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

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An Informed Perspective

Considering this unique viewpoint and long-term connection to the program (and SC in general), we sat down with Rebecca to discuss her time with the Students@SC progrm and how the relationships she has fostered through the SC Conference have helped in her career.

Rebecca Hartman-Baker

User Engagement Group Lead, NERSC

Q: Tell us a little about how you got into the Students@SC program. Where did you first hear about it? Why did it sound interesting?

RHB: I went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for graduate school. I had a research assistantship, helping install and maintain computational chemistry codes on the NCSA supercomputers. On my first day, my boss’s boss (Bruce Loftis) introduced himself and then said, “You know, you want to be a student volunteer at this conference called SC.” And, because I was a savvy employee, even though I had never heard of it, I agreed with Bruce that I wanted to be a student volunteer at SC!

Q: Can you tell us about your first impressions when you started with Students@SC? Were you nervous? What was it like getting started?

RHB: My volunteer shift started several days before the conference began. I worked in the committee office, and so I interacted with a lot of the committee. I was definitely nervous at first, but everyone was so nice to me. They asked me about my studies and about what I was thinking of doing in my career. They offered me career advice and made me feel like I could be one of them someday.

Q: Do you believe the program adequately prepared you and gave you the resources you needed to succeed? Did you have access to mentors or experienced people that could assist you? If so, can you tell us about these more experienced people that helped you?

RHB: It was definitely a great opportunity to succeed. In my student program class, there were several people who have gone on to have great careers in HPC. And, because I worked a lot with the committee, a few years later when I was new in my career, they were happy to have me join the committee, where I was the signage co-chair for SC08 (with Loftis) and signage chair for SC09. I actually still have a lot of friends on the SC committee—Christine Cuicchi (SC20 General Chair), for example, was one of those kind people with whom I interacted a lot.

Q: Do you have any favorite stories that you’d like to share? Anything that highlights what is so great about Students@SC?

RHB: I don’t have any particular stories from my time as a student at SC, but I’ve remained student program-adjacent in my SC volunteer activities over the years. It seems to me that SC has been a real innovator in the student inclusion space over the years. Other conferences are copying the things SC has been doing for years. I was the coach for the first-ever Australian Student Cluster Competition team at SC13 (and the team at SC14). I loved how many more opportunities there were for my students 10 years after I went through. And, there are even more opportunities now—the guided interest groups, HPC Immersion, Mentor–Protégé—these are all innovations that have become mainstays of the student experience and can’t be found at any other conference.

Q: What would you say to someone considering joining the Students@SC program? What would you tell them about the overall experience? And, what do you wish you had known that you’d like new students to know?

RHB: I would encourage them to reach out and give it a try, even if they don’t think they are qualified. Part of the point of being a student is learning new things. Why would you need to be an expert to go to a conference and learn new things?! For me, attending SC as a student volunteer was a huge confidence booster and helped me feel like I belong in this field. I would want them to understand that it’s an opportunity to learn a lot, make good friends, and develop a professional network over the course of a week.

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Meet Angie Asmus, a WINS participant and manager of network and security operations at Colorado State University. She started at SCinet on the Edge Networking Team at SC16 and worked her way up to becoming the Edge Team Chair. At SC23, she will be the SCinet Deputy Chair, and at SC24 she will be SCinet Chair.

A Winning Program

“With WINS, women gain hands-on experience building a network from the ground up. You also gain a whole new family and an extensive new professional network that is happy to support you at SCinet and welcomes questions and collaboration.”

Angie Asmus

Colorado State University

Q: What is WINS, and how have you been involved over the years? 

Asmus: WINS stands for Women in IT Networking at SC. It is an NSF-funded grant and receives funding from the Department of Energy to ESnet. The program was developed to address the gender gap in IT, specifically in the networking and high-performance computing fields. The original PIs on the grant were Marla Meehl of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and Wendy Huntoon of the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER), both women who WINS participants respect and view as mentors. ESnet, KINBER, and UCAR collaboratively manage the program. 

WINS began as a pilot program in 2015. Since then, each year, WINS has funded 5–8 early- to mid-career women to attend the SC conference and participate in SCinet. WINS funds travel and expenses for these women and provides mentoring and support both at SCinet and year-round.

Q: What is SCinet, and how does WINS help SCinet accomplish its goals?

Asmus: SCinet is the fastest, most powerful volunteer-built network that is built for the SC conference. A group of about 200 volunteers works throughout the year to plan, design, and build this powerful network. Diversity is always a goal of the SC conference and SCinet, and partnering with the WINS program has given SCinet a pathway to build a more diverse group of volunteers. Specifically, SCinet has been able to include more women on its teams – since WINS began, the number of women participating in SCinet has grown immensely, as has the number of women in leadership positions. 

Q: How has WINS been valuable to you? Where did you start, and where are you headed?

Asmus: WINS and SCinet have been pivotal in my career. I like to say I am where I am today in my career because of WINS and my experience at SCinet. When I applied to the WINS program, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I had worked in IT for about 17 years and still didn’t have a direction or know what I wanted to do. WINS and SCinet have provided me with so many great experiences, from being involved in building a network from the ground up, to professional development opportunities, public speaking opportunities, management experience, and a professional network that I have reached out to for help and advice on projects that I am working on at my home institution.

Q: A significant WINS deadline is approaching. What is it, and why is it important?

Asmus: The application period for the WINS program closes on January 27, 2023. Get your applications in; it is an experience you don’t want to miss out on. It is essential to have support from your home institution also.

Q: Why should someone apply for the WINS program?

Asmus: I would encourage all women interested in participating in SCinet to apply for WINS. I would guess that most of us who have been WINS participants say it is life-changing and catapulted our careers. It has given us great experience and made us more valuable to our employers. 

Q: Why is WINS valuable to an employer?

Asmus: Employer support of women employees applying for WINS and participating in SCinet is very important. It not only shows your employees that you are invested in their success, but also allows them to feel supported. Past WINS participants have all grown in their careers and a lot of their growth can be attributed to WINS and SCinet. Women come back from their participation more confident, with better technical skills and familiarity with the R&E and HPC worlds. 

Q: What can a WINS participant expect to experience?

Asmus: WINS awardees will be awarded travel and expenses to be able to attend SC and participate in SCinet for 3 weeks in October/November. It is an immersive experience, building a network from the ground up. It is hands-on experience that is hard to come by in your daily work. But more than that, WINS participants will gain a new SCinet family and expanded professional network. It’s about more than justSCinet – you will gain mentorship and friendships both from WINS and SCinet that continue long after attending the conference.

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From One Leader to Future Leaders

To get a real take about what it means to be a lead student volunteer we spoke with Anja Gerbes, a scientist with the Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH) in Dresden, Germany. Gerbes has been an active part of SC since 2016, starting as a student volunteer. She moved to the SCinet team as a student volunteer for SC17 and has continued to expand her conference expertise. Gerbes served as the SC22 SCinet lead student volunteer and will return to SC23 as a Tutorial Vice Chair.

Anja Gerbes

Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH)

Q: What is your history with the Lead Student Volunteer project? 

Gerbes: SC22 was my second year as a lead student volunteer and my first year as a SCinet lead, which was such a great experience. I was well integrated into the SCinet team, where I was volunteering and beyond. All SCinet members welcomed me very warmly. Working for SCinet is an honorable task. You work hands on with managers, engineers, university members and industry partners. Although I was only a student, the SCinet family treated me as an equal. We were all the same and had the same goal: making SC and SCinet a success!

Q: What did you gain from this experience?

Gerbes: Since my first SCinet in 2017, where Bernd Mohr from Jülich was the SC General Chair, I felt the fabulous atmosphere where all of us, coming from all around the world, worked as a team. I loved this teamwork, and that’s why I applied each upcoming year to be a SCinet student volunteer again. 

Q: What is the value in getting involved with SCinet for students?

Gerbes: You have the great opportunity to work with industry partners, managers, and engineers from amazing universities. If you are searching for a position after your university degree, being involved with SCinet will open up a new world for you. You can be offered a job by managers because they see valuable skills in you that they want to boost – to become better. Participating makes it very easy to get in touch with your favorite industry partner or university – places where you would like to work or do your Ph.D. Adding your SC experience levels up your CV significantly.

Q: What kinds of skills are required for the person volunteering for the Lead Student Volunteer program? 

Gerbes: If you have passion in your soul and love what you do in HPC, you are definitely a good fit for SC. Being able to work as part of a team is a very important skill. Volunteering helps you see the whole picture, and makes you happy to be part of this amazing community!

Q: What would you say to someone who is considering volunteering for the Lead Student Volunteer program?

Gerbes: Wonderful decision! Go for it! You will have the opportunity to work with volunteers from all around the world. It will broaden your horizon in so many ways. Be open-minded and look beyond your horizon!

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