SIAM CSE19 Broader Engagement Program

On February 25th, 2019, Sustainable Horizons Institute (SHI) led the Broader Engagement (BE) Program at the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) conference. This year, more than 75 sponsored and self-supported participants came together as BE participants. As the third iteration in the SIAM CSE conference series, BE really hit its stride. The program components have reached a level of maturity while also representing fresh and new ideas developed by the Organizing Committee.

The Guided Affinity Groups were a huge hit this year. Building on the past, this year the GAGs included a virtual meeting prior to the conference, daily “Stand Up” meetings over breakfast each day at the conference, and a presentation at the end of the week. All funded participants were required to participate in the GAGs of their choice, and feedback indicate that the changes were very well received.

“My favorite aspects of the program were the GAG meetings during the morning, and the many great networking opportunities. Also, the tutorials were great!”

*Software Productivity Guided Affinity Group*

In addition to the full technical program at SIAM CSE19 BE Schedule included:

BE Orientation
Guided Affinity Groups
BE Technical Research Oral and Poster Presentations by Participants
GPU Accelerated Computing on Summit Tutorial
Parallel Algorithm Design Tutorial
Lightning Talks and Mixer
Social Modeling Through Game Design: A STEAM Workshop
Best Practices for Diversity and Inclusion Mini symposium
Overcoming Workplace Challenges Panel: Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs
BE/Workshop Celebrating Diversity Luncheon
Mentor-Protégé Mixer
BE Social and Networking Event
Wrap Up Session

*STEAM Workshop and Poster Session Shots*

Here are a few fun facts about BE @SIAMCSE19

48% female
15% African American
5% Native American/Alaskan
32% Hispanic
40 institutions (including several Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, state universities, community and liberal arts colleges)
40% undergraduate; 47% graduate students
34% first-generation college students
More than 380 community volunteers indicated interest in supporting the BE program

Survey Results

A comparison of before and after survey responses indicates significant proficiency increases in:

preparing graduate school application materials
identifying graduate school options

Over 60% of Respondents Rated these Sessions Excellent:

Lightning Talks and Mixer
STEAM (STEM+Art) Workshop
Best Practices for CSE Diversity and Inclusion Mini-symposium
Overcoming Workplace Challenges Panel: Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs

In their own words: here’s what participants had to say:

I feel as though I created a support group of people I can continue to have a professional relationship with for years and years to come.

I appreciated how the BE group made a huge, 2,000+ person conference feel much smaller and easier to navigate.

I was exposed to new areas of research and got to meet researchers from academia and national labs; in particular, seeing successful women computational scientists gave me a clearer vision for what I can accomplish with my future and excited me to go back to graduate school

Ruslan Shaydulin

Participating in Broader Engagement was way more fun than I expected! Sharing breakfast with exciting people was an awesome, and frankly a unique opportunity to talk about many of the questions I had at the time about life and research. The program is incredibly well-organized and easy to recommend to anybody, student or early-career. The positive experiences I had at...

Pulkita Jain

I am Pulkita Jain, an international student studying chemical engineering at Santa Barbara City College. I applied to the BE program and SIAM CSE19 conference through Phi Theta Kappa. I was apprehensive to apply because I am merely a city college student who was majoring in chemical engineering. When I was told that I will not only get to be...

Priscilla Kelly

The best part of the BE program was meeting people from diverse backgrounds and seeing the same passion about science and math that I have. Being able to open our discussions to a broader conversation with group leaders was insightful and encouraging. A program like this is essential to the future of math and science. Students need to see that there...

Kevin Luna

First and foremost, I want to enthusiastically express that as a PhD student who has participated in a good number of conference experiences over my student career, I consider the Broader Engagement (BE) program experience to have been absolutely the most valuable and empowering conference experience I have had to date as a student. The BE program’s thoughtful mix of...

Kaayla Tippens

Life is about taking risks, getting completely out of your comfort zone, and learning how to come together from different walks of life to achieve common goals filled with unity and improvement. My name is Kaayla Tippins, and I now stand as a second-year graduate student pursuing a master’s degree in Bioinformatics. When attending Broader Engagement at SIAM Conference on...

Aimee Maurais

It’s 9:00 pm on a frigid February night in Spokane, WA, and I am an undergraduate senior sitting in a cafe with three strangers discussing inverse problems, quantum computing, and partial differential equations. (envision Nighthawks by Edward Hopper). For an introvert from the south, the surreality of the situation is ridiculous, and yet I feel at home. I’ve found my...

List of BE Participants for 2019

BE 2019 schedule