ACM SIGHPC/Intel Computational and Data Science Fellowships

2017 Winners

Winners of the 2017 ACM SIGHPC Intel Fellowship: (left-to-right, from top) Kellon Belfon, Linda Gesenhues, Ananya Gupta, Maciej Kos, Jessica Micallef, Shannon Moran, Laura Palacio Tamayo, Santiago Núñez-Corrales, Minu Pilvankar, Shefali Umrania, Valeri Vasquez, and Emma Zohner.

ACM’s Special Interest Group on High Performance Computing (SIGHPC), in collaboration with Intel, has announced the 12 recipients of the ACM SIGHPC/Intel Computational and Data Science Fellowships for 2017. The fellowship is funded by Intel, and is presented each year at the annual SC conference.

It was established to increase the diversity of students pursuing graduate degrees in data science and computational science, including women as well as students from racial/ethnic backgrounds that have been historically underrepresented in the computing field. The fellowship provides $15,000 annually for study anywhere in the world.

Students were nominated by their graduate advisors. Nominees spanned disciplines from finance and robotics to managing personal health data, and represented large, mid-sized, and small institutions in 25 countries. 80% of nominees were female, and 40% were identified as an underrepresented minority in their country of study.

The nominations were evaluated and ranked by a panel of experts (who were themselves diverse with respect to race, gender, discipline, and nationality) based on nominees’ overall potential for excellence in data science and/or computational science, and the extent to which they will serve as leaders and role models to increase diversity in the workplace.

Of the 12 students named as winners this year, nine are women and six are underrepresented minorities in their country of study. They are pursuing MS and PhD degrees in a variety of applied fields:

Funding will be awarded in August. The winners will receive travel support to attend SC17 in Denver, Colorado (USA), where they will be recognized during the awards ceremony. They will also receive a complimentary membership in SIGHPC for the duration of their fellowship.