A First-Time Student Volunteer Is Struck by HPC’s En-‘Lightning’ Possibilities

Meet Julia

Julia Milani, a third-year student majoring in computer science at Universidade Federal de São Carlos in Brazil, participated in the HPC for Undergraduates program at SC17. So, becoming a “first-time” student volunteer for SC18 actually marked her second SC conference experience.

 

Struck by Lightning (Talks and Demos)

While at SC18, Julia particularly enjoyed the Lightning Talks and Demos—short 5-10 minute presentations led by students and committee members that cover a variety of topics and lead to large or small group discussions. According to the SC Conference website, such talks “address common challenges and solutions for enhancing HPC training and education…[and] provide opportunities for: disseminating results, understanding the recent challenges with effectiveness of HPC education and training materials and promoting collaborations among HPC educators, trainers and users.” In addition, the extended Lightning Talks and Demo abstracts are published in a special issue of Journal of Computational Science Education.

Two presentations particularly caught Julia’s eye: one representing Google and another based on network security.

During the first presentation, it became clear that Google was not the unreachable target everyone portrays. By the end of the presentation, Julia knew more about the company’s actions and research focuses, felt that she had something to offer, and realized she could be a possible applicant. Seeing that “lightning” presentation built up her self-confidence and made Julia aware of new future possibilities.

Then, during the network security presentation—Julia’s area of expertise and research focus—she noted that more doors of opportunity could be opened and investigated.

“Quando você está fazendo sua pesquisa, geralmente você fica tão focado em um assunto específico que às vezes pode deixar passar algumas áreas que poderiam ser exploradas,” ela disse.

(“When you do research, you are so focused on what you are doing that sometimes you miss other areas that could be explored,” she said.)

Moreover, Julia’s positive experience at SC18 propelled her to pursue becoming an SC19 Student Volunteer.

 

Opportunities Await for Students at SC

Inspired by Julia’s story? Learn more about the many opportunities that are available to students through the Students@SC program.

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Christine Baissac-Hayden, SC19 Students@SC Communications Liaison (Easy English 4 All)

Christine Baissac-Hayden created Easy English 4 All, which provides multilingual communication tools for clients from diverse backgrounds in the renewable energy, medical, defense, marine science, and film industries. Easy English 4 All provides English as a Second Language (ESL), French, Spanish and Japanese tutoring from certified native-speaking teachers and organizes international student exchanges with personalized objectives and goals.