The document discusses the importance of expanding diversity in the academic research computing community, emphasizing the low representation of women in high-performance computing (HPC) fields. It highlights the benefits of diversity, such as improved team performance and innovation, and outlines initiatives to raise awareness, promote inclusivity, and create networking opportunities for women in HPC. The document calls for male advocates and allies to join efforts in achieving equality and improving the representation of women in the field.

1. Finding the Path Forward:
Expanding Diversity in Academic
Research Computing
Lisa Arafune, Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation
Florence Hudson, Internet2
Kelly Nolan, Compute Canada
Sharon Broude Geva, University of Michigan Advanced Research Computing
John Towns, NCSA, XSEDE
PEARC17

2. Has this ever happened to you?

3. Supreme Court
At Georgetown University 2/7/2015, when asked “When will there be
enough women on the [Supreme] court?”
“And my answer is when there are nine.”
-Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Supreme Court
Justice

4. womeninhpc women_in_hpc groups/8105215
www.womeninhpc.org
Women in High Performance
Computing
Changing the face of HPC

5. womeninhpc women_in_hpc groups/8105215
www.womeninhpc.org
WHPC: Striving for Equality for Women in High
Performance Computing
Our mission
To promote, build and leverage a diverse and inclusive HPC workforce
by enabling and energising those in the HPC community to increase
the participation of women and to highlight their contribution to the
success of supercomputing.
To ensure that women are treated fairly and have equal opportunities
to succeed in their chosen HPC career.
To ensure everyone understands the benefits of promoting and
achieving inclusivity.

6. womeninhpc women_in_hpc groups/8105215
www.womeninhpc.org
WHPC: Striving for Equality for Women in High
Performance Computing
Communication: Raise awareness of the under-representation of
women and of the impact of this under-representation on women, the
community and research outputs and progress.
Dissemination: Highlight diversity & inclusion initiatives, actions and their
positive results to key stakeholders in the supercomputing community.
Research: Establish a body of evidence on the demographics of the
HPC community.
Visibility: Raise the visibility of women role models in HPC.
Networking: Provide women with the opportunities to develop their
personal professional networks.
Best practice: Inspire key stakeholders in the supercomputing
community to embrace diversity and inclusion initiatives.

7. Join Women in HPC
Join the conversation on social media
Membership is free and open to all
We need male advocates and allies to join us
www.womeninhpc.org/membership
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womeninhpc women_in_hpc groups/8105215

8. womeninhpc women_in_hpc groups/8105215
www.womeninhpc.org
WHPC
1. How many
women are
there?
2. How do we
improve the
proportion of
women in
HPC?
3. How can
we retain a
diverse
community?

9. womeninhpc women_in_hpc groups/8105215
www.womeninhpc.org
What do we know?
How many women are in our
community?
— Women make up no more
than 17% of our community
— 13% of SC15 and SC16
attendees were female
— Other conferences show as
little as 5% (PGAS) and no
more than 17% (PraceDays16)
— Physics & Astronomy: 17%
— Chemistry: 27%
— Biological sciences: 45%
— Earth, marine & environmental
science: 36%
— Engineering & technology –
19%
— Computer sciences – 22%
— Mathematical sciences – 29%
Data from HEFCE UK http://www.hefce.ac.uk/

10. womeninhpc women_in_hpc groups/8105215
www.womeninhpc.org
What do we know?
— MPI Forum
contributors:
8% women

11. Tech Crunch Disrupt
From HBO’s Silicon Valley
sitcom

12. womeninhpc women_in_hpc groups/8105215
www.womeninhpc.org
What do we know: The Broader Community
Women in IT Occupations:
— US: 25%
NCWIT report: Ashcraft, C., & Blithe, S. (2010). Women in IT: The Facts, 52.
— Europe: 16%
British Computer Society. (2015). The Women in IT Scorecard.
— UK: 17%
— Participation in the IT workforce has remained static in the last
decade
— Overall workforce size has increased (up 19% 2004-2014)
British Computer Society. (2015). The Women in IT Scorecard.

13. womeninhpc women_in_hpc groups/8105215
www.womeninhpc.org
The Opportunity:
The benefits of diversity
Address the talent shortage:
• US: projected19% growth in jobs in the computer science
related workforce in the decade to 2024.1
• Europe: 756,000 IT sector jobs unfilled by 2020. 2
• Canada: 219,000 unfilled IT positions by 2025. 3
1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, O. E. S. program. (2014). Occupations with the most job growth. Retrieved May 29, 2017, from
https://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_table_104.htm.
2. Hüsing, T., Korte, W. B., & Dashja, E. (2015). e-Skills in Europe: Trends and Forecasts for the European ICT Professional and Digital Leadership
Labour Markets (2015-2020).
3. Faisal, S., Asliturk, E., Bourgi, S., Savard, A., Aquilina, A., & Castillo, D. Del. (2015). The Smart Economy Reshaping Canada’s Workforce: Labour
Market Outlook 2015—2019. Retrieved from http://www.digcompass.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Labour-Market-Outlook-2015-2019-FINAL.pdf

14. womeninhpc women_in_hpc groups/8105215
www.womeninhpc.org
The Opportunity:
• Improved ‘team IQ’ and innovation1
• Improved citation rates for patents (26-42%
more)2
1. Bear, J. B., & Woolley, A. W. (2011). The role of gender in team collaboration and performance. Interdisciplinary
Science Reviews, 36(2), 146–153. http://doi.org/10.1179/030801811x13013181961473.
2. NCWIT report: Ashcraft, C., & Blithe, S. (2010). Women in IT: The Facts, 52.
The benefits of diversity

15. The Opportunity:
The benefits of diversity DIVERSITY
Why Diverse Teams Are Smarter
by David Rock and Heidi Grant
NOVEMBER 04, 2016
Striving to increase workplace diversity is not an empty slogan — it is a good business decision. A
2015 McKinsey report on 366 public companies found that those in the top quartile for ethnic and
racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry
mean, and those in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15% more likely to have returns above
the industry mean.
In a global analysis of 2,400 companies conducted by Credit Suisse, organizations with at least one
• Diverse teams are more likely to constantly
reexamine facts and remain objective.
• Greater diversity may also change the way
that entire teams digest information needed
to make the best decisions.
• Companies with more women were more
likely to introduce radical new innovations into
the market over a two-year period.
• Businesses run by culturally diverse leadership
teams were more likely to develop new
products than those with homogenous
leadership.

16. Success!
• Melody McCloskey
• CEO and Founder of
StyleSeat.com
• The largest online
marketplace of
beauty and wellness
services

17. Finding the Path Forward
• Activities and professional development opportunities
• Mentors, sponsors and networking
• Public speaking
• Develop a diverse set of speakers for meetings and conferences
• Invite a diverse audience
• Ask vendors to include diversity

18. Thank you for taking the time to listen to us about
the benefits of promoting and achieving diversity
and inclusion in the HPC workforce
• Lisa Arafune, Director, CASC lisa.arafune@casc.org
• Florence Hudson, SVP & CIO, Internet2 fhudson@internet2.edu
• Kelly Nolan, Executive Director External Affairs, Compute Canada
kelly.nolan@computecanada.ca
• Sharon Broude Geva, Director, University of Michigan Advanced
Research Computing sgeva@umich.edu
• John Towns, NCSA, XSEDE jtowns@ncsa.illinois.edu