The Day of the Champion @SC18

By Wendi Sapp (ORNL; XSEDE Campus Champion for Sustainable Horizons Institute)

The first activity began at 7:15 am in a ballroom for a mentoring breakfast. It was fun to start the day in an altruistic way. Although I was still tired from the previous days’ activities, it was refreshing to talk with more students.

After the keynote, we all made our way into the exhibit hall. I had plans to connect with colleagues at their booths and to meet a few others who were recommended to me. Finding my way through the booths and bumping into people I know was an interesting situation. I never thought that I would “know” so many people at such a large conference. Eventually, I found my way to the XSEDE booth where I felt like one of the gang. I spoke with a few Campus Champions that I recognized from our regular virtual chats.

After exploring the exhibit floor for a while longer, it was time to make our way to the formal campus Champion meeting. I enjoy being part of this helpful community of professionals. To them, no question is ever dumb and no comment is ever criticized. The meeting provided a place to meet in person and to learn about the new supercomputer, Frontera, from our invited speaker. The best part was the Lightning Talk session at the end. Anyone could sign up for a 60-second slot to cover anything relevant to the community. I wished that I would have signed up. Oh well… next time.

Campus Champions sticker on my conference badge.

Stay tuned for more SC18 updates and watch UbuntuHouse@SC18 sponsors’ and friends’ websites to see what they will be doing at SC18!

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