RSE East of England

Show up and show off – the RSEEE and WHPC Cambridge & East Anglia Kick-off!

A group photo of about 20 people standing infront of slides showing the title of the meeting. The group shows a mix of ages, genders, and ethical backgrounds.

On Thursday, March 27, after months of planning and organising, the day had finally come: the Women in High Performance Computing (WHPC) chapter Cambridge and East Anglia, and the Research Software Engineering in the East of England (RSEEE) regional group welcomed a group of about 25 Researchers, Research Software Engineers, HPC Platforms Specialists and other Research Technical Professionals from the region in Cambridge. 

The theme of the day was “Show up and show off!” – and that’s what people did! Topics ranged from hobby software projects in archery, over storing data in glass, to data pipelines for telescopes – the work that was presented indeed showed a kaleidoscope of skills and fascinating topics. If you are interested to learn more, this is what we heard about:

A man presenting in front of a slide showing a schematic sketch of an archer shooting and arrow, and the possible trajectories.
A woman presenting in front of slides titled "Project Silica: Next-gen archival storage for the cloud"
A young woman presenting in front of a slide titled "Regional Announcements".
A man presenting in front of slides with the title "The carbon costs of data centres"

The afternoon continued with discussion sessions. Groups formed around the topics “Inclusivity and Accessibility in HPC”, “Increasing Engagement across the Region”, “ Environmental Sustainability and Green Computing” as well as “Mentorship & Career Development for Early-career Researchers & RSEs”, and some used the sunny East Anglian weather to have their discussion outside. While interesting thoughts were shared in the report-back session, hopefully the connections made will mean that the exchange of ideas and experiences will continue in the future. 

The event formally ended as it had started: with snacks, drinks and time for further networking, followed by a less formal pub session in town, for those who were able to join.

A seminar room with people looking at group tables. Everyone is facing forwards and listening.
A seminar room set up with tables, with people standing around chatting in groups.
A group of three people, a man and two women, standing together chatting.
A group of seven people sitting at a group table. There are some laptops and waterbottles on the table. People are discussing.
A group of four young men standing together chatting
Two young women standing together and facing smiling into the camera.

It was great to have so many people from different groups, backgrounds and job roles! Looking forward, RSEEE and WHPC Cambridge & East Anglia plan to continue to connect people and enable the exchange of ideas and knowledge, but also contribute to outreach and visibility of research technical professionals and High Performance Computing. 

If you want to join either or both of the groups, and/or join the team to help organise events and initiatives, you can reach them under whpc-cambridge-east-anglia@googlegroups.com and east-england@society-rse.org, respectively.

Thanks a lot to the organisers Tom Meltzer (ICCS, University of Cambridge), Astrid Scott-Bennett (RCS, University of Cambridge), Gwen Dawes (RCS, University of Cambridge), Joe Wallwork (ICCS, University of Cambridge), Claudette Lopez (British Antarctic Survey), Juliana Kwan (DAMTP, University of Cambridge), Surbhi Goel (ICCS, University of Cambridge, Miren Radia (RCS, University of Cambridge) and Marion Weinzierl (ICCS, University of Cambridge)!

This event was sponsored by the Society of Research Software Engineering.