Diversity is important to SC17. The key components in our effort to diversify the HPC community and improve inclusivity are providing opportunities to underrepresented groups as well as educating the community on the benefits of improving diversity. The SC conference series gives us a great platform to spread this message.
Building on the work started on diversity for SC16, in 2017 Supercomputing will once again provide a platform to discuss diversity and inclusion in the HPC community and embrace diversity throughout the conference.
In particular we are providing:
Breakdown of the conference committee demographics and also
the demographics of attendees (see Graphs section below).
The Inclusivity team evaluates the conference and is always looking for opportunities to improve the attendee experience particularly for members of underrepresented groups.
The benefits of diversity
As the leading international HPC conference SC has an ongoing
commitment to diversify the HPC community. Our commitment to
diversity aims to broaden participation from all aspects of
the community, and provide a more inclusive experience for
everyone.
In 2015, 14% of attendees were women – our goal is increase this to 20% by 2020. Supercomputing is publishing our demographics. In addition, other leading HPC organizations around the world are also doing workforce demographics. By working together to publicly document today’s workforce, we can begin to understand what is needed to properly diversify the workforce and create a more inclusive working environment.
These contributions are a positive step in creating a more diverse group of attendees, presenters, authors, and exhibitors in the years to come. There are other contributions that can be made to increase our efforts, and they start with you. Start a conversation within your organization about how you can become part of the effort, publish your data, and share your results. We cannot get to where we are going if we do not know from where we are starting.
Did you know?
- More women in senior positions is beneficial for business: Gender diversity in teams pays dividends for all and at all levels. A 2014 study by Credit Suisse found that companies with more women in the boardroom increase company turnover and performance on the Stockmarket.
- Diversity improves team collaboration: In research, there is evidence that although women are still underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines women’s participation and the resulting team diversity improves team collaboration (Bear and Woolley, 2011).
- Diversity improves research publication citation rates: A study by Campbell et al. 2013 gender-heterogeneous authorship of scientific publications increases citation rates. Bear, J. B., & Woolley, A. W. (2011). The role of gender in team collaboration and performance. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, 36(2), 146–153. http://doi.org/10.1179/030801811×13013181961473 Campbell, L. G., Mehtani, S., Dozier, M. E., & Rinehart, J. (2013). Gender-heterogeneous working groups produce higher quality science. PloS One, 8(10), e79147. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0079147
Code of Conduct
SC17 is dedicated to providing a harassment-free conference
experience for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual
orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race,
or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of conference
participants in any form. As a conference that aims to share
ideas and freedom of thought and expression, it is essential
that the conference takes place in an environment that
recognizes the inherent worth of every person by being
respectful of all. All communication should be appropriate for
a professional audience including people of many different
backgrounds.
Attendees violating these rules may be asked to leave the conference without a refund at the sole discretion of the conference organizers. In addition, attendees are subject to the IEEE Code of Ethics and ACM Code of Conduct.
If you wish to report a breach of the code of conduct this can be done by email . All reports are sent only to the Inclusivity Chair and will be treated confidentially.
