Robert Searles @ SC18

November 19, 2018

Attending SC has become one of my favorite things to do every year. SC18 marks the 6th time I have attended the conference, and every year is just as fun as the last. I’ve made a bunch of great friends over the years, and I have a ton of fantastic memories from this conference. Each year begins with assembling the University of Delaware booth, which is no small task.

Booth before

We have learned a lot from setting up and tearing down this booth every year. This year was our most efficient effort, and our best presentation yet. We gained a lot of traffic compared to previous years, which is always a good feeling, since we work really hard on the booth. We don’t have anyone who helps us with this, so it’s up to the professors and students to coordinate leading up to the conference to ensure that everything goes smoothly.

Booth after

SC18 is also a special milestone for me because it is my 5th and final year serving as a student volunteer. Like SC17, I once again joined the committee as a Lead Volunteer to help manage the 150+ volunteers that support the conference each and every year. In fact, I am actually the only volunteer to serve for 5 years running!

Student Volunteers

I plan on continuing to attend the conference in the future, but since I am getting ready to graduate this year, I will no longer be a part of the Students@SC program. I am very grateful for being able to participate for as long as I have. I have made a lot of great friends from all over the world, and the Students@SC program assists volunteers financially, making it easier to them to attend. If it wasn’t for the opportunity to be a student volunteer, I might not have been able to come back year after year and continue building new relationships, experiencing all the cutting-edge research and innovation in the HPC community, and having a ton of fun while doing it.

SVol Leads Dinner

Moving forward, I am looking forward to my future. I have made a lot of awesome contacts in the field, and I am excited to graduate and move on to the next chapter in my life by joining the industry. I am looking forward to potentially attending SC in the future with my industry hat on. It will also be really nice to be able to attend a lot more of the talks and workshops during the conference. Between my obligations to the UD booth and the Student Volunteer program, a lot of my time at the conference is restricted. In the future, I’d like to branch out a little more and attend talks that are out of my realm of expertise. I always like to be exposed to new things. Overall, my experience at SC18 was just as awesome as the past 5 years!