Community Awards in Support of Diversity and Inclusion Announced for 2018 Internet2 Technology Exchange

This year’s scholarship recipients are:

• Renuka Arya, researcher in networking, Center for Data Intensive Science at the University of Chicago.
• Tomomi Imamura, team lead for the security testing and cyber defense team, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Antonio Lobo, chief information security officer, University of Santander in Bucaramanga, Colombia.
• Iris R. Niestas, assistant vice president and director for system integration, The University of Texas at El Paso.
• Soledad Antelada Toledano, cybersecurity engineer, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The recipients will be recognized today at 4 p.m. ET.

Scholarships cover travel expenses, hotel accommodation, and conference registration for the 2018 Internet2 Technology Exchange. Funding for this year’s scholarships is made possible by Fortinet, Internet2, Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC), Wasabi, and Women in IT Networking at SC (WINS).

“There is a shared passion and commitment across the research and education community in supporting underrepresented groups in the information technology field and removing financial barriers to ensure their access to opportunities of professional development and mentorship,” said Ana Hunsinger, VP of community engagement at Internet2. “We continue to see a growing number of talented award nominees each year and this year is no exception. I’m grateful for the work that the Network Startup Resource Center does in contributing to a sustainable community of network engineers and local operators across the world, as well as the contributions of the WINS program in addressing the prevalent gender gap in the fields of network engineering and high-performance computing.”

“The NSRC first met Antonio Lobo as a student in 2012. His enthusiasm and dedication to helping others was immediately apparent. Working with Antonio to enhance technical expertise within the research and education community throughout Latin America and the Caribbean has been incredibly rewarding,” said Hervey Allen, assistant director of the Network Startup Resource Center. “His unparalleled dedication and enthusiasm for training and imparting his knowledge of security, systems, and network monitoring and management makes Antonio a very deserving recipient of this fellowship.”

“While one of the major objectives of the WINS program is to provide hands-on technical training for our participants via SCinet, growing our participants’ professional network is an equally important goal,” said Wendy Huntoon, president and CEO of KINBER and co-PI on the NSF-funded WINS program. “Our work with Internet2 in supporting the WINS participants at their meetings, as part of the Internet2 Inclusivity Initiative, provides opportunities to gain critical presentation and networking skills that may not be available otherwise.”

The event is co-hosted by University of Central Florida and Florida LambdaRail. A list of scholarship winners’ bios and pictures can be found here.

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