The purpose of this proposal is to fund travel for undergraduate students to participate in the Experiencing HPC for Undergraduates program at the SC13, SC14 and SC15 conferences. The primary goal of this program is to lead the students into research as an undergraduate and then encourage them to attend graduate school in HPC topics in Computer and Computational Science. The program makes use of several existing parts of the SC technical program, with additional activities specific to the program. The unique content for the participants in this program will include an HPC boot camp session, talks by well known researchers in the field, a panel featuring current graduate students, and a panel on academic and industry career opportunities in the HPC field.
The key idea of this program is that the best way to get people excited about HPC is to visit and participate in a major technical conference in the field. SC is an ideal venue for such a program since it combines elements of a high quality technical meeting (papers, posters, tutorials) with a major industry trade show (commercial and research exhibits, vendor briefings, birds of a feather sessions). By providing sophomore and junior undergraduates an opportunity to see what the field is about, it is believed that we can excite them about the field in time for them to apply to graduate school or decide on which industry to enter when they complete their bachelor?s degrees.
The goal of this program is to expand the High Performance Computing workforce by encouraging talented undergraduates to consider graduate studies and careers in the field of HPC. The program will make a special effort to recruit participants from under represented groups and minority serving institutions. HPC is critical to many national goals from scientific innovation to product development. Currently there is a shortage of new students entering the field. This program is designed to try to help meet those national needs.
