In 2018, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded the Engagement and Performance Operations Center (EPOC), a joint project between Indiana University and ESnet, to work with domain scientists across the U.S. to accelerate the adoption of and experience in using high-speed networks. The project now has a process pipeline in operation, referred to as “Roadside Assistance”, which offers immediate help to collaborators when data sharing failures occur. It also facilitates more in-depth investigations, referred to as “Deep Dives”, to understand the full science pipeline for research teams and suggest alternative approaches for the scientists, local IT support, and national networking partners.

On Friday, March 29th, 2019, The Quilt hosted a webinar presentation by co-PI Jason Zurawski from ESnet. The presentation gave a detailed look at how this work is performed, giving examples from real application use cases. It also covered how this work intersects with and overlaps ongoing work within the Quilt community.

A recording of the presentation is now available online:

Quilt Webinar: Overview of The Engagement and Performance Operations Center

Presentation Slides [PDF]

La Mirada, CA & Berkeley, CA — March 20, 2019 — The Cisco NCS 1004 has been in numerous trials since December of 2018 demonstrating multi-haul transmission. The platform offers the flexibility to optimize for higher wavelength capacity or for fiber efficiency to support a wide range of customer applications. [Read the full article at CENIC | News]

Announcement: The Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS) program is now accepting applications for the 2019 program.

Since 2015, the WINS program has provided an immersive “hands-on” mentorship opportunity for early- to mid-career women in the IT field who are selected to participate in the ground-up construction of SCinet, one of the fastest and most advanced computer networks in the world that is built annually for the Supercomputing Conference (SC). SC19, to be held in Denver, CO, is expected to attract more than 13,000 attendees who are leaders in high performance computing and networking.

WINS is a joint effort between the Department of Energy’s Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER), and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and works collaboratively with the SC program committee.

The program offers travel funding for awardees through an NSF grant and ESnet funding; collaborates with SCinet committee leadership to match each awardee with a SCinet team and a mentor; and provides ongoing support and career development opportunities for the awardees before, during, and after the conference.

Interested and qualified women are encouraged to apply. More detailed information can be found below, and a PDF version of the Call for Participation is attached. We encourage you to distribute this information to your networks and contacts.

The application deadline is April 1, 2019 at 11:59 pm AoE; award notifications will be sent by mid to late May 2019. [Apply to WINS – Women in Networking at SC]