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SC Conference Series

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I started working for the Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation (CASC) in 2001. It was definitely not my original career path, but when I graduated with my MBA in e-commerce in 2001, all of the dot-coms had just gone bust, and CASC was growing and needed support staff. So I learned about HPC from the academic and federal perspectives. Then I went to work for the Council on Competitiveness with their HPC Advisory Group, and learned about HPC from the industry perspective—both manufacturers, like IBM and Dell, and users, like automotive and aerospace companies. When I was hired to start the industry affiliates program at TACC in 2006, I already had a good handle on the challenges that academics, manufacturers, and users were facing (as it turns out, they’re very similar), and how to create industry-academic partnerships to address the issues. I majored in Spanish for my undergrad degree, and spent a year living in Spain. Looking back, it was an amazing opportunity, and I have been able to use my Spanish in my work life as well, including business trips to Panama, Chile, and Costa Rica. Do I sometimes wonder if I should have studied computer science? Yes, but you can always learn new things! I’ve taken some coding classes and taught myself a lot in the last few years, just to have more knowledge of what goes on at TACC. I've always tried to be a strong advocate for diversity in computing. Now that I have more experience and connections, I am able to use my platform to support Women in HPC (and all kinds of diversity) and fund internship programs and hackathons to grow our pipeline. It's wonderful to see so many more cultures and backgrounds represented at SC conferences, but we're only just scratching the surface! My name is Melyssa Fratkin, and I serve as the Industrial Programs Director for Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). #iamhpc #whm2023 Learn more about my career: - CASC: https://buff.ly/3EzL4CY - TACC: https://buff.ly/3kx1epE Melyssa Fratkin

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Ruth Marinshaw

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Go Melyssa!!!! You make our community better and stronger every day.

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