Author Archives: codata_blog
Register now! AfriGEOSS Week 2018
The AfriGEOSS Week 2018 will take place from 22 to 29 June 2018. The 3rd AfriGEOSS Symposium will be held during AfriGEOSS Week, from 26 to 28 June 2018 with some training sessions taking place beforehand.
The Symposium is hosted by the Agence Gabonaise d’Etudes et d’Observations Spatiales (AGEOS) and the theme is “Building smarter Earth observations to support sustainable development policies”.
The objectives include:
- Engage with end users, particularly policy and decision makers, to understand information needs for evidence-based policy-making and raise awareness on the value of Earth observations in meeting those needs;
- Showcase the use of Earth observations in implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and development policies at national and regional levels;
- Reinforce dialogue on Earth observations priorities in Africa and promote or build synergies with ongoing and planned Earth observations initiatives at the national, regional and international levels – to draw linkages with the implementation of the African Space Policy according to development policies;
- Strengthen regional and national thematic Earth observations coordination mechanisms to broaden African participation in the Group on Earth Observations and AfriGEOSS activities; and
- Review the implementation of the 2017 AfriGEOSS Symposium outcomes and contributions, and establish a mechanism of Monitoring and Evaluation for the future.
For more information and registration visit the AfriGEOSS Week website or contact symposium@afrigeoss.org.
Register Now: June 14 Symposium on Statistics and Data Science for a Cyber Secure Internet of Things
Statistics and Data Science for a Cyber Secure Internet of Things
Rapid growth in the number of devices connected through the internet of things (IoT) poses major challenges to maintaining connectivity, functionality, and security, as demonstrated by prominent cyber attacks launched through IoT devices. Traditional approaches in cyber security such as firewalls and encryption aim to prevent malicious intrusion, however additional countermeasures and approaches are necessary to detect and respond to malicious behavior and to identify when devices or data are compromised.
The National Academies invite you to attend a symposium and webcast on Statistics and Data Science for a Cyber Secure Internet of Things on June 14, 2018 in Washington, DC. During the event, speakers will discuss the role of statistical models and theory for IoT and for detecting, overcoming, and neutralizing cyber attacks.
Date/Time: June 14, 2018 from 1-5 p.m. EDT
Location: Keck Center, Room 100
500 Fifth St. NW, Washington, DC 20001
Or via webcast
Register Now
e-AGE18: Call for Papers & Posters, Amman, Jordan, 2-3 December 2018
ASREN Publications The proceedings of the conference will be published at IEEE Xplore.
Call for Papers & Posters
Posters are also welcomed, for those interested, please send a summary in MS-Word format including title of the poster, name and affiliation of author(s) and a short abstract of maximum one page to: info@asrenorg.net
An effective poster presentation is not just a standard research paper stuck to a board. It should summarize your work with graphs and images to tell the story and should use text more sparingly. Featuring a poster at e-AGE will serve as an excellent advertisement for your work, and can act as a great conversation starter with e-AGE participants.
Call for Presentations
Renowned speakers and experts are also invited to give presentations and participate in panel discussions on latest developments in e-Infrastructure services and application areas, various aspects of R&E networks, telecommunications technologies and the Internet, industry and research case studies of e-Infrastructure use, etc..
Call for Participation
Representatives from academia, research, industry, telecom organizations, NRENs, and governments are invited to participate in e-AGE18 to share experiences and exchange knowledge in a wide of topics relevant to e-Infrastructure and services.
Interested participants can register HERE.
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New OWSD Fellowship for Early Career Women Scientists – Call for Applications
OWSD is very pleased to inform you that the Call for Applications for our new fellowships for Early Career Women Scientists is now open, and would like to ask for your assistance in distributing this announcement.
This Fellowship is a prestigious award of up to USD 50,000, generously provided by Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and is offered to women scientists from Science and Technology Lagging Countries (STLCs) who have completed their PhDs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects and are employed at an academic or scientific research institute in one of the eligible countries. ECWS fellows will be supported for two years to continue their research at an international level while based at their home institutes, to build up research groups that will attract international visitors, and to link with industry.
The fellowship provides funding for a wide range of expenses, including equipment, consumables, research visits, exchanges and programmes, teaching and assistance, information resources, product development and linking with industry, outreach, communications and networking, and other expenses. A full list of eligible expenses is available in the Call for Applications. Fellows will also take part in two training workshops on leadership and entrepreneurial skills.
The application must be submitted through our online system. The link to the online application will be available on the OWSD website by 30 June 2018. However, all details about the application and the required supporting documents are already available on our website. We recommend that applicants begin to prepare their project proposals and applications immediately.
The Call for Applications is available online at: https://owsd.net/career-
The deadline for completed online applications is 31 August 2018.
The official language for the application is English; all information about the programme will also be available in French shortly.
A short video about the fellowship and how it will benefit women scientists starting their careers can also be viewed here: https://bit.ly/2qGY1F0, or on the OWSD website under the Call for Applications.
Please also find attached a poster which can be printed and posted. Again, we encourage you to share this opportunity with women scientists and others in your networks.
Questions about this fellowship can be sent to earlycareer@owsd.net.
For general enquiries about OWSD please write to owsd@owsd.net.
Humans of Data 24
“My story with data is funny. A year and half ago I didn’t know the term ‘big data’ exists. I couldn’t sleep one night in Cairo and I was reading online, and I found an article about big data. I had no idea what it was. So it was like, ‘This is interesting. I should be learning about this.’
So I was self-learning from scratch, so I think the passion started at the first sight. I’m so glad I didn’t sleep this night – because here I am studying data because of not sleeping!
I’m passionate about what we can do with data. It’s something very precious. It’s there and no one is using it so let’s use it. Because I have data, I can do things other people can’t. I’m still learning because data is complicated. But when you have them, data gives you power that other people don’t have.”
Enriching my Learning by Helping Others at the CODATA-RDA Research Data Science Schools
![](http://www.codata.org/uploads/images/Sara El Jadid.png)
![](http://www.codata.org/uploads/images/trisetle_sara.png)
My Journey Towards Open Science and the CODATA-RDA Research Data Science Schools
Marcela Alfaro Córdoba @Fichulina has been a student then a helper at the CODATA-RDA Research Data Science Schools #DataTrieste and #DataSaoPaulo. She has recently blogged about her experience on the Springer Nature Research Data Blog.
CODATA-RDA Research Data Science Schools changed my career, making me a more responsible researcher but also an Open Science ambassador for the Central American area. I now aspire to be a young researcher that can teach Open and Data Science principles through my job at the University of Costa Rica and through the CODATA-RDA Schools, as well as also serve as a mentor for other people that want to learn how to practice Open Science.
![](http://www.codata.org/uploads/images/trieste%20school%20blog.png)
Read more on the Springer Nature Research Data Blog https://researchdata.springernature.com/users/81847-marcela-alfaro-cordoba/posts/29656-my-journey-towards-open-science
The next generation of data scientists
This post was written by Sarah Jones. Sarah coordinates work on the DCC’s Data Management Planning tool – DMPonline – and undertakes research on data policy and data management planning. She has written several articles and book chapters on these topics, and co-edited Delivering Research Data Management Services: fundamentals of good practice.
Sarah is involved in several European e-infrastructure, coordination and open science projects including, FOSTER+, EOSC, OpenAIRE and EUDAT. She is also rapporteur on the European Commission’s FAIR Data Expert Group. Her work in a European context focuses primarily on training and data management planning to facilitate open science and compliance with Horizon 2020 requirements.
The last two weeks have seen the first CODATA/RDA Research Data Science school in South America. We started the initiative in 2015, and after developing a curriculum to offer broad-based, introductory data skills to Early Career Researchers with a specific focus on those from Lower and Middle Income Countries, we ran our inaugural School at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy in August 2016.
From the start the Schools were a huge success, receiving hundreds of applications from researchers in a diverse range of countries and disciplines. We’ve continually iterated on the curriculum based on student feedback and developments in the field. The event in São Paulo was an important first step to branch out to regional schools and develop local hubs of expertise. We hope the School in South America will become an annual event and will shortly be inviting applications to host one in Africa in Autumn 2018 as we’ve had many requests from there as well.
For my own part, the School has become one of the regular events I look forward to the most. The students are so enthused and keen to take the learning back to their institutions and colleagues that you really feel you are making an impact. Kevin and I have amended the Research Data Management curriculum over time, adding elements on FAIR data and new RDM services. We’re also in discussion with Gail Clements who runs Author Carpentry and Louise Bezuidenhout who teaches on open science and ethics, about how we can combine these three topics into one joint module for Trieste 2018.
In São Paulo we were joined by Steve Diggs from Scripps who put together an excellent data reuse lab. Students had to form mixed-skill teams and then review research papers for links to the underlying data. Donning their investigative deerstalkers, they then obtained the data and reproduced results. It was fantastic to see the determination and ingenuity displayed across the teams. They brought such creativity and inventiveness to the various pitfalls encountered, and the exercise drove home the message of why it’s so important to make your data FAIR.
It may surprise you all to learn that these Schools are an entirely volunteer effort. Hugh, Rob, Ciira and I give up our time to plan, coordinate and teach on the Schools, and this would not happen without the backing of our institutions. The host organisations (ICTP in Trieste and UNESP in São Paulo) invest a great deal of time and finances to make the Schools run. They provide the venue, accommodation and catering, cover student travel and administer all the visas, and provide the most excellent local support when we’re in town running the Schools. On top of that we receive a lot of small donations from too many organisations to mention. This covers the speaker travel and supports the helpers.
This year we particularly want to thank Springer Nature and Wellcome Trust, whose support enabled the helpers participation and allowed us to run a weekend session to let this new cohort of students know how they can get involved. Oscar, Sara, Marcella and Silvia (pictured below) have all participated in previous Schools and are now bringing back their expertise to help others. At the weekend session, Sara explained to a packed room how different it is being a helper and how much it enriches your learning. Students approach the tasks differently so you’re troubleshooting a really wide range of problems and learning so much more about the technology by doing so.
The next two priorities are to increase the regions in which the Schools take place, and to move them on to a more sustainable footing which is not so reliant on volunteer effort and sponsorship. In 2018 we hope to run 3 Schools. One will take place in Trieste on 6-17 August 2018, and we anticipate others in Africa in Sept/Oct and Brazil in December. As part of the CODATA Task Force we’ll be reaching out to funders to seek support for a central office, and exploring business models to sustain the Schools. One idea is to run Schools in the USA and Europe with a delegate fee that is reinvested in supporting the Schools for LMIC. We hope to trial this in 2019.
With this being the Season of Goodwill and people looking for opportunities to give back to community, I would encourage you to think about what you could do for the Schools. Are you in a position to help us to coordinate them, to teach, to host events, to sponsor or help us develop a robust business model? There’s a huge demand for the training and we need lots of different inputs to make it scale.
CODATA Working Group Co-Chairs
- Sarah Jones, Digital Curation Centre, Scotland
- Ciira Maina, Dedan Kimathi University of Technology, Kenya
- Rob Quick, Indiana university, USA
- Hugh Shanahan, Royal Holloway University of London, England
This blog post first appeared on the DCC website http://www.dcc.ac.uk/
Geo4SDGs – a conference connecting geospatial with development community
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