Donors Help Extend Benefits of the SC14 Broader Engagement Program

In 2007, the SC Conference launched the Broader Engagement (BE) program to serve as an entry into the HPC community for members of traditionally under-represented groups and students. Since then, the program has continued to introduce an increasingly diverse group of attendees to the conference and HPC.

However, as institutions have been cutting back on travel budgets, there is an even bigger demand for supplemental programs like SC's BE program. This year alone, the SC14 BE committee evaluated 153 applicants, about 50 percent more applications than were received in 2013. Yet, this year’s BE program budget was only able to support about 44 scholarships.

Thanks to the advocacy of SC fundraisers led by Tony Baylis of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and through the generosity of the National Security Agency, LLNL and the Walt Disney Company, enough funding has been secured to bring 61 Broader Engagement applicants to SC14.

But the BE program does not only benefit program participants. When Richard Barrett of Sandia National Laboratories signed up as a BE mentor at SC13, he was paired with protégé Corey Henderson, a graduate student in plasma physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Both Barrett and Henderson said the match also helped each of them learn more about themselves and their careers. Read their story at: http://www.stem-trek.org/2014/06/29/broader-engagement-matters/.

To become a mentor at SC14, when filling out the online registration form, answer "yes" to the demographic question "Would you like to mentor a HPC Interconnections participant while attending the Conference?"