Advanced Training and Professional Development for Network Engineers - The WINS Experience��CHECO - 4/24/18

Marla Meehl – PI WINS

Kate Robinson - WINS Participant�

Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS)

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Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS)

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http://women-in-networking.net/

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* and was developed as a means 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 since funded volunteers for SC16 and SC17.

* NSF 2016 grant #ACI-1640987�** NSF 2015 grant #ACI-1440642​

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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, while working 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. Includes regional and national conferences including The Quilt, CENIC Annual Meeting and Internet2 Technology Exchange.

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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), in order to better understand gender diversity in the network engineering community and use the information to develop a sustainable program.

Women in Networking at SC (WINS) - Team

• Marla Meehl - PI - University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR)
• Wendy Huntoon – Co-PI - KINBER
• Kate Petersen Mace, Lauren Rotman and Jason Zurawski - ESnet/DOE
• Eileen Waukau, Belinda Housewright - UCAR
• Rasha El-Jaroudi – UT Austin

WINS SC17 Awardees

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

WINS SC18 Applications

• We have 34 applicants from 19 states

State Total � 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 Total�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

WINS Applicants and Finalists

SC15 volunteers & returning volunteers for SC16 funded through the RMCMOA* grant

*Rocky Mountain Cyberinfrastructure Mentoring and Outreach Alliance

WINS has funded 19 women to participate in SCinet since the program’s inception in 2015

WINS Job Information Statistics

Majority of finalists are employed in the fields of network engineering, network architecture or security

Educational Background

Finalists

Applicants

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•Majority of Applicants have a Bachelor’s degree

•Most finalists have Bachelor’s or Master’s degrees

•Many applicants start out at a Community College and go on to study at a 4 year college or university.

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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.

SCinet Experience: Technical and Professional Growth

A little about SC17

• Each program in the SC Conference is dedicated to showcasing work in high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis by the international HPC community
• The SC17 Exhibit floor was the largest in the history of the conference and was led by organizations that have the tools and research powering green energy, artificial intelligence, machine learning, aerospace, advanced manufacturing and other industries that rely on high performance computing.
• The overall size of the exhibition is 155,000 net square feet.
• There were 350 industry and research-focused exhibits includes an all-time record-high of 46 first-time organizations and 111 organizations from a total of twenty-six countries outside the United States

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What is SCinet?

• Scinet is the network that runs the SuperComputing conference each year
• SCinet links the convention center to research and commercial networks around the world
• Volunteers from academia, government and industry work together to design and deliver the SCinet infrastructure.
• Industry vendors and carriers loan millions of dollars in equipment and services needed to build and support the local and wide area networks.
• Planning begins more than a year in advance of each SC conference and culminates in a high-intensity installation in the days leading up to the conference.

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SCinet - The Fastest Network Connecting the Fastest Computers

• SC17 was once again host of one of the most powerful and advanced networks in the world - SCinet: a network best described with a simple mantra:
• 1 Year to design
• 1 Month to build
• 1 Week to operate
• 1 Day to teardown
• SCinet brings to life a very high-capacity network that supports the revolutionary applications and experiments that are a hallmark of the SC conference - linking the convention center to the world
• Volunteers from academia, government and industry work together to design and deliver the SCinet infrastructure
• Industry vendors and carriers loan millions of dollars in equipment and services needed to build the local and wide area networks

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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/

SCinet Volunteer Teams

• Architecture
• Communications
• DevOps
• Edge Network
• Fiber
• Help Desk
• Interconnect
• Logistics/Equipment
• Network Security
• Power
• Routing
• WAN Transport

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WAN Transport Team

• The WAN Transport Team is responsible for delivering multiple wide area network circuits to the convention center. Typically this requires utilizing dark fiber resources in the facility, acquiring wave-division multiplexing transport equipment, and engineering, building and supporting a metropolitan area transport system.
• 30 100 GB circuits donated mostly from CenturyLink, also Zayo, ESNet and FRGP
• Worked with vendors from both Ciena and Infinera
• The network is built using a diverse set of vendors.
• In SC17, the network included equipment from Juniper, Arista, Cisco, Brocade, Infinera and Ciena, to name just a few.
• We used 100 GB traffic generators to test the circuits at

full capacity- such as Ixia and Exfo

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Kate Robinson - SCinet Experience

• Experience with different types of networking equipment, including some equipment that is experimental
• Working with other networking professionals
• Working and spending time with a team of female networking professionals
• Working with a team that was incredibly supportive and welcoming
• Making professional contacts
• Attending the SuperComputing conference and seeing some groundbreaking research ( and also getting to help NASA with their router at their booth )

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Thomas Miller - Georgia Tech - A Manager’s Perspective

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• Benefits to the home institution:
• Attend (and contribute to) high-profile conference
• Receive mentoring from industry professionals
• Represent Georgia Tech well 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

Questions/Discussion