A Summer of STEP

Program News

A Summer of STEP

By Megan Johnson, NCSA

9/09/2026

For those not yet familiar, the Student Training and Engagement Program (STEP) is just one of the great offerings hosted by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s ACCESS program. Envisioned as a way to bring new experts into the field of cyberinfrastructure (CI), STEP promotes the development of a strong, competitive STEM workforce by providing opportunities for students interested in learning more about careers in CI. STEP interns spend part, or all, of their summer exploring the many roles professionals play in the realm of High Performance Computing (HPC) – everything from cybersecurity to networking to support.

students at PEARC26 — STEP Interns get the opportunity to attend PEARC, a research conference that provides a forum for discussing challenges, opportunities and solutions among the broad range of participants in the research computing community. Pictured from left to right: Juan Ocasio, Elliot Glenn, Justina Rhee and Mark Horak

“Our main goal is to contribute to raising the level of awareness about cyberinfrastructure as a viable career path while also providing students with high-quality training that will lead them in the workforce,” said Winona Snapp-Childs, Ph.D., STEP director and chief operating officer of Indiana University’s Pervasive Technology Institute (PTI). “It’s important that our current cyberinfrastructure expertise gets shared with the next generation of cyberinfrastructure professionals.”

STEP is as close as it gets to a formal cyberinfrastructure (CI) training program – it’s especially unique in that it provides highly practical experiences. Students are embedded with teams working at premier computing centers across the country. Each student is given the opportunity to learn more about the various specialties within the field of cyberinfrastructure and they’re paired with mentors with decades of experience who take them through the day-to-day work of the experts who support HPC.

This summer, the STEP program took STEP-2 interns on a tour of several HPC centers, where they explored the hardware that powers the groundbreaking research enabled by ACCESS. We’re excited to share photos of this summer’s STEP interns, as well as thoughts on the STEP program from interns in previous years.

Students in front of Delta — 2026 STEP interns visit the National Petascale Computing Facility (NPCF) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. NPCF houses a number of National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) high-performance computing resources allocated through the ACCESS program, including Delta, DeltaAI and Granite.

Before the STEP program, I was unfamiliar with cyberinfrastructure. This program has allowed me to learn about the different careers in cyberinfrastructure, and I would like to include this path in my future career.
–Leslie Hernandez, 2024 STEP Intern

students in front of a supercomputer — 2026 STEP interns toured the NPCF facilities during the summer STEP-2 program. These tours helped give interns a better idea of the operations side of HPC centers.

This program more than met my expectations. It was an amazing experience. I learned more than I was expecting, and it was also very hands-on. This program not only brought new interests in my career, but it also brought confidence in myself and the feeling of wanting to connect more and explore more. I enjoyed my two weeks here and wish it could have been longer. I’m happy with the material and new friends that I gained here, and I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in this.
–Jennifer Lopez, 2025 STEP intern

students trying our vr — Caption: 2026 STEP interns visit the Purdue Envision Center at the Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC).

Overall, the hands-on learning experiences and project opportunities I had during STEP-3 have been invaluable for my professional growth. Through these accomplishments, I have gained practical skills, deepened my knowledge, and demonstrated my ability to make impactful contributions in the field of cybersecurity and cyberinfrastructure.
–Megha Moncy, 2023 STEP-3 intern

students listen to a lecture — The Envision Center is a lab committed to providing novel solutions for effectively communicating complex research concepts through computer graphics, advanced visualization, auditory (sound), haptic (touch) and multimodal interaction. As a division of RCAC, the creative technology integrates with state-of-the-art high-performance computation to assist researchers, instructors and leaders in their quest for new knowledge and innovative products.

I’m passionate about making the technology as easy to use as possible so that the researchers can focus on the research. Being able to do this with my internship project has been a nice bonus to the technical skills that I have improved and enhanced.
–Sharon Colson, 2024 STEP intern

students in front of Jetstream2 — 2026 STEP interns visit Jetstream2 at Indiana University. A cloud-based HPC resource is one of the many resources allocated through the ACCESS program.

There is not enough said about making a new hire feel valued even though they are in a quite junior role. This is essential for people to be effective in a community and it’s something I have had the great privilege to have gained during my time in STEP-3. For this, I am so grateful. I will carry this experience into my career as a model for what it feels like to work in a supportive environment.
–Megan Oelgoetz, 2023 STEP intern

A Summer of STEP

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