Today STEM-Trek announced that Google, Inc. is a STEM-Trek Platinum supporter of the PEARC17 Student Program. The donation will increase the number of students who can participate in the Practice & Experience in Advanced Research Computing conference which will be held July 9-13 in New Orleans.
Google doesn’t just accept difference; we celebrate it, support it and thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, products and community,” said Vint Cerf, Google Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist. “PEARC17 presents a rare opportunity to expose undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral scholars to the latest resources, road maps and experts who will guide them toward academic and career success. As a leading employer of the world’s software developers, engineers and data scientists, we’re beneficiaries of a well-prepared workforce—supporting STEM-Trek and PEARC17 is a win-win for Google,” he added.
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin had a vision for their new search engine in 1995: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” Their early objective explains Google’s current affinity with STEM-Trek, a global, grassroots public charity that supports travel and workforce development for “HPC-curious” scholars from underrepresented groups and underserved regions.
The PEARC17 conference theme, “Sustainability, Success and Impact,” echoes the objectives of its organizers who aspire to develop a self-sustaining program which will rely on support from a variety of government agencies and commercial industry partners who share a vested interest in a diverse and well-trained computational and information science workforce. “Our planning committee includes expert education and outreach specialists from national laboratories and research institutions who have been involved in XSEDE and SC committees for years,” said STEM-Trek Adviser and PEARC Student Program Chair Alana Romanella (Virginia Tech). “We’re grateful to Dr. Cerf and Google for their contribution, and hope their generosity will attract additional supporters so that more students can participate,” she added.
PEARC will become an annual summer event and follows in the tradition of the U.S. National Science Foundation XSEDE (eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment) conference. Those who attended past XSEDE conferences will recognize PEARC’s technical program format, and the student program will offer access to technical content, and activities developed specifically for them, including an intensive collaborative modeling and analysis challenge; a session on careers in modeling and large data analytics; a mentorship program; and volunteer opportunities to assist with conference activities.
STEM-Trek Executive Director Elizabeth Leake is the PEARC17 student program diversity chair, and will leverage STEM-Trek communication channels and partnerships to encourage applications from women, minorities and people with disabilities—demographics that are typically under-represented in the advanced computational and information science workforce pipeline. STEM-Trek was a proud recipient of the 2016 HPCwire Editors’ Choice Award for Workforce Diversity Leadership.
