The People Behind the Power: SCinet Fiber Team

Putting together the world’s fastest temporary network is no small feat. Much of the organizing required to pull it off begins with the SCinet Team Leads. SCinet’s Team Leads are “the people behind the power,” who keep all the activities focused and volunteers working in step. Of the nearly 20 teams that make up the SCinet crew, the Fiber Team is the critical cardiovascular system of SCinet. For SC26, the Fiber Team Leads are Mitchell Collins-Bailey, an Engineering Support Specialist at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) and Angela “Ange” Diahkah, a Program Director at the Jemez Pueblo Tribal Network (JNET).   

Meet Mitchell and Ange

We spoke to Ange and Mitchell to learn a little more about their inspiration for becoming SCinet Team Leads and not just what SC means to them but also the tremendous impact SC has on their home organizations as a result of their volunteer roles in SCinet. 

Q: How long have you been part of SC and SCinet?

Ange: I started with SCinet as a WINS (now known as Workforce in IT Networking at SC) candidate in my first year in Dallas. In my second year, I served as a WINS mentor in Denver. In Atlanta for my third SC year, I worked on the fiber team. And then last year, St. Louis in 2025, was my first year as Fiber Team Co-Chair.  

Mitchell: I got started in 2024, but, in 2025, the SCinet chair in that year, Nathaniel Mendoza, also from the Texas Advanced Computing Center, noticed that I was good with students, could roll fiber, and had no problem with walking 10-plus miles a day. Pretty sure that is what sealed it for me for my Team Lead role on the Fiber Team.

Q: Tell us a little about the Fiber Team. What are the team’s main functions?  

Mitchell: The Fiber Team does a lot of work leading up to the actual show. There is the work of inventory in summer (inventory just took place in June this year for Chicago. Then, staging is a big lift, but, really, the main event for the Fiber Team is where a lot of the work during this time is essentially to run high-speed fiber from the SCinet DNOCs [network operations centers] to the vendor booths on the show floor. There are typically 200 vendors plus two to threeNetwork Research Exhibitions (NREs). Working with the student volunteers, we teach them how to properly unroll the fiber. We teach them everything inside the DNOCs, from back panel switching, routing, and network architecture. Most of the students have rarely ever seen a data center before, so this is a huge opportunity for them to get a truly hands-on experience at scale in building a fiber network. During the show itself, the Fiber Team does field repairs during the show. Typically, we might see about 25 or so of these during the week. At the end, the Fiber Team leads the “tear down,” where we take down the entire fiber network in one day.  

Ange: A big part of my specific role as Fiber Team Co-Lead is focused on the documentation effort. It just sort of comes naturally to me because I enjoy the flow of technical work and putting a system in place to manage it optimally. The Fiber Team Co-Leads’ primary work is to plan how to deploy the fiber, make sure there is organization, and create process efficiencies to avoid waste and duplication of effort.  

Q: What motivates you to keep volunteering for SCinet?

Mitchell: I really enjoy working with the students. Of course, I also enjoy the opportunity to travel to so many great cities. Through volunteering for SC, I got to see Atlanta, St. Louis, and now Chicago in a way that I would not have seen these places otherwise. It’s also always really cool to hear what the students are learning at the event, and what they are excited to see and hear about during the show.  

Ange: My biggest motivation is to see more of a presence of Native Americans and women at SC. As part of the work I’ve done so far, I have introduced other JNET team members to the event and exposed them to mentorship opportunities, professional networking, and skills development. I even recruited my neighbor, Alicia Toya, to join the SCinet Edge Team as a volunteer. Through awareness and exposure, I am helping to increase representation for tribal nations in world-class advanced networking careers and to broaden tribal nations’ access to opportunities in the field of HPC. I am also motivated and inspired by the ongoing WINS mentorship that I have received. My WINS mentor, Marla Meehl, still sends me grant opportunities and digital inclusion and equity updates that my organization and I benefit from immensely. Through one of these shared opportunities that my WINS mentor passed along, I was able to secure a $450,000 grant for JNET. This is huge. In the technology world, there are still not a lot of women in this world. Through WINS and volunteering over the years at SCinet, I just think, “What do I do next? I got this.”

Q: What do your home institutions (i.e., your employers) get out of your volunteering? Why do organizations around the world continue to send their top talent to SC each year to volunteer with SCinet?

Ange: The biggest benefit to my home institution is that as a female and a Native American, I get to be representing not just my own tribe, but all tribal nations at this global HPC technical event. I have the opportunity to bring along tribal nations colleagues (two techs) typically who get to experience how to be professional and efficient and demonstrate clarity on advanced networking topics. It’s really important to get to be on “SCinet time,” which is different and really beneficial. Through this volunteering time, I am contributing to the Cultivating Our Own to Lead (COO to Lead) effort that helps tribes become leaders. Another aspect is that I learned how to be even more business savvy in negotiating with vendors. For example, when I first went to SC Dallas, I had an experience where I got an equipment quote for a project at JNET. When I shared it with a SCinet colleague, they told me I was being grossly overcharged for it. This was eye opening for me. Without that exposure, my organization really would have been overcharged, so I saved us a significant amount of money through these professional connections and the exposure to the extended SC community and professional network.

Mitchell: Frankly, travel budgets are being cut in many places and a ticket to SC is not cheap. Through my work as a volunteer and SCinet team lead, I get to participate in and get so much out of this global HPC technical event because once the fiber is set and carpet on the show floor is down, I get to enjoy and benefit from the conference by participating in the talks, tutorials, workshops, and trainings. I have the opportunity to meet really great, new, and exciting vendors and bring back that tech and innovation to TACC. The world’s best technology companies are in attendance at SC, and TACC benefits from the connections I make with these industry leaders each year at SC.  

Learn More

Want to learn more about SC26 SCinet’s Fiber Team Leads? You can follow Mitchell and Ange on LinkedIn and be sure to say hello to them when you see them in Chicago this November!  

Mitchell Collins Bailey

Engineering Support Specialist, Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC)

Mitchell on LinkedIn

Angela Diahkan

Program Director, Jemez Pueblo Tribal Network (JNET)

Angela on Linkedin