WINS: SC21 Call for Participation, Deadline 1/15/2021

[Brian Kelly <bkelly () EDUCAUSE EDU>]

Cross posting for maximum reach - This is a well-regarded program with a cybersecurity component.



From: Jason Zurawski <zurawski () es net>
Reply-To: Jason Zurawski <zurawski () es net>
Date: Tuesday, December 8, 2020 at 9:13 AM
To: "epoc-interest-l () list iu edu" <epoc-interest-l () list iu edu>
Subject: [epoc-interest-l] WINS: SC21 Call for Participation, Deadline 1/15/2021



Dear Colleagues;



We are excited to announce that the Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS) program is now accepting applications for the 
2021 program.  Since 2015, the WINS program has provided an immersive “hands-on” mentorship opportunity for early- to 
mid-career women in the IT field who are selected to participate in the ground-up construction of SCinet, one of the 
fastest and most advanced computer networks in the world<https://sc21.supercomputing.org/scinet/>, built annually for 
the Supercomputing Conference (SC) to be held in St. Louis, MO in 2021.



The program collaborates with SCinet committee leadership to match each awardee with a SCinet team and a mentor; offers 
travel funding for awardees; and provides ongoing support and career development opportunities for the awardees before, 
during, and after the conference.



Interested and qualified women are encouraged to apply. WINS strives to have diverse representation of organizations 
and applicant backgrounds in the cohort each year. In order to further broaden the diversity within the WINS program 
itself, preference this year will be given to applicants who are historically underrepresented in the Information 
Technology field, including Black or African-American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic or Latinx.

A PDF version of the Call for Participation is attached. We encourage you to distribute this information to your 
networks and contacts.   The application deadline is January 15, 2021 at 11:59pm AoE. You can access the application 
here: http://www.women-in-networking.net/apply-to-wins/



WINS is a joint effort between the Department of Energy’s Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), the Keystone Initiative for 
Network Based Education and Research (KINBER), and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and works 
collaboratively with the SC program committee.



Sincerely,



-jason



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SC21 WINS Call for Participation

Apply: http://www.women-in-networking.net/apply-to-wins/

Submission deadline: January 15, 2021



The Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS)<http://women-in-networking.net/> program is seeking qualified female candidates 
in their early- to mid-career to join the SCinet<https://sc21.supercomputing.org/scinet/> volunteer workforce for the 
Supercomputing 2021 Conference (SC21)<https://sc21.supercomputing.org/>, to be held in St. Louis, Missouri, November 
14-19, 2021. WINS strives to have diverse representation of organizations and applicant backgrounds in the cohort each 
year.  Selected candidates will receive full travel support and mentoring by well-known engineering experts in the 
research and education community before, during and after the conference.



** Early to mid-career women employed in the IT field who are located in the United States are encouraged to 
apply<http://www.women-in-networking.net/apply-to-wins/>.**



Each year, expert volunteers from academia, government, and industry come together to design, construct, and operate 
SCinet, a unique multi-terabit-per-second network built to support attendees’ revolutionary demonstrations that have 
become the hallmark of the SC conference. SCinet takes a year to plan, a month to build, a week to operate, and just 
one day to tear down.



Opportunities

SCinet provides an ideal “apprenticeship” opportunity for engineers and technologists looking for direct access to the 
most cutting-edge network hardware and software, while working side-by-side with the world’s leading network, software, 
and systems engineers and top network technology vendors.



More than 15 teams comprise SCinet, all focused on specific areas of expertise involved in setting up and operating a 
research network. Selected candidates will be matched with a mentor and team based on interest and background. Learning 
and training opportunities include (but are not limited to):

* Operating and maintaining traditional IT services for SCinet

* Installing fiber optic network connections

* Installing and configuring wireless access points

* Installing and configuring wired network devices for conference meeting rooms

* Managing internet routing protocols

* Configuring wide-area network connections to national telecom providers

* Supporting conference attendees, high performance computing, and high-performing network demonstrations

* Participating in cybersecurity activities focused on prevention, detection, and countermeasures to protect the 
resources of the conference.

* Marketing Communications in support of SCinet activities.

* Project management including liaising with multiple SCinet Teams



Professional Development with SCinet

The primary objective of the program is to provide the opportunity for early to mid-career women to participate in 
SCinet.  In addition to matching the selected participants with the appropriate SCinet team, the program provides 
travel funds for attending staging, setup, and live support of the SC conference as a SCinet volunteer.   Travel could 
include up to three weeks (or some portion of these three weeks) depending on the SCinet team needs. SC21 will take 
place in St. Louis, MO. Participation in the program requires travel to St. Louis for the following dates (not 
including travel days):

* SCinet Staging: Oct. 21-29, 2021

* SCinet Setup: Nov. 8-14, 2021

* SCinet Live Operations/SC21 Conference and SCinet teardown: Nov 15-19, 2021



Participants also receive a complimentary conference registration, which includes the world’s leading technical program 
on all facets of high performance computing and networking.



We understand the evolving challenges associated with the current COVID-19 environment, particularly with regard to 
travel. The WINS Management team is in regular contact with the SC Steering Committee and SCinet leads.   SC is 
planning for an in-person event and information on the conference and travel can be found 
here.<https://sc21.supercomputing.org/attend/coronavirus-sc/> We understand that as of the application deadline it may 
be difficult for the applicant and/or her management to provide a definitive statement regarding travel authorization 
as part of the application.  We recommend that the submitted materials indicate that intent is to authorize the travel, 
but may change based on travel restrictions associated with COVID-19.



WINS Selection Criteria

Candidates will be reviewed by a panel of experts from the research and education community for current job relevance, 
stated support from the applicant’s employer, ability to attend the conference (WINS will provide the travel funding 
but the participant must be able to set aside time to travel and participate), areas of interest (see application 
form), desire to participate in SCinet.  In order to further broaden the  diversity within the WINS program itself, 
preference this year will be given to applicants who are historically underrepresented in the Information Technology 
field, including Black or African-American, American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic or Latinx.



Project Measurement

After completion of the conference, participants are asked to report on their experiences, including: which parts of 
the training were new or useful, which learning experiences were effective or valuable, and other targeted questions 
that will help drive the future of gender diversity outreach efforts. This reflection will be shared with their home 
institution, the SC conference leadership, project PIs, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation.



About WINS

The Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS) program<http://women-in-networking.net/> was developed in 2015** as a means for 
addressing the prevalent gender gap that exists in Information Technology particularly in the fields of network 
engineering and high performance computing.



WINS is a joint effort between the Department of Energy<https://www.energy.gov/>’s Energy Sciences 
Network<http://www.es.net/> (ESnet), the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research 
(KINBER)<https://kinber.org/>, and University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)<https://www.ucar.edu/>. 
Funding is provided through a National Science Foundation<https://www.nsf.gov/> grant*, through direct funding from 
ESnet and contributions from other project collaborators.  Information on all sponsors can be found here - 
http://women-in-networking.net/sponsors/.



* NSF 2016 grant #ACI-1640987

** NSF 2015 grant #ACI-144064



Access the 2021 WINS Application from the WINS website:

http://www.women-in-networking.net/apply-to-wins/

Submission deadline: January 15, 2021 at 11:59 PM AoE

Award notifications will be sent by mid to late February 2021



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