In 2015, Asmus was working in Colorado State University’s Information Technology division as a security analyst, focused on compliance, network firewalls, and routing. In this role, she met WINS founder Marla Meehl, who was then running the Front Range GigaPoP. With Meehl’s encouragement, Asmus applied for a WINS scholarship and, to her surprise, was named a 2016 WINS awardee. 

“I hadn’t really worked with network switches until I came to SCinet that year,” Asmus recalled. “Kevin Hayden [2024 Exhibits Chair] was my mentor, and he handed me a set of 65 switches and told me to upgrade and configure them. He had to walk me through the first one. Then it started really clicking and making sense. Along with the team, I did all the edge switches and wireless for the conference—and loved it.” 

Asmus formed a tight bond with the other WINS awardees and the SCinet team that year. 

“I met 200 great people who felt like a new family, and that made me want to come back.”

— Angie Asmus, SC24 SCinet Chair

From WINS to Career Wins

Asmus has come back every year since, working her way up to becoming the Edge Team Chair. At SC23, she served as SCinet Deputy Chair, and at SC24, she will be SCinet Chair in Atlanta. From WINS awardee to SCinet chair in a mere eight years is a pretty powerful trajectory, and Asmus gives the credit to WINS.

“WINS means everything to me,” she said. “It’s given me the confidence and experience to rise through the ranks in my career, not to mention the chance to present and speak on the importance of diversity in the tech field. I’ve gained skills I never knew I needed, from soft skills to tech skills.” 

To wit, Asmus was recently promoted to Interim Director of the Network and Telecommunications team at Colorado State University, where she manages three teams with 20 full-time employees. 

Ultimately, Asmus has this to say to women considering WINS: “Definitely apply for the WINS scholarship. It is life changing. It’s truly so impactful for what it can do for your career.” 

SC24 SCinet Chair Angie Asmus (left) and SC24 SCinet Technical Director Brenna Meade (right)

SC23 WINS Cohort in Denver

Learn More & Apply

Considering SCinet is the fastest and most powerful network in the world for the duration of the SC conference, this is no easy feat. Each year, the Help Desk assists SC Conference attendees and SCinet teams in resolving network problems quickly and smoothly by correct identification, complete documentation, appropriate handoff, and excellent communication, according to Karmen Goddard-Wall, SCinet Help Desk Chair, who is leading this effort along with Deputy Chair, Remy Scott. 

Remy Scott

Engineering Scientist Associate at Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC)

Remy on LinkedIN

“This is where it can get challenging because this is a global conference. We have students, volunteers, vendors, and exhibitors from all around the world. Language barriers can occur, and, to add another layer on top of that, there can be miscommunications as well,” Scott noted.

Still, none of these potential challenges fazes the Help Desk team. “A lot of the Help Desk job is interacting and making connections with the people as much as the equipment,” Goddard-Wall noted. “That is the part that I personally like the best!”

Help Desk to the Rescue

New this year, the Help Desk will have its own space on the exposition floor, Booth 987, located next to the SCinet Network Operations Center (NOC). According to Goddard-Wall, there are a few top issues that can affect connectivity at SC, such as:

• Broken Fiber
• Incorrect Assembly of Equipment: Fiber is laid with a loop/coupler at the end or connectors are plugged into the DNOCs backwards
• Faulty Equipment: Sometimes, it gets damaged in transit
• For Wired or Wireless: Host has been quarantined due to a security problem

Karmen Goddard-Wall

SC23 SCinet Help Desk Chair

“There are people who love to steal passwords, insert malware, and do things that are illegal, for example, downloading copyrighted information or movies,” Goddard-Wall said.

The Help Desk team employs a variety of tools to diagnose network issues, from power meters to determine if fiber is intact to dashboards displaying all of the physical equipment, whether it is working, and if all the routing information is correct.

“A lot of times, just laying eyes on the equipment is the best way to go,” Goddard-Wall added. “If we have the volunteers, we physically walk over to the booth to make sure that the equipment is put together correctly, talk to the people involved, and see what lights are on/not on the switch.”

It is this kind of high-touch, human-friendly interaction that keeps the SCinet network humming along, year after year.

Contacting the SCinet Help Desk

For this year’s SCinet crew, that village is extensive and generous with more than 90 contributors donating $43 million worth of hardware, software, services, and nearly 200 SCinet volunteers. 

That’s what it takes to plan and execute the SCinet network, whose creation supports the revolutionary applications and experiments that are a hallmark of the SC Conference. SCinet enables exhibitors to demonstrate the advanced computing capabilities of their solutions and services while delivering wireless capability to more than 10,000 conference attendees. 

In short, the 2023 SCinet contributors and volunteers are the heart of the village that makes the SCinet magic happen.

“The equipment, WAN connectivity, software, and support personnel provided every year to SCinet by our contributors are literally what make the fastest network on Earth—for a week—possible.”

Brian Smith

SCinet Contributor Relations Co-Lead

“The equipment, WAN connectivity, software, and support personnel provided every year to SCinet by our contributors are literally what make the fastest network on Earth—for a week—possible,” said Brian Smith, SCinet Contributor Relations Co-Lead and Director of Technology at Cornelis Networks. SCinet contributors allow the network to pull in multiple terabits of connectivity, test new gear in a semi-production environment, and demonstrate the practicality of technologies, such as IPv6, to more than 10,000 attendees. 

“SCinet volunteers are able to take knowledge and experience they get working with loaned contributor gear back to their home institutions and help influence purchase decisions and potentially improve their home institution’s network speeds, reliability, and security,” Smith said. “All of this is possible because of the generosity of our contributors.”

Hans Addleman is equally effusive about SCinet’s contributor village. As 2023 SCinet Chair, he’s had a front-row seat to the difference their generosity—in both money and time—means for everyone at SC. With several levels of contribution available, from Bronze to Diamond, there’s something for everyone interested in supporting SCinet.

“I cannot overstate the critical role that our dedicated contributors play in the success of the SCinet network at SC23, notably this year’s Diamond contributors, Cisco and PIER Group.”

“I cannot overstate the critical role that our dedicated contributors play in the success of the SCinet network at SC23, notably this year’s Diamond contributors, Cisco and PIER Group,” Addleman said. “Their expertise, innovation, and unwavering commitment are the very backbone of this network, and together, we transform the impossible into reality, ensuring that SC remains a beacon of technological advancement and collaboration.”

Diamonds Are Forever

Every contribution is important, of course, but Diamond contributors go above and beyond with minimum contributions of $5 million each in materials, services, and volunteers. This year’s Diamond contributors are Cisco and PIER Group.

Cisco’s SCinet contributions this year include core routing (Cisco Series 8808 Router) and spine switch (Nexus 9232E) equipment, dense wavelength division multiplexing (NCS 1010, 1002, and 1004) equipment, optical DCI (NCS 1004) equipment, and Cisco NSO.

“At Cisco, the research community is near and dear. As a matter of fact, if it were not for Sandy Lerner and Leonard Bosack, students at Stanford University, we would not exist,” said Marcus Moffett, Cisco Vice President of Sales System Engineering for the U.S. public sector. “For the past 38 years, the research community has played a critical role as partners in shaping technology and how it positively impacts everything in our daily lives. Our mission is to securely connect everything, to make anything possible, and nowhere is that truer than in research. We at Cisco are proud to continue this long tradition of partnership through the support of SCinet and Supercomputing 2023.”

Marcus Moffett

Vice President of Sales System Engineering,
Cisco Systems

Caleb Williams

Account Manager and Contract Development Lead, PIER Group

For its part, PIER Group is providing about 400 wireless access points weighing over five tons (Aruba AP-635), Aruba Mobility Controller Software (Aruba OS 8.10) with Aruba 9240xm Controllers, Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager for wireless authentication and authorization, and 140 Aruba 6100 and 40 Aruba 6300M switches.

It’s money well spent, according to Caleb Williams, Account Manager and Contract Development lead at PIER Group: “The value PIER Group gets from SCinet is immense. We get to collaborate with our peers from universities and research institutions all over the country—all over the world—for weeks on end. We get to test new technologies and ways of networking that become realities a lot of times shortly after SCinet. Also, the bonds/friendships that are formed at SCinet between all the volunteers are truly bonds for life.”

Get Involved in SCinet 2024

It’s a little too late to become part of the SCinet village for this year, but 2024 is just around the corner.

Learn more about the SCinet contributor program, including details about how to participate and its benefits. Then start making next year’s plans today.

Participate in SCinet