A University of Queensland Research Computing Centre staffer was included on a women in high-performance computing (WHPC) panel at an international supercomputing conference in Germany in June 2026.
Dr Marlies Hankel, UQ RCC Senior Liaison and Policy Manager, joined three other panelists for a Birds of a Feather (BoF) session at the ISC High Performance 2026 conference in Hamburg, Germany on Wednesday, 24 June.
The panelists alongside Marlies included:
- Emily Moffat Sadeghi, Developer Relations Program Manager for Open OnDemand (OOD) at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (USA)
- Professor Maria-Ribera Sancho, Head of Education and Training at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and Professor at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Spain)
- Mennatallah Samier Saleh, HPC Application Specialist at NYU Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates).
The information blurb for the BoF, titled “Super(computing)heroes,” said:
“Members of underrepresented groups often lack access to role models within their minority. The HPC community is still predominantly male, making it difficult for young women to find female ‘superheroes’ to identify with. Such role models are crucial for career planning and guidance.
This session aims to provide, especially women, with the opportunity to meet influential, well-recognized [sic] female HPC ‘superheroes’ from academia, research labs, HPC centers [sic] and industry.
Join us to be inspired and find relatable role models as we work together to build a more inclusive and connected HPC community.”
The session’s target audience included students, early-career researchers, and professionals, as well as educators, mentors and community builders interested in diversity and inclusion.
The BoF also targeted decision-makers from academia, research labs, HPC centres, and industry seeking visible role models and inclusive practices.
The organisers and moderators for the BoF session included:
- Helena Vela Beltran, R&D Manager and Computational Scientist at Do IT Now (Spain).
- Karina Pešatová, Head of Training and Education Department at IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Centre (Czech Republic).
- Cristina Manzano, Data Systems Architect, Jülich Supercomputing Centre, Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany).
- Dr Elisabeth Ortega-Carrasco, Solutions Architect & Product Manager at Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech (Spain).
Two other RCC staffers also attended ISC 2026 from 22-26 June, including Director Jake Carroll and Senior Research Systems Engineer Irek Porebski.
Jake attended on behalf of the IBM@UQ Centre of Excellence and Innovation and spoke at the IBM Storage Scale User Group meeting, co-located with ISC 2026.
He presented large research organisation challenges and use cases for S3 protocol adoption and architecture. IBM provides extensive support for the Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) API across its ecosystem. S3 delivers high-performance object access directly to data stored within file systems.
UQ is working on implementing the S3 protocol for its large-scale research data storage capabilities to give researchers yet another option for accessing the University’s MeDiCI data fabric.
The annual ISC High Performance, formerly known as the International Supercomputing Conference, is the world’s oldest HPC conference and has been held in Europe since 1986.
ISC 2026 brought together scientists, engineers, and technology leaders to explore the future of high-performance computing.
This year’s conference the largest on record, with more than 4,000 registrations, focused on current breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and quantum technologies, as well as what lies ahead, with a commitment to sustainability by promoting energy-efficient and cost-effective computing. The conference also aimed to empower the next-generation workforce to further innovation.
For those unable to attend ISC 2026, the conference has provided on-demand content until the end of this year, with access to all keynotes, invited talks, panels, and selected vendor programs. “AI summaries” are also available as an open-access resource.
