STEM-Trek News

Attending the first pandemic in-person SC was not without its concerns (and I say pandemic because this thing is not over). But with a vaccination requirement and a mask mandate, attendance safety protocols were stricter than at my workplace. I wondered how the conference would proceed in a hybrid format with substantially reduced in-person attendance compared to previous years. As a Missourian, there was frustration that we finally got SC in St. Louis, but in circumstances that made in-person attendance difficult for some.

St. Louis is only a two-hour drive for me, I have a stash of N95 masks and a year of experience navigating the pandemic in a classroom environment. Assistance from STEM-Trek removed whatever lingering doubts I might have had …

By Emine Beyza Dagli

Crisp autumn weather set the stage for SC21 in St. Louis, Missouri. It was my first time visiting this area, and I enjoyed sightseeing when I wasn’t involved with the conference. Among iconic landmarks is the “Arch,” which is a magnificent feat of engineering. I traveled to the top of The Gateway to the West and can now understand how it got that name; the adventure offered a bird’s eye view of the city and miles beyond.

On the first day, I attended the Parallel Computing 101 tutorial led by Professors Quentin F. Stout and Christiane Jablonowski from the University of Michigan. Following introductions, they explained some of the basic terms and acronyms that many in the industry take …

By:  Marcelina Nagales (Florida State University)

What an eventful and information-packed week SC21 was! 

I lodged with five others in STEM-Trek’s “UbuntuHouse,” which was two adjoined 3BR/3BA condos. There were two full-service kitchens stocked with snacks and breakfast items. A few of us coffee-drinkers congregated in one kitchen each morning, and we often shared transportation to and from the convention center. It was a great way to meet others who were also attending SC that week – we had our own tiny community. While this year’s attendance was 3,200 on-site (UPDATE: SC21 had ~3,200 in-person attendees and ~3,300 remote attendees.  ~380 sessions), SC normally draws 10-15,000. I can imagine it would be easy to get lost in the crowd if your work …

Eight contestants competed for travel awards and more at the second annual STEM-Trek ScienceSlam.

Judges included six families and four experts – they cast their ballots by Monday, October 9. Ramsha Aasim (Georgia Tech) won first place by a landslide, and Badisa Mosesane (U-Botswana) was a clear second. Four were tied for third!

After a final “slam-o-rama” where the audience broke the tie on October 15, Miranda Chidemo (Zimbabwe Centre for HPC) placed third and Ismet Dagli (Colorado School of Mines) came in at fourth. Others who didn’t place won a travel grant and SC21 tech program registration waiver (including workshops and tutorials). The full playlist is available here.

SC is the International Conference for High-Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis.

ScienceSlam@SC20 “legacy” winners were offered registration waivers, and an additional five XSEDE Campus Champions from EPSCoR states – four from Missouri within driving …

The judges have voted!

Please join us on Friday, October 15 at 4:00 p.m. CST for the final Slam-O-Jama!

To receive your invitation, please register here by 5 p.m. CST on Thursday. A Zoom link will be sent to registrants prior to the event.

Contenders, judges and the community are invited to participate. During this event we will announce first, second, third and fourth-place awards! Prizes include SC21 tech program registration waivers, travel grants and more.

For more information about ScienceSlam@SC21, with links to last year’s event, visit this page.

Thank you Google, Micron Technology and SC21 General Chair Bronis de Supinski (LLNL)!

Thank you Aunshul Rege (Temple University) for including STEM-Trek on Temple’s OWL list: “Organizations We Love!” Dr. Rege is an associate professor in Temple’s Department of Criminal Justice and leads cybersecurity competitions that are supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, award number 1742747.

Did you see this HPCwire article? Check it out.

The submission window is now closed. Thank you!

Would you like to attend SC21 in St. Louis, Missouri (US) November 14-19 but lack travel support? The SC international conference series draws more than 10,000 high-performance computing, storage and analysis enthusiasts from around the world. While SC20 was totally virtual, SC21 will have both virtual and in-person registration options.

STEM-Trek Nonprofit will help 28* individuals attend SC21 via three contests: ScienceSlam@SC, our inaugural “Pathfinders@SC21,” and a special opportunity for early-career communicators!  Three to eight-minute video submissions are accepted in the first two categories, and writing examples are required for the third.

Once again, cybersecurity thought leader and Toastmasters International enthusiast Mohamad Qayoom will serve as our host!

The “Pathfinder” contest welcomes career arc video testimonials from mid- to late-career research computing and data science (RCD) professionals. While examples at the above link are from a PEARC21 …

PEARC21 Student Program Cybersecurity Careers panel explores the career arcs of five experts in this August 5, 2021 HPCwire article. Video testimonials by panelists are found on the PEARC21 website (linked to panelist names).

Thomas J. Sterling (Indiana University) delivered his 18th International Supercomputing Conference (ISC21) keynote address on Wednesday, November 30. Before he closed, he expressed gratitude for the efforts of a number of industry icons, and included Elizabeth Leake (STEM-Trek) among them.

Senior Editor John Russell (HPCwire) captured the highlights and closed his article with this quote by Dr. Sterling:

“The final person here is one who frankly, we really need to acknowledge and that is Elizabeth Leake. Now many of you know Elizabeth, she is part of our community and always with a friendly smile. But she is much more than that. She is the founder of STEM-Trek…I can’t read to you the long list of accomplishments, but through STEM-Trek, students are encouraged and engaged in high performance computing. She has singularly managed to acquire travel grants for students who otherwise, frankly, would never get …