The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) is proud to announce that council member Michela Taufer was a keynote speaker at the 53 International Conference on Parallel Computing, one of the oldest continuously running computer science conferences in the field. 

Taufer is passionate about engaging with the community on the challenges of handling large data and raising awareness about the importance of equity in science. In her talk, she emphasized that equity goes beyond just providing access to data; it involves empowering every researcher to use that data fully and effectively. It is about turning access into actionable insights and discoveries. 

“Speaking at ICPP was a unique opportunity for me to share my passion and commitment with the broader, international audience,” Taufer said. “I was thrilled when Stefano Markidis asked me to be the opening keynote speaker at ICPP. I have attended the conference and had several of my papers accepted there, so it’s always been an event I hold in high regard.”

In her keynote, she presented the National Science Data Fabric (NSDF), a platform-agnostic testbed designed to democratize data delivery and advance scientific discovery. NSDF is a project supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a collaboration with Valerio Pascucci (University of Utah), Alex Szalay (Johns Hopkins University), John Allison (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), and Frank Wuerthwein (San Diego Supercomputing Center).

Taufer also highlighted NSDF’s technological framework, which integrates a federated suite of networking, computing, and storage services across academic and commercial cloud environments. This infrastructure is designed to lower barriers to accessing and managing big data, making it more scalable and accessible to many users.

“During my presentation, I also discussed the importance of engaging with diverse scientific communities, including those at minority-serving institutions,” Taufer said. “I believe that understanding and addressing the specific pain points these communities face with data access and use is crucial for advancing equity in scientific research.”

She hopes attendees and individuals interested in this research understand the importance of making data more accessible, actionable, and equitable, so that all researchers can contribute to and benefit from scientific discoveries.