This document summarizes the Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS) program. WINS is a 3-year National Science Foundation funded program that enables 5-8 women per year to volunteer with SCinet and gain hands-on networking experience at the Supercomputing Conference. The goals of WINS are to expand participants' skills and networks, provide applicable technical training, increase diversity in SCinet volunteers, and raise awareness of gender diversity issues in IT fields. For SC18, WINS received 34 applicants from 19 states and selected finalists with a range of educational and professional backgrounds to participate in SCinet. Past participants reported boosted confidence and valuable mentoring experiences from the program.

1. JIM STEWART - SCINET DEPUTY CHAIR
MARIA KALYVAKI, PH.D. - WINS PARTICIPANT &
SCINET COMMUNICATIONS TEAM DEPUTY CHAIR
WINNING WITH WINS: WOMEN IN IT
NETWORKING FOR SUPERCOMPUTING
UETN TECH SUMMIT 2018

2. SC CONFERENCE
• SC is an International Conference.
• It includes High Performance Computing,
Networking, Storage, and Analysis.
• The first SC conference was in Orlando, Florinda in
1988.
• SC18 in Dallas celebrates 30 years of existence.

3. SC17 CONFERENCE
• The SC17 Exhibit floor was the largest in the history of
the conference.
• The overall size of the exhibition is 155,000 net square
feet.
• There were 350 industry and research-focused exhibits.
• Including an all-time record-high of 46 first-time
organizations and 111 organizations from a total of 26
countries outside the United States.

4. SC17 CONFERENCE
• SC17 was led by organizations that have the tools and
research in:
 powering green energy,
 artificial intelligence,
 machine learning,
 aerospace,
 advanced manufacturing,
 and other industries that rely on high-performance
computing.

5. SCINET
• SCinet is the SC Conference’s dedicated high-capacity
network infrastructure, designed and built by volunteer
experts from industry, academia, and government.
• Planning begins more than a year in advance of each SC.
• For the duration of the conference, is the fastest and most
powerful network in the world.
• Since its inception in 1991, SCinet has been pushing the
boundaries of networking technologies and innovations.

6. SCINET - THE FASTEST NETWORK CONNECTING THE FASTEST COMPUTERS
● Statistics:
○ 3.63 Tbps of WAN Capacity (39 Total Circuits) on 5 Providers
○ 60 Miles of fiber below your feet and above your head
○ 570 fiber patches
○ 235 Wifi APs
○ 180+ Volunteers from 76+ Orgs
○ $66 Million in hardware, software, and services from 31 contributing partners
● SCinet 17 Staging timelapse #1
● SCinet 17 Staging timelapse #2
● SCinet 17 timelapse #2
● SCinet 17 timelapse #3
● Want to be involved? info@scinet.supercomputing.org
● Student involvement/

7. SCINET VOLUNTEER TEAMS
• Architecture
• Communications
• DevOps
• Edge Network
• Fiber
• Help Desk
• Interconnect
• Logistics/Equipment
• Network Security
• Power
• Routing
• WAN Transport

8. WOMEN IN IT NETWORKING AT SC (WINS)
●The Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS) program is a three-year program funded
by the National Science Foundation*
●Was developed for addressing the prevalent gender gap that exists in Information
Technology (IT), particularly in the fields of network engineering and high-
performance computing (HPC).
●Collaborative project managed by: University Corporation for Atmospheric Research
(UCAR), Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) and Keystone Initiative for Network Based
Education and Research (KINBER).
●It was originally introduced as a pilot program** in November 2015 at the SC15
conference in Austin, Texas, and has funded volunteers for SC16 and SC17.
* NSF 2016 grant #ACI-1640987 , ** NSF 2015 grant #ACI-1440642​

9. WOMEN IN NETWORKING AT SC (WINS) - TEAM
Marla Meehl – PI,
University Corporation for
Atmospheric Research
(UCAR)
Wendy Huntoon – Co-PI,
KINBER
Kate Petersen Mace,
Jason Zurawski &
Lauren Rotman - ESnet/DOE
Belinda Housewright & Eileen Waukau
- UCAR
Rasha El-Jaroudi
- UT Austin

10. WOMEN IN IT NETWORKING AT SC (WINS)
● Enables 5-8 women per year to participate in SCinet, a unique, hands-on
experience in building an operational and research network from the
ground up.
●SCinet provides an ideal professional development opportunity for
engineers and technologists looking for direct access to the most cutting-
edge network hardware and software.
●Gives the opportunity to work side by side with the world’s leading
network and software engineers, and the top network technology vendors.
●Funds WINS participants to attend conferences to raise awareness of
SCinet, diversity issues in IT and for professional development.

11. WINS PROGRAM GOALS
• Expand the skillsets, professional network and communications
skills, including public speaking, for the participants.
• Provide technical training that is applicable and valuable to the
participants home institution.
• Increase the diversity in the SCinet volunteer pool.
• Raise awareness of the issue of fewer women in IT.
• Gather program information, including candidate metrics and
SCinet surveys (mentors and participants), to better understand
gender diversity in the network engineering community and use
the information to develop a sustainable program.

12. WINS SC17 AWARDEES • Dori Sajdak - University at Buffalo-
DevOps
• Tania Jareen - Purdue University -
Routing
• Renuka Arya - University of Chicago
- Routing/Network
• Kate Robinson - Western State
Colorado University - WAN
• Soledad Toledano – LBNL - Network
Security
• Maria Kalyvaki - South Dakota State
University - Communication

13. WINS SC18 APPLICATIONS
We have 34 applicants from 19 states:
Alabama 2
California 1
Colorado 2
Georgia 2
Idaho 1
Illinois 2
Indiana 5
Maine 2
Maryland 2
Massachusetts 1
Michigan 3
Minnesota 2
New Hampshire 1
New Jersey 1
New Mexico 1
North Carolina 1
Ohio 3
Pennsylvania 1
Tennessee 1
Grand Total 34
Organization Type
College 1
Community College 1
National Lab 2
Non-profit 1
Regional Network 9
Regional Network/University 1
University 18
For-profit 1
Grand Total 34

14. WINS APPLICANTS AND FINALISTS
WINS has funded 19 women to
participate in SCinet since the
program’s inception in 2015.
SC15 volunteers & returning
volunteers for SC16 funded through
the RMCMOA* grant.
*Rocky Mountain Cyberinfrastructure Mentoring and
Outreach Alliance

15. WINS JOB INFORMATION STATISTICS
Majority of finalists are employed in
the fields of network engineering,
network architecture or security.

16. EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Applicants
•Majority of applicants have a
Bachelor’s degree
•Many applicants start out at a
community college and go on to study
at a 4-year college or university.
Finalists
•Most finalists have Bachelor’s or
Master’s degrees

17. WORK EXPERIENCE
Applicants Finalists
Applicants have a range of years of job experience, with the majority of the finalist having 5 years or less
experience in their field, which corresponds to WINS designed for early to mid-career professionals.

18. SCINET EXPERIENCE
“I definitely see that there are very few women in
our field. It’s not just the technical aspects, but the
people who are working there [Scinet]. You’re
extending your professional contacts and there’s
also a great opportunity to learn.” — Jareen
“It's been great to talk to
other people that do the
same thing that I do and it's
it's been really great ask a
lot of questions learn
things, without have to
Google it or watch a
YouTube video.”
— Robinson
“Working on SCinet meant a proof to myself that I can
do the work. I didn’t expect the environment to be so
relaxed, welcoming, and mentoring for women. I think
some of us may have a very different experience in
our daily work environments—it should be like SC all
the time, but unfortunately, there is still a long way to
go.” — Toledano
“I thought I had an idea
about the amount of work
that went into building and
running SCinet, but I really
didn’t! It’s an enormous
task with so many moving
parts. No one was in it for
personal gain; it was the
epitome of teamwork.”
— Sajdak.
“The hands-on experience has
definitely boosted my
confidence to try new vendors,
features, and technologies in my
home institution.” — Arya
“Having so many
other people that I
can connect with is
my favorite part.”
— Kalyvaki

19. BENEFITS OF THE WINS APPRENTICESHIP
For the participant:
 Experience with different types of equipment,
including some that is experimental.
 Working with other professionals.
 Working and spending time with a team of female
professionals.
 Working with a team that is supportive and
welcoming.
 Making professional contacts.
 Attending the SuperComputing conference and seeing
groundbreaking research.
For the home institution:
 Attend and contribute to high-profile
conference.
 Receive mentoring from industry professionals.
 Represent and promote your home institution
to the outside world.
 Real-world exposure to new and different
challenges.
 Bring back experience and ideas to team
members.
 Increase diversity in the networking field.

20. THANK
YOU! For more information about the WINS program:
http://women-in-networking.net/