Hello from Barcelona where Women in HPC participated in PRACEDays 2017! It is an exciting time with an ever expanding community engaged in the conversation around diversity. This year’s PRACEDays conference had an equal numbers of female and male keynote speakers, all of whom have been exceptionally inspiring.

WHPC was here to discuss with PRACE users the challenges they face in diversifying the workforce and discussing mechanisms and steps we can all take to overcome these challenges. As always, we welcome discussion of these challenges and ideas and hope you will join in on social media.

Women in HPC at ISC 2017, Frankfurt, Germany

ISC is now only 5 weeks away. When you plan your schedules, mark your calendar for our workshop and BoF.

NOTE: When you register, you need to purchase a Workshop Pass to attend the Workshop.

BoF: Practical Steps to Diversifying the HPC Workforce
Wednesday 2rd June 2017, 1.45-2.45pm
Substanz 1+2, Frankfurt Messe

Following the success of our BoF at SC16, we will have a practical audience-focused BoF at ISC17 discussing unconscious bias, stereotype threat, or imposter syndrome. The BoF will discuss the real effects of these topics on the workplace, providing the audience with an introduction to each theme, how these themes may affect you, and how they impact employers, employees, advisors, managers or your peers. This discussion will also be of benefit when considering improving diversity for underrepresented groups other than women.  

WHPC Workshop
Thursday 22nd June 2017, 9 am - 1 pm
Marriott, Frankfurt

Our 6th Workshop! We continue with the theme of educating and supporting diversity in the workplace.

• Skills to thrive in an HPC career. Here all participants get hints and tips on public speaking, effective workplace communications, taking your career to the next step, and speed networking practice.

• Improving diversity in the workplace.These sessions are targeted for for anyone in the workplace, with specific tools for leaders and managers on how to successfully address discrimination in the workplace, the benefits of professional networks and mentoring, and how to identify the roadblocks facing those in underrepresented groups.

Everyone is welcome to all of WHPC's events (it is about inclusivity after all!) irrespective of gender, career stage, or background. We have a goal to become more diverse ourselves and particularly welcome male attendees. It takes all of us working together to build better performing and more productive teams.

SC17 Doctoral Showcase Open to Applications

Applications for Doctoral Showcase close: July 31, 2017

As part of the Technical Program of SC17, the Doctoral Showcase provides an important opportunity for students near the end of their Ph.D. to present a summary of their dissertation research in the form of short talks and thesis canvas. Unlike technical paper and poster presentations, Doctoral Showcase highlights the entire contents of each dissertation, including previously published results, to allow for a broad perspective of the work.

This Doctoral Research showcase track provides an opportunity to educate junior graduate students working in high performance computing areas. This program also provides an ideal opportunity for prospective employers in academia, research laboratories and industry to interact with prospective Ph.Ds.

PRACEDays 2017 - Barcelona

Toni Collis, our founder, and Kim McMahon of our Executive Board attended PRACEDays in Barcelona. Three days of sessions, presentations, and networking. Toni presented to the PRACE audience on diversifying the workforce. Kim attended the sessions where HPC topics on industry use of HPC resources and technical advances on Exascale were discussed.

Kim McMahon and Ada Lovelace winner Frauke Gräter


Toni Collis and Ada Lovelace winner Frauke Gräter

Toni presented the Ada Lovelace Award to Prof Dr Frauke Gräter from the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies for her work entitled: “Natural strength: micromechanics of biocomposites”. Frauke and her team focused in this scientific investigation on the mechanical properties of nacre, a material found in nature that possesses great stability due to its elaborate hierarchical nanostructures.

Read Kim’s blogs to get an interesting perspective on the technical sessions.
Start of a Beautiful Week
Barcelona Wrap-Up


Inma Martinez, Kim McMahon, Tiffany Trader


Toni Collis, Kim McMahon, Tiffany Trader

Just the Facts

To find out more about Women in High Performance Computing check out our website:  www.womeninhpc.org. You can keep in touch with WHPC between newsletters by visiting us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. If you have any suggestions, comments, or items you would like to include in future newsletters please contact us at info@womeninhpc.org. We are particularly interested in hearing from event organisers or programmes that are looking to recruit women and would like to have their information shared in the Opportunities section of our newsletter.

Previous WHPC newsletters are available on our website.