SC’s student programming is set to bring you two days of technical and professional enrichment and opportunity! With professionals from across industry, academia and government agencies — ready to connect with you — it’s sure to be rewarding.
All sessions take place at America’s Center in St. Louis, Room 263. Check individual sessions for days, times, and descriptions.
Student Programming ScheduleSunday–Monday, November 16–17, 2025
America’s Center, Room 263
Student Programming Chair Jamie Lewis, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
Student Programming Vice ChairSuzanne T. Parete-Koon, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
Open to all registered SC attendees, pre-registration for some sessions is recommended or required.
Ignite your journey into high performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI). Join us in person on Sunday, November 16, 8:30 am–3:30 pm, for a full-day, hands-on experience designed to spark your curiosity and fuel your skills.
Using Purdue’s Anvil supercomputer, the morning session dives into HPC fundamentals with self-guided programming challenges, while the afternoon shifts gears to explore AI concepts through interactive machine learning and deep learning exercises.
Pre-registration is highly encouraged as spots are limited. Each of the two courses is limited to 100 students.
To access course resources, ALL PARTICIPANTS must attend the 8:30 am login session. Students should plan to attend 8:30 am–3:30 pm as the courses are complementary and students will see the most success by attending both. Lunch will be available for registered students between the two courses.
Sunday, November 16
Limited to 100 Students
Start your Sunday SC experience with an engaging introduction to high performance computing (HPC). This morning session covers programming environments, job schedulers, and key parallel programming models for CPUs and GPUs. After the overview, students will dive into hands-on HPC challenges using Purdue’s Anvil supercomputer. This session is ideal for those new to HPC or looking to sharpen their foundational skills.
The AI crash course explores the fundamentals of artificial Intelligence, starting with an overview of machine learning and deep learning. Students will then complete guided, hands-on AI challenges using HPC resources, including Anvil and optionally ORNL’s Frontier system. This is a great opportunity for students to build practical AI skills with real supercomputing access.
To attend an Account Setup Session please complete the registration form (coming soon).
Course registrants are required to attend at least one virtual Account Setup Session to help you get an account on Anvil – review requirements, what to expect, and why you should know about HPC. A Zoom link will be provided ahead of your selected Account Setup Session.
Apply for Anvil access ahead of the courses.
Once we have your ACCESS ID, Anvil admins will grant you access.
Your Anvil account will remain active for one year, allowing you to complete optional exercises for a HPC & AI Crash Course Certificate. Some students may also have optional access to Frontier, one of the most powerful computers in the world, during the course.
Please bring a government-issued photo ID and an internet-ready laptop to the courses.
Pre-registration will close on November 1, 2025.
Contributors
Suzanne Parete-KoonOak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
Suzanne Parete-Koon is a high performance computing engineer at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). She is responsible for supporting scientific applications running on Frontier and other HPC resources at ORNL. Currently, Suzanne leads the training programs for the Frontier exascale supercomputer and her division’s Workforce Initiative.
Christopher FusonOak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
Chris Fuson is the group leader for the User Assistance team at the National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS) located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The NCCS User Assistance provides technical support and promotes effective use of NCCS HPC resources through direct support, training, documentation, advocacy, communication, and usability tools/policies. Chris is also the Program Manager for the National Climate-Computing Research Center (NCRC).
Eric AdamsPurdue University
Eric Adams is Lead for Research Operations – Administration & Education at Purdue University, where he supports research computing services with a focus on operational strategy, user education, and inclusive engagement. He serves as Co-Chair of the Resource Provider Forum for the NSF-funded ACCESS program and Co-Chair of the Committee for Accessibility and Belonging for PEARC25. Eric has held leadership roles in PEARC conferences and serves on Purdue’s Management and Professional Staff Advisory Committee. He holds a B.A. in Corporate Communications and certifications in ITIL V4 and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.
Will KillianNVIDIA Corporation
Will Killian is a senior software engineer at NVIDIA spending his days improving the performance of agentic systems and composable, data-driven pipelines. Before joining NVIDIA, he held various roles in industry and academia — a software engineer working on a distributed query execution engine at a software startup, an HPC applications engineer porting scientific applications to a new architecture at a hardware startup, an assistant professor of computer science at a state university, and an intern at LLNL and Intel during his graduate studies.
Geoffrey Lentner Purdue University
Geoffrey Lentner is a Lead Research Data Scientist at the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC) at Purdue University. He leads HPC facilitation on campus and provides expertise and consulting to researchers in many areas including data-science tools and practice, advanced workflows, data orchestration, research software engineering, and funded projects. His domain background in Astrophysics includes experience in both traditional HPC using C++ for large-scale simulation as well as big-data analytics on trillions of observations, machine-learning, and advanced computational math and statistics.
Nrushad JoshiOak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
Nrushad Joshi is a High-Performance Computing (HPC) Engineer in the National Center for Computational Sciences division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Intelligent Systems Engineering from Indiana University Bloomington and is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Data Science at Columbia University. Nrushad has hands-on experience supporting user workloads on NOAA, CADES, and Frontier clusters, training and fine-tuning machine learning models, and developing training materials for HPC systems. He is passionate about advancing research at the intersection of HPC, quantum computing and deep learning to solve real-world problems.
Tony RamirezOak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
Tony Ramirez is an HPC Engineer at the OLCF under the User Assistance group. Tony has a background in industry working with big data on Extract Transform Load processes and as a Full Stack Software Engineer. He has newly started working in HPC, and is excited to learn more about massively distributed workloads. One project that Tony works on is the Job Step Viewer for the Frontier supercomputer at ORNL.
Shivangi GuptaOld Dominion University Research Foundation
Shivangi Gupta earned her Ph.D. in Computer Science from The University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2025, after completing her B.Tech at Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, India, and her M.S. at UAH. Her dissertation developed AI/ML frameworks to improve protein conformation selection in drug discovery, integrating biophysical properties and machine learning for more accurate binding predictions. Shivangi’s work also covers Explainable AI, focusing on transparent, human-centered models. At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, she applied advanced AI/ML on HPC platforms, enhancing protein domain identification and molecular property prediction. She has published research and presented at major conferences.
Fuel your future with HPC. Join this dynamic and interactive career panel, moderated by Andrekka “AJ” Lanier from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where innovation meets inspiration.
In this 60-minute session, students will connect with professionals from government agencies, national labs, and industry who are driving breakthroughs in high-performance computing. Discover how HPC ignites possibilities and empowers the next generation to blaze their own trails toward impactful careers.
Don’t miss this opportunity to spark your journey in HPC and shape the future!
3:45–4:45 pm, Room 263
Pre-registration is not required for this panel.
MODERATOR
Andrekka “AJ” Lanier Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
“AJ” Lanier is an Organizational Development Consultant at LLNL and a USC alumna with a doctorate in Organizational Change and Leadership. With 15 years in social work, she’s served in roles from Medical Social Worker to Director of Social Services. AJ is an Autism Warrior Mom and former Campaign Director for ACT Today! for Military Families. She has contributed to Social Work Today and recently served as SME and Core Team Leader for NNSA’s Future of Work study. She is recognized for expertise in leadership, counseling, focusing on emotional intelligence, communication, and psychological safety.
PANELIST
Marisol Gamboa Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
Marisol B. Gamboa is the Computing Workforce Manager at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, overseeing workforce planning, hiring, retention, and the Computing Scholar Program, a key hiring pipeline. With over 20 years of experience, she has held leadership roles in software development, program management, and STEM initiatives, contributing to projects supporting the National Ignition Facility and Global Security. Passionate about outreach, Marisol has led programs in data science and cybersecurity research and volunteers for STEM-focused youth events. A first-generation college graduate, she earned a B.S. in computer science from the University of New Mexico, driven by her commitment to education and mentorship.
Dewi YokelsonAMD
Dr. Dewi Yokelson is a GPU Performance Engineer and Member of Technical Staff at AMD. She conducts performance analysis and benchmarking for AI models on AMD’s Instinct GPU products helping to drive future hardware design and optimization. Her previous work was in performance observation and analysis of HPC applications and workflows, performance modeling with machine learning, and performance portability. She was a postdoctoral researcher at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and completed her PhD in Computer Science at the University of Oregon.
Will, a senior software engineer at NVIDIA, spends his days improving the performance of agentic systems and composable data-driven pipelines. Before joining NVIDIA, he held various roles in industry and academia — a software engineer working on a distributed query execution engine at a software startup, an HPC applications engineer porting scientific applications to a new architecture at a hardware startup, an assistant professor of computer science at a state university, and an intern at LLNL and Intel during his graduate studies.
Kevin A. BrownArgonne National Laboratory (ANL)
Kevin A. Brown is the Assistant Computer Scientist at Argonne National Laboratory where he investigates new designs for supercomputer networks. He received his B.Sc. from the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech) and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Mathematical and Computing Science from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. His prior work experience includes serving as a Unix Systems Administrator at Digicel (Jamaica) Ltd. and as a postdoctoral appointee in the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility focused on exascale interconnect performance evaluation.
Aligned with this year’s ‘HPC Ignites’ theme, this resume course empowers students to showcase their contributions and potential in the dynamic field of high-performance computing. Participants will learn strategies to highlight technical expertise, innovative projects, and collaborative achievements that spark interest from leading employers in HPC.
Monday, November 17
9-9:45 am, Room 263
Pre-registration is not required for this workshop.
Contributor
Marisol GamboaLawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
Marisol B. Gamboa is the Computing Workforce Manager at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, overseeing workforce planning, hiring, retention, and the Computing Scholar Program, a key hiring pipeline. With over 20 years of experience, she has held leadership roles in software development, program management, and STEM initiatives, contributing to projects supporting the National Ignition Facility and Global Security.
Passionate about outreach, Marisol has led programs in data science and cybersecurity research and volunteers for STEM-focused youth events. A first-generation college graduate, she earned a B.S. in computer science from the University of New Mexico, driven by her commitment to education and mentorship.
Ignite your professional potential with our HPC Portfolio Course! Designed to showcase your skills and achievements in high-performance computing, this course will guide you through creating a standout portfolio that sparks interest and opens doors to new opportunities. Whether you’re advancing your career or preparing for your next big step, this is your chance to fuel your future in HPC.
10–10:45 am, Room 263
Will, a senior software engineer at NVIDIA, spends his days improving the performance of agentic systems and composable data-driven pipelines. Before joining NVIDIA, he held various roles in industry and academia — a software engineer working on a distributed query
execution engine at a software startup, an HPC applications engineer porting scientific applications to a new architecture at a hardware startup, an assistant professor of computer science at a state university, and an intern at LLNL and Intel during his graduate studies.
Join this 60-minute open panel discussion with academia professionals from around the globe and gain valuable insights into navigating higher education systems internationally. Designed for students, the session will also provide practical guidance for those coming from abroad to successfully navigate the complexities of U.S. higher education.
Obtaining or maintaining visas will not be part of this conversation.
11 am–12 pm, Room 263
Pre-registration is not required for this panel. You may submit questions ahead of this session for consideration.
Jamie Lewis Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)
Jamie Lewis is a Business Operations Administrator with over a decade of experience at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). In her current role supporting LLNL’s 1400-person Computing organization, Jamie oversees a team that manages the recruiting, outreach, retention, employee engagement, and internship programs. Her high-level objectives are to enhance employee experiences, lead cross-functional initiatives, and identify and enact operational efficiencies. Jamie’s leadership and contributions to student internships and employee experience best practices at LLNL have been recognized with an LLNL Director’s award, Institutional Operational Excellence awards, and Principal Directorate awards.
Martin Schulz Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Martin Schulz is a Chaired Professor for Computer Architecture and Parallel Systems at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), which he joined in 2017, as well as a member of the board of directors at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre. Prior to that, he held positions at the Center for Applied Scientific Computing (CASC) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and Cornell University. He earned his doctorate in computer science in 2001 from TUM. His research interests include parallel and distributed architectures and applications; performance analysis and tools; parallel programming paradigms; energy-aware parallel computing; as well as quantum computing.
Abhinav BhateleUniversity of Maryland
Abhinav Bhatele is an associate professor in the department of computer science, and director of the Parallel Software and Systems Group at the University of Maryland. His research interests are broadly in systems and AI, with a focus on parallel computing and distributed AI. Abhinav received a B.Tech. degree in Computer Science and Engineering from I.I.T. Kanpur, India in May 2005, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007 and 2010 respectively. He was a post-doc and then computer scientist in the Center for Applied Scientific Computing at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 2011-2019.
Danielle EllsworthColorado College
Danielle Ellsworth (she/her) is currently an Assistant Professor at Colorado College. Teaching is where her professional heart is, specifically introductory programming where she approaches the material as teaching a language skill rather than a problem-solving skill. Danielle’s HPC research has primarily focused on power management strategies for HPC systems running with variable not-to-exceed power budgets. Prior to graduate school, Danielle worked in industry for 6 years on geographically distributed near-time operational data integration and reporting systems for large organizations.
Miquel PericàsChalmers University of Technology
Miquel Pericàs is a Professor at Chalmers University of Technology. Miquel obtained his PhD in 2008 from the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC). Earlier in his career, he worked at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. His research interests cover parallel programming models and hardware/software codesign, with a focus on SIMD, multicore and GPU architectures. Miquel currently teaches two courses on parallel programming and hardware-aware optimization, both part of the Chalmers Master Programme in High Performance Computing Systems.
Koji InoueKysushu University
Koji Inoue received a Ph.D. degree in the Department of Computer Science and Communication Engineering, Kyushu University, Japan, in 2001. He is currently a professor in the Department of Advanced Information Technology at Kyushu University, and also serves as senior vice president, director of the System LSI Research Center, and director of the Quantum Computing System Center at Kyushu University. His research interests include power-aware computing, high-performance (super)computing, secure computer systems, IoT systems, multi- and many-core architectures, nanophotonic computing, superconducting computing, and quantum computing.
Arthur LorenzonFederal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil
Arthur Lorenzon is a Professor of Computer Architecture and Parallel Computing at the Institute of Informatics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil. He earned his Ph.D. in 2018 and has since held visiting research appointments at BSC, ORNL, TU Delft, and WSU. His research centers on strategies to improve the energy efficiency of HPC systems, including performance–power trade-offs, runtime optimization, and measurement methodologies. Lorenzon collaborates with academic and industrial partners from different countries to make large-scale computing more sustainable and cost-effective.
Not sure if your career path is sparking the right direction? Have burning questions for experts in the field? This session is designed to fuel your journey with focused, 15-minute coaching conversations led by professionals from academia and industry.
Students are encouraged to take the lead in these discussions, asking questions and steering the conversation to address their unique goals and concerns. Coaches are here to provide unbiased guidance and support, offering insights to help you make informed decisions about your future.
Whether you’re seeking advice on refining your resume or deciding between pursuing a PhD program or a position in industry, this session is all about empowering you to ignite your potential.
1–4 pm, Room 263
Pre-registration Is Required
Pre-registration closes November 9 or once the session is full. Space is limited.
Leighton WilsonCerebras Systems
Leighton is an HPC Engineer at Cerebras Systems. He works with customers across industry and government to achieve record-shattering performance on Cerebras’s wafer-scale architecture, and leads development efforts for the Cerebras SDK for low-level system programming. He was part of a 2023 Gordon Bell Award finalist team for his work with Cerebras and KAUST on scaling the “Memory Wall” for multi-dimensional seismic processing with algebraic compression on Cerebras CS-2 systems. Before joining Cerebras, Leighton received his PhD in Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics and Scientific Computing at the University of Michigan.
Kevin BrownArgonne National Laboratory (ANL)
Monica VanDierenNVIDIA Corporation
Monica VanDieren is a senior technical marketing engineer at NVIDIA. She leads the CUDA-Q Academic initiative, collaborating with universities worldwide to develop educational resources that offer practical, hands-on experience with hybrid quantum-classical computing. Prior to NVIDIA, she worked at IBM as a quantum ambassador and learning strategist, creating training materials for enterprise clients. Monica holds a PhD in Mathematical Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University’s Pure and Applied Logic Program and a Micromasters in Quantum Technology from Purdue University. With over 20 years of experience in academia, she has held positions at Stanford, the University of Michigan, and Robert Morris University.
Paige KinsleyArgonne National Laboratory (ANL)
Paige Kinsley is the ALCF Education Outreach Lead, assisting staff in the development and leading of training and outreach activities across the division, as well as acting as the central point for all education, outreach, and training activities for the ALCF. She is committed to engaging underserved populations in STEM and increasing access to resources and knowledge about the power of science and high-performance computing to change the world. Paige received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from University of Wisconsin – Madison and holds a B.S. in Chemistry and B.A. in Chinese Language from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Suzanna GardnerPurdue University
Suzanna Gardner, from Purdue University’s Rosen Center for Advanced Computing, develops programs expanding participation in high-performance computing and STEM across K–12, higher education, and professional communities. With over a decade of leadership, mentoring, and program development experience, she has led national outreach, international collaborations, conferences, and workshops. Previously, Suzanna supported KBR’s National Security Solutions in talent acquisition for government and defense projects, strengthening workforce pipelines. Her background includes athletics, coaching, and entrepreneurship, founding programs for team and individual development. At this conference, Suzanna serves as a career coach, providing tailored support to advance attendees’ professional journeys.
If you have questions contact the Students@SC Programming Committee. We’d be happy to help.
