Goal: Engage and motivate students from diverse backgrounds to get involved with HPC/Scientific Computing, e.g. via hackathons and student cluster competitions. In the long run this aims to enlarge and diversify the pool of applicants/professionals in HPC, which is currently too small and homogeneous. Help especially the underrepresented groups to become confident about their skill set and to see it as a great educational and networking opportunity to learn new things together. In this context, we consider shifting the focus away from the competitive character and towards a more educational perspective. Foster team spirit and shared identity between students from diverse backgrounds via shared interests. Break down barriers between practitioners and students. Allow for the demystifying of complex processes, including technical and scholarship.
| What? | Why? | Notes |
| Have a Code of Conduct | Define the culture of the event and the teams that encourages a welcoming and participatory environment and includes rules for when this isn't happening | Be sure to read this out at initial events or otherwise make sure that participants are aware of it
Be clear of who the contacts are for breaches. Ensure that there are people who are trained to be the contacts for breaches of the Code of Conduct. |
| Reach out to organisations that represent diverse groups of students. | Make sure the potential participants aren't just those who are already connected to the organisers and mentors | Think about identifying people from highly marginalised groups or people who belong to more than one marginalised group (intersectionality). |
| Provide training for mentors in good mentoring skills that include not only awareness of diversity, but ways to advocate for and implement change for diversity. | Mentors are expected to guide and support the participants, but they may need help in understanding how their actions can have the best effects. | |
| Document past events with photos and stories that highlight the diversity, and publicise these widely. | Build up a message about the events that make new students want to join, and that can lead others to point potential participants to the opportunities. | Raising awareness of diverse communities and creating new links with other groups. |
| Track the careers of former participants and highlight them. | Show what participants have gone on to do, to encourage new participants. | |
| Ask for feedback. | To continuously monitor types of intervention, to ensure agency and advocacy within the mentoring process. | To employ a listening tone… |
| Organise team forming and networking opportunities (same for mentors) | Not every prospective participant might already have a team or the opportunity to join one, and meeting other interested participants up front without obligation can encourage people to consider taking part. | |
| Provide funding and other resources to participants when necessary | Not every prospective participant might have the required resources (time, computing, networking/communications, a quiet place) to enable them to fully participate | The intent of this isn't to reward participants but to enable a diverse group to participate by overcoming barriers that some may have |
| What? | Why? | Notes |
| Create a ‘safe’ space for communication and to address needs / skills training. | Opportunity to listen and react to needs. Catch any issues as they arise. To enable a social and candid exchange, shift underlying culture concerning hierarchical power dynamics | Opportunity for reverse mentoring (reciprocal aspect to mentorship) “partners in progression” |
| Offer introductory training. | To lower the (perceived) hurdle of participation and This gives prospective participants confidence to take part. | |
| Motivating peers to take action and initiate changes | Enhanced ability to be a more effective agent of change. | Evidence of a high standard of leadership role modelling and leadership behaviour |
| Pair new students up with former students as mentors, i.e. set up “sprint teams” within which experience is shared. | It allows space for (less experienced) students to ask questions. | |
| Advertise SCCs at similar events like hackathons, and especially at events that foster diversity. | Sharing enthusiasm and motivation for the topic by getting directly in touch | Get directly in touch with students, don’t just distribute flyers. (Durham specific) Example events: DuWiT Lovelace Colloq, DurHack |
| Provide example challenges for the potential participants to look at.. | People might imagine a higher level of difficulty and, therefore, might not apply. | |
| Help promote courses and work or job opportunities. | To reach a diverse range of candidates | To enhance accessibility in recruitment. |
| Have former participants advertise the possibilities SCCs provide. | ||
| Don’t focus on winning the challenge (too much ;-) ) but focus on the learning opportunities. | To not scare less experienced students away from participation. | Write down all the good things that the mentors saw in the students during the time and how they improved. This builds confidence. |
| Organise team forming and networking opportunities (same for organisers) | Not every prospective participant might already have a team or the opportunity to join one, and meeting other interested participants up front without obligation can encourage people to consider taking part. | |
| Starting team meetings with an icebreaker and/or round of updates. | Get people to speak up and feel comfortable speaking in the group, and share their learning and where they are at the moment. |