code or parallel code using approaches like OpenMP. The course covers analyzing performance, parallelizing and optimizing your code. By the end of the tutorial session, attendees will learn everything they need to start accelerating their code with OpenACC on GPUs and x86 CPUs.

 

 

Tutorial 2

Title of the tutorial: Better Scientific Software

Event Type: Lecture-style tutorial

List of authors and their affiliations:

  • David E. Bernholdt, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
  • Anshu Dubey, Argonne National Laboratory
  • Patricia A. Grubel, Los Alamos National Laboratory
  • Rinku Gupta, Argonne National Laboratory

Description:

The computational science and engineering (CSE) community is in the midst of an extremely challenging period created by the confluence of disruptive changes in computing architectures, demand for greater scientific reproducibility, and new opportunities for greatly improved simulation capabilities, especially through coupling physics and scales. Computer architecture changes require new software design and implementation strategies, including significant refactoring of existing code. Reproducibility demands require more rigor across the entire software endeavor. Code coupling requires aggregate team interactions including integration of software processes and practices. These challenges demand large investments in scientific software development and improved practices. Focusing on improved developer productivity and software sustainability is both urgent and essential.

This tutorial will provide information and hands-on experience with software practices, processes, and tools explicitly tailored for CSE. Goals are improving the productivity of those who develop CSE software and increasing the sustainability of software artifacts. We discuss practices that are relevant for projects of all sizes, with emphasis on small teams, and on aggregate teams composed of small teams. Topics include effective tools and processes for small teams (including agile approaches), reproducibility, key principles for the design and testing of scientific software, git workflows, code coverage, and continuous integration testing.

 

Tutorial 3

Title of the tutorial: HPC in the Cloud with AWS

Event Type: Hands on Tutorial

List of authors and their affiliations:

Tara Madhyastha, AWS

Jo Adegbola, AWS

Nina Vogl, AWS

Dipti Kothari, AWS

Anh Tran, AWS

Pierre-Yves Aquilanti, AWS

Linda Hedges, AWS

Description:

Cloud computing technologies have matured to the point that nearly all HPC production workloads can be efficiently accommodated in a cloud environment. Cloud computing presents a nearly unrivaled completeness of services and the ability to accommodate the most demanding computational workloads at a scale. However, the complexity and scale that comes with such an environment can make the first experience a daunting proposition. This tutorial offers “solution through training”, explanations and hands-on experience in a safe environment.

We will provide an overview of computational, storage and network technologies offered by AWS and demonstrate how to best utilize them to run HPC workflows. We also cover specific use cases, techniques and optimizations to run applications at extreme scale.

This tutorial will be composed of presentations and hands-on sessions where attendees will have the opportunity to put into practice their learnings on the AWS cloud. A laptop/tablet and a shell with Bash are required for the hands-on portions of this tutorial.

 

 

Tutorial 4

Title:

HPC Leadership Skills – strategy, cost models, technology evaluation, procurement, metrics, and more.

Event Type: Lecture-style tutorial

List of authors and their affiliations:

Andrew Jones, Microsoft

Christine Harvey, MITRE

Fouzhan Hosseini, Numerical Algorithms Group Ltd

 

Description:

This tutorial aims to provide an overview of the business and technology planning aspects of HPC. These aspects of HPC usually get much less attention than programming and sysadmin but are equally critical to the success of HPC. This includes topics such as: understanding and presenting the value of HPC, funding and cost recovery models, total cost of ownership, technology evaluations, procurement, metrics and reporting, delivery models, stakeholders, service elements and team structures, etc.

 

The tutorial will be useful for anyone who is looking to make (or has recently made) the career step towards managing or leading an HPC center or service. It will also be useful for anyone doing parts of that job, such as helping with HPC procurements, building cost models, managing a team within the group, or researchers seeking to better understand how HPC services are planned and delivered. It applies equally to industry and university/government spaces.

 

Versions of this tutorial have been presented at SC since 2013, and in other venues, with consistently high feedback scores.

FAQ and Other Information

Accommodation

We are excited to announce the official hotel for the WHPC Summit – Delta Hotels Vancouver Downtown Suites.

We recommend you book at least 60 days prior to the conference as the hotel may be booked out fast. Using the link above will give you special conference rates.

Your booking will include a luxurious king size bed, sofa bed and amenities at only CAD$269 per night.

International Travel to WHPC Summit 2020

The WHPC Summit 2020 is delighted to welcome all of its international attendees.

A citizen of a foreign country who seeks to enter Canada generally must first obtain a Canadian visa, which is placed in the traveler’s passport issued by the traveler’s country of citizenship.

Most people need a visa OR an Electronic Travel Authorization to travel to Canada – not both. Some people may only need a valid passport. Please visit here to find out if you need a visa to enter Canada.

If you require a visa, visit this site for the basics on visas and from there get started on the visa process.  Read these steps carefully:

  1. Visit your local embassy or consulate NOW to obtain literature, forms and understand the application process.Securing a visa can take some time, so we strongly recommend that you start your visa application process early – at least 90 days prior to the conference if possible. For information on the visa processing times, check this website.AUTHORS, PLEASE NOTE: a country may deny the request for a visa or delay it indefinitely. Therefore, make sure to plan for this possibility and prepare for a plan B.
  2. When registering for WHPC Summit 2020, you may request an invitation letter through the registration form. After completing your registration and payment, your invitation letter will be sent via email within a week. The Registration Chairs may require additional information or documents before they are able to issue any letter of support.Please note that only registered authors, sponsors, exhibitors, and participants may receive formal invitation letters.It is possible that your visa request gets denied or delayed indefinitely. To be on the safe side, please plan for alternate presenter(s) of your work in case the visa application takes much longer or does not get approved. Make such alternate plan early on.If for any reason your visa is denied, we will issue a full refund of your registration payment if you applied at least 2 months before the date of the conference.
  3. After you receive the letter of invitation, start your visa application and follow the instructions via this website. If you require any help or have questions, please contact your local Canadian Embassy or Consulate.For information on the embassy or consulate closest to you, see Links to Canadian Embassies and Consulates Worldwide.

We look forward to having you at WHPC Summit 2020.

Tutorials FAQ

Tutorial Presenters

Q. What is the date and time of the tutorials?

A. The tutorials will be held on 29 Apr, 2020 from 2 pm to 6 pm. The duration is broken down into three parts: first part from 2-3.30 pm, a coffee break from 3.30-4 pm, and the second part of the tutorial from 4-6 pm.

Q. How long are the WHPC Tutorials?

A. WHPC tutorials are a half-day (4 hours) session, including a 30 minute break.

Q. What if a topic of interest can be covered in less than three hours?

A. Tutorial sessions must last for the full 3.5 hours. Multiple related subjects may be combined into a single “themed” session for presentation.

Q. What is a hands-on tutorial?

A. Hands-on tutorials give attendees an opportunity to work through pre-prepared demos or exercises during the tutorial. A well-done hands-on tutorial can provide a much richer learning experience to attendees than a non-interactive, lecture-only tutorial. Hands-on submissions are highly encouraged.

Q. If accepted, what additional information will I need to provide?

A. If accepted, you will be asked to provide a number of additional materials. These include promotional videos, bio information for the online program, tutorial abstract, who will be presenting and presenter bios, level of audience catered, consent and release forms, and final presentation materials.

Q. Why do I need to sign a consent and release form?

A. Tutorials presentation materials will be hosted on the WHPC website for registered Tutorials attendees. Organizers must also explicitly agree to the release of their tutorial presentations for this purpose as part of the tutorial proposal submission.

Q. Is a promotional video required?

A. Promotional videos are not required, but they are encouraged! Furthermore, promotional videos are a great way to advertise your proposal to potential attendees. Links to promotional videos will be posted on the WHPC website.

Q. When must the final presentation materials for accepted tutorials be submitted?

A. Final submission date is March 27, 2020.

Q. Can I make changes to my tutorial materials after I have submitted them?

A. Tutorial presenters are generally expected to use the material submitted, with no changes. Minor extensions may be granted to enable a presenter to include more timely material, or to comply with conditions beyond the presenter’s control (e.g., new decisions adopted by standards bodies). In such cases, the submitted material should be as close to a final version as possible, and clearly indicate where changes are anticipated.

Changes requested because a presenter had insufficient time to prepare and submit their materials cannot be accommodated.

Q. What are the expectations of tutorial presentations at the conference?

A. WHPC expects to attract a wide variety of audience for attendance. Tutorial abstracts must clearly present what lessons can be learned, and tutorial presenters are expected to deliver professional presentations and to treat tutorial attendees with respect. Each tutorial will be evaluated in detail by attendees after the session, and these evaluations will play a crucial role in the evaluation of future-year tutorial submissions.

 

About Being a Tutorial Presenter

Q. What is the difference between presenters, lead presenters, and assistants?

A. A “presenter” is a person who is eligible for a complimentary registration. We extend two complimentary registrations per every accepted tutorial.

A “lead presenter” is the presenter authorized to speak and make decisions for all of the tutorial’s presenters as recognized by the Tutorials Chair. The person who submits the tutorial materials is assumed to be the lead presenter.

An “assistant” is a person who assists with a tutorial but is not a designated presenter.

Q. How many presenters and assistants may each tutorial have?

A. Since the tutorials are half day, they may include up to two presenters and up to two assistants.

Q. Do presenters get complimentary access to the conference or to other tutorials?

A. Two presenters per tutorial will receive a complimentary registration for the tutorials day of the conference, so they may attend other tutorials on the same day. Otherwise, presenters must register for the conference and/or any tutorials they wish to attend.

Q. What else is required of tutorial presenters?

A. Tutorial presenters are expected to attend the Tutorial Breakfast on the day of their presentation. Final instructions are given at this breakfast. Presenters are expected to alert the Tutorials Chair if they are unable to attend.

Q. Are presenters reimbursed for the cost of traveling to the conference?

A. The presenters are expected to cover the cost of travel to the conference. Up to two presenters may claim complimentary registrations for accepted tutorials.

 

Review Criteria and Conflict of Interest (COI)

Q: Is my tutorial peer-reviewed?

A: Yes. Tutorial proposals are reviewed by a committee of experts. Each proposal will have at least three reviewers.

Q: Is the peer-review process double-blind?

A: No. Reviewers have access to the names of tutorial submitters. While Tutorials Committee members are named on the WHPC Planning Committee page, the names of the individuals reviewing each proposal are not made available to the authors.

Q: What are the guidelines for conflicts of interest (COI)?

A: A potential conflict of interest occurs when a person is involved in making a decision that:

  1. Could result in that person, a close associate of that person, or that person’s company or institution receiving significant financial gain, such as a contract or grant.
  2. Could result in that person, or a close associate of that person, receiving significant professional recognition, such as an award or the selection of a paper, work, exhibit, or other type of submitted presentation.

Authors and Tutorials Committee members will be given the opportunity to list any potential COIs during the submissions and review processes, respectively. The Tutorials Committee Chair will make every effort to avoid assignments that have a potential COI.

According to the SC Conference you have a conflict of interest with:

  • Your PhD advisors, post-doctoral advisors, PhD students, and post-doctoral advisees forever;
  • Family relations by blood or marriage, or equivalent (e.g., a partner);
  • People with whom you collaborated in the past five years. Collaborators include: co-authors on an accepted/rejected/pending research paper; co-PIs on an accepted/pending grant; those who fund your research; researchers whom you fund; or researchers with whom you are actively collaborating;
  • Close personal friends or others with whom you believe a conflict of interest exists;
  • People who were employed by, or a student at, your primary institution(s) in the past five years, or people who are active candidates for employment at your primary institution(s).

Note that “service” collaborations, such as writing a DOE, NSF, or DARPA report, or serving on a program committee, or serving on the editorial board of a journal do not inherently create a COI.

 

Conference Infrastructure

Q: Are there coffee breaks during Tutorials?

A: Yes. There will be one 30-minute coffee break in the 3.5 hour tutorial.

Q: What is the seating capacity per room?

A: The seating capacity of the rooms where the tutorials will be presented will range anywhere between 20 and 25.

Q: What rooms and audio/video infrastructure are provided to each tutorial?

A: Tutorials are assigned a room equipped with standard AV facilities (built-in projector, microphone, wireless lapel microphone or wireless handheld microphone, and projection screen).

Q: What if I need additional infrastructure (e.g., power, wired internet access)?

A. The Conference will provide wireless network access to all tutorial rooms. There will be power available via power bars “hands-on” tutorials upon request. Tutorials requesting wired network and power must include a clear justification for the request in their proposal.

Q: What other things should I remember about infrastructure?

A. Presenters should remember to bring dongles to connect to the AV facilities, especially Mac users. While the organizers will make an effort to provide dongles, we make no guarantees because of the wide variety of makes and models.

Q: Will there be anyone present to help out with technical issues?

A: Yes. There will be IT staff available onsite to help with AV and general infrastructure needs.

Q: Can I record my tutorial?

A: No, this request cannot be accommodated within current conference policies and procedures.

 

Pravi Devineni, Tutorial Chair

Katie Schuman, Tutorials Co-chair

Women Helping Women Marketplace

At the WHPC Summit, we have invited women-led, eco-friendly traditional artisan and gift vendors to sell their goods. Attendees will have the opportunity to buy souvenirs and gifts on the show room floor and learn more about indigenous artists and the British Colombia landscape.  As part of our goal to have unbridled empowerment of women at all our events we wanted to share this opportunity to support local women directly.
Meet the Artists:

INFOCUS CANADA

We work with professional photographers and artists across Canada. They provide us with iconic images, which are sublimated onto limited-edition scarves made of 100% recycled post-consumer plastic bottles. We work with production facilities that have third-party audited certifications and this speaks to our shared commitment to the ethical treatment of employees and an unparalleled commitment to environmental responsibility.
To find out more about our project, please check out www.infocuscanada.ca

Giggy’s Beads

Giggy’s Beads is the passion project of Valerie Davidson-Oar, an Anishinaabe First Nations woman living in BC. Giggy’s Beads creates traditional one-of-a-kind beading and jewelry for use in everyday wear to cultural events to haute couture.  Giggy’s Beads are proudly made for people of all genders and sexual identities.
Val has found much peace and pride sharing her cultural artistry while the process has gifted her with her own spiritual healing. Val believes her ability to connect with people through her beadwork allows her to share meaningful and positive cultural experiences
 Custom orders are welcomed. https://www.facebook.com/giggysbeads

Chloe Angus Designs

Chloe Angus Designs is a collaboration between indigenous artists from across Canada with Chloe Angus, a local handmade clothing designer based in Vancouver. They specialize in Spirit Wraps and their signature clothing line.  Chloe Angus Design had been proudly based and made in Vancouver, BC, since 2004. Chloë Angus Design is co-owned by Chloe Angus and her husband, who is Métis.

Sponsors

Sponsorship Opportunities
Demonstrate your leadership in the HPC community and align your brand with an international event that will build an urgently needed roadmap for gender inclusion. As a sponsor, you can leverage the WHPC Summit to:

  • Demonstrate your leadership in gender inclusion within high performance computing internationally. 
  • Recruit and build a diverse and inclusive team.
  • Build your talent pipeline.
  • Promote your products and services to key markets within this sector.
  • Share your corporate expertise in a unique exchange of ideas, best practices, and advancements in HPC.
  • Build relationships with key decision-makers from across the HPC community.

For more information or to secure your spot, please contact WHPC Sponsorship Chair, Tessa Derksen: tessa.derksen@computecanada.ca.

Diamond

Gold

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Bronze

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Partner

Media Sponsor

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