Postponed! Women in High-Performance Computing to host presentation by Donna Cumberland, former executive director of RCAC, on February 28 at 10 a.m.
Link to update at February 28, 2025 8:38am EST UPDATE:
Due to unforseen circumstances, this event is postponed and will be rescheduled. Once we have a new date, we will update this event.
Link to original posting ORIGINAL:
Purdue’s chapter of Women in High-Performance Computing (WHPC) will host a presentation by Donna Cumberland, the former executive director of the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing, “From DOS to HPC: an unlikely journey” on Friday, February 28 at 10 a.m. The event will take place in the Envision Center, with an option to attend virtually as well. Snacks and refreshments will be provided.
Those interested in attending should register here.
Cumberland spent the majority of her 30+ year career in various IT roles. She began her Purdue IT service in 1995 as an Instructional Computing Coordinator with Purdue University Computing Center (PUCC) supporting faculty and students using the instructional computing resources on campus. She advanced to managing the IT Day on Campus activities and managing the IT help desk. Her next step was working in IT Security training PU staff on IT security best practices.
In 2005, Cumberland decided to go to Purdue's MBA program full time. After graduating with her MBA in 2007, she joined ITaP's Research Computing group as a director. She worked in Research Computing from 2007 to 2019. During this time, she led the building of Steele, the first HPC cluster built in one day. Cumberland became the first woman Executive Director of Research Computing at Purdue and served in that role until 2019. She has a bachelor’s and MBA degree from Purdue.
Purdue WHPC is part of a broader engagement initiative by the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC), and is led by women staffers affiliated with RCAC. WHPC is a diverse community encompassing undergraduate, graduate, staff and faculty men and women who are interested in exposing women to high-performance computing and encouraging their pursuit of research and careers in HPC and other technology fields.
Within the WHPC initiative, RCAC extends partial travel assistance to undergraduate and graduate students, empowering their participation in various national conferences aligning with WHPC’s objectives. The WHPC travel scholarship has sent students to conferences including the Grace Hopper Celebration, Society of Women Engineers and Supercomputing within the past year.
In addition to the scholarship program, Purdue WHPC organizes a range of activities including regular meetings to discuss technical HPC-related issues of interest, opportunities to network with the WHPC community, a mentorship program, workshops, and exposure to external resources and opportunities.
For more information about Purdue WHPC and the February 28 event, contact whpc@purdue.edu.