An Australasian Chapter of the global organisation Women in High Performance Computing (WHPC) is aiming to better support diversity within and across the Australian and New Zealand HPC and eResearch sectors.
The initiative, a collaboration between Australasian eResearch Organisations (AeRO), NCI Australia, Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, Monash University, and New Zealand eScience Infrastructure, was announced at the eResearch Australasia (eResAU) Conference 2020.
“I'm thrilled to be announcing the Australasian Chapter of Women in HPC and the formalisation of what was already a growing community," says Sam Moskwa, AeRO CEO. "It is not a group just for women but also allies and we want to be inclusive of diversity beyond gender.
"This year has shown us that workplace culture can change overnight as businesses quickly embrace flexible hours and work from home arrangements in response to COVID19. So we should expect the same pace of change as we strive to create a more inclusive workplace.”
The Chapter's launch comes on the anniversary of the idea being first brainstormed at last year's eResAU conference, sparked by 2019's theme of diversity in eResearch.
Initial goals of the Australasian Chapter include:
- identifying opportunities and future activities to improve diversity, inclusion, balance and belonging in HPC and eResearch
- increasing the engagement of women in HPC
- increasing the number of women in HPC
- fostering collaboration and connections amongst existing diversity and inclusion initiatives
All members of the Australian and New Zealand HPC and eResearch communities are invited to attend an online kickoff event on 11 November, 11:30am AWST / 2:30pm AEDT / 4:30pm NZDT, to coincide with WHPC Diversity and Inclusion day at SC20. For more details and to register, click here.
To watch the Chapter launch video, featuring guest speakers from the Australasian research community, click here.
For more information on the Chapter, visit the AeRO website.
