For the first time, RCC has hired a University of Queensland undergraduate as a new staff member.
Shelly Harris, a Computer Science undergraduate majoring in scientific computing, joined RCC in June this year as a casual Research Computing Systems Operator.
RCC decided to hire an undergraduate to train and upskill them ‘on the job.’
RCC Director Professor David Abramson said the situation was “win-win.”
“RCC gains more hands on deck, and Shelly gets a terrific internship,” said David.
Sarah Walters, RCC Research Computing Systems Engineer and Shelly's manager, said: "Shelly's inquisitive nature and passion for scientific computing is obvious, and we knew that she would be a fantastic fit for the team."
After a decade of working in retail, Shelly returned to university in 2019 to pursue her interests in IT.
She decided to join RCC as she believes in the importance of high-performance computing and wants to be involved in supporting and facilitating “true progress through potentially life-changing research.”
“I’m excited for the rare opportunity to learn and grow within the highly skilled and accomplished team at RCC,” said Shelly.
“I look forward to helping users access and understand HPC resources and contributing to the improvement of the user experience. I also can’t wait to get my hands dirty in the data centre.”
The data centre Shelly mentioned is the Polaris Data Centre in Springfield, Queensland, where UQ’s supercomputing hardware is installed.
