[Sigsti-l] Cyberinfrastructure Summer Traineeships for repository interoperability (fwd)

[Joe Hourcle]

I thought this might be of interest to folks on this list.

-Joe


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2009 15:05:24 -0400
From: Hilmar Lapp <hlapp at DUKE.EDU>
Reply-To: Code for Libraries <CODE4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU>
To: CODE4LIB at LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: [CODE4LIB] Cyberinfrastructure Summer Traineeships for repository
     interoperability

*** Please disseminate widely to students at your institution ***

            CYBERINFRASTRUCTURE SUMMER TRAINEESHIPS 2009

                      VIRTUAL DATA CENTER FOR
   BIODIVERSITY, EARTH, ECOLOGICAL, AND EVOLUTIONARY SCIENCE DATA

http://hackathon.nescent.org/Cyberinfrastructure_Summer_Traineeships_2009

Summer traineeships are available for up to four students and postdocs 
interested in informatics as applied to scientific data ranging from the fields 
of biodiversity, ecology, and evolutionary biology. The program provides a 
unique opportunity for undergraduate, masters, and PhD students as well as 
postdocs to obtain hands-on experience writing and extending open-source 
software as part of a distributed collaborative software development team 
building a Virtual Data Center (VDC) that includes major data and metadata 
repositories in those fields.

Trainees accepted into the program will receive a stipend ($4,500), and with 
the exception of attending one meeting near the beginning and one near the end 
of the 3-month program period may work from their home, or home institution. 
Travel costs incurred in connection with the meetings will be reimbursed. Each 
student will have at least one dedicated mentor to show them the ropes and help 
them complete their project.

Initial project ideas are listed on the website. These range from validation of 
metadata and identifier resolution, to supporting LSID and semantic-web 
compliant PURLs for digital data objects, to implementing modern web-service 
APIs, to cataloging the diversity of metadata schemas. The project ideas are 
flexible and can be adjusted in scope to match the skills of the student. We 
also welcome novel project ideas that dovetail with student interests.

The traineeships are supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to 
a consortium of major repositories for biodiversity, earth and environmental, 
ecological, and evolutionary science. The consortium includes the LTER Network 
Office, the U.S. Geological Survey, NASA and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the 
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the National Evolutionary 
Synthesis Center(NESCent), and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and 
Synthesis (NCEAS). It aims to develop the cyberinfrastructure and technologies 
necessary to build a Virtual Data Center (VDC) based on a network of existing 
and new physical repositories ("nodes") that interoperate using open standards 
and protocols. The network will enable discovery of as well as open, stable, 
and secure access to data in any of its member nodes.

TO APPLY: Students apply online. Instructions for applying are at the website 
(see "When you apply"), along with program rules and eligibility requirements. 
The 15-day application period for students opens on Monday March 30th and runs 
through Monday, April 13th, 2009.

INQUIRIES: vdc-twg {at} ecoinformatics {dot} org. We strongly encourage all 
interested students to get in touch with us with their ideas as early as 
possible.

Cyberinfrastructure Traineeships Website:
http://hackathon.nescent.org/Cyberinfrastructure_Summer_Traineeships_2009

2009 NESCent Phyloinformatics Summer of Code (NESCent's participation in the 
Google Summer of Code; managed separately; postdocs not eligible; ***student 
application period ends April 3rd***)
http://hackathon.nescent.net/Phyloinformatics_Summer_of_Code_2009

To sign up for quarterly NESCent newsletters: 
http://www.nescent.org/about/contact.php

---------

Todd Vision and Hilmar Lapp
National Evolutionary Synthesis Center
http://nescent.org