I first became involved in the SRP Program when my advisor, Dr. Xinlian Liu, recommended me for the summer research internship at Berkeley lab. So far, my experience at the lab has been great. I feel very fortunate to be able to work on real-world applications of distributed machine learning on supercomputers with the HPC professionals at LBNL’s NERSC! There is no doubt that this program has positively impacted me. The most beneficial parts of this program so far have been interacting with the professionals at the lab, learning from their expert code base, learning to use the supercomputing hardware available at LBNL, and working with my outstanding P.I., Dr. Silvia Crivelli, who has introduced me to an incredible array of scientific methods and opened my eyes to new scientific problems.
My participation in this program will continue to benefit me in a number of ways, especially by helping me to get into a good graduate school. Before entering this program I had some experience with HPC, had just recently graduated with my B.S. in computer science from a small liberal arts college, and had completed 3 internships. Participating in the summer research program has allowed me to make contacts and to conduct work that will set me apart from other candidates when I apply for doctoral programs this coming winter. I do not believe that I would have been qualified to apply for top-tier graduate schools without the experience and connections that I am gaining from this program. Participating in this program has put far more options on the table for me – school-wise AND career-wise – than I ever could have hoped for before. I hope that this program continues to exist, and specifically continues to serve individuals like myself who are hard-working, capable, and intelligent, but do not hail from a flagship scientific university. This program is an equalizer for dedicated and ambitious students from across the spectrum of academic opportunity within the United States, and I am incredibly grateful for its existence!