Monthly Archives: March 2019

Nairobi INSPIRE Hackathon 2019

A Hackathon and Ideathon for Sustainable Africa

The IST-Africa 2019 conference, supported by the European Commission (EC) and the African Union Commission (AUC), addresses a series of societal challenges.

The Nairobi INSPIRE Hackathon 2019 is a contribution to the joint efforts to solve these challenges. The hackathon addresses some of the key topics identified by the IST-Africa conference, such as agriculture, environmental sustainability, collaborative open innovation and ICT-enabled entrepreneurship.

The Nairobi INSPIRE Hackathon 2019 is one of the satellite INSPIRE hackathons. The hackathon is organised in the frame of the IST Africa 2019 Conference. The hackathon is a collaborative event organised by Plan4all and Club of Ossiach associations and EU projects including EO4Agri, DataBio, NextGEOSS, EUXDAT, PoliVisu and AFarCloud.

DATES

The hackathon starts in March 2019 by creating hackathon teams. The hackathon will then run remotely until the event held on 10 May 2019 in Nairobi where the hackathon results will be presented within a workshop at IST Africa starting at 9am.

VENUE

The hackathon consists of two parts including:

  • a virtual period: The teams will work virtually led by the team mentors. Membership and participation in this part is open to all.  There will be educational webinars during the virtual hackathon to facilitate the progress/collaboration.
  • a workshop (attendance optional for team members/participants) which is the closing event of the hackathon where the results of the hackathon will be presented. The workshop will take place in Laico Regency Hotel, Loita Street, Nairobi, which is located in the city centre. For more details, please visit the IST Africa website.

GOAL

The goal of the Nairobi INSPIRE Hackathon 2019 is to build and strengthen relationships between several EU projects and African communities. This hackathon is not a competition. The focus is on building relationships, making rapid developments and collecting ideas for future research and innovation.

TEAMS & MENTORS

The Nairobi INSPIRE Hackathon 2019 is organised using an unconventional approach, tailored to cater for cross-continental collaboration.

The hackathon starts with a set of predefined projects. Each project has a mentor (see the list of projects and mentors below). The participants of the hackathon can choose to work on any of the predefined projects. In this way, teams will be built to collaborate on the projects.

The mentors will organise the work and are responsible for the communication in the project teams and will act as team leaders.

The projects and their mentors for the Nairobi INSPIRE Hackathon 2019 include:

REGISTRATION

In order to participate in the hackathon, please register at https://goo.gl/VME2ZG

You can join the teams mentioned above at any time between now and the end of April 2019. The registration is open to anyone from anywhere in the world as most of the hackathon is done virtually.

In case you will participate at the hackathon workshop within IST-Africa in Nairobi (10 May 2019), you need to register for the IST-Africa Conference itself.

TIMELINE

  • 6 March 2019 – start of the hackathon, registration opens
  • (Beginning of April TBC) – a series of webinars introducing the teams and their progress. There are educational elements in these webinars.
  • 1-7 May 2019 – preparing presentations for the workshop in Nairobi
  • 10 May 2019 – presentation of the hackathon results at the workshop in Nairobi

ORGANISERS

Plan4all – Plan4all is a non-profit association sustaining and further enhancing the results of multiple research and innovation projects. It aggregates large open datasets related to planning activities in different specialisms areas transport, spatial and city planning, environment and tourism. Plan4all makes sure that open data are easily accessible for reuse, data are maintained and their quality is improved.
Club of Ossiach – The Club of Ossiach is a group of agriculturists, agribusiness managers, agriculture and forestry technologists, environmentalists and agricultural ICT specialists from around the world.
EO4Agri – The main objective of EO4AGRI is to catalyze the evolution of the European capacity for improving operational agriculture monitoring from local to global levels based on  information derived from Copernicus satellite observation data and through exploitation of associated geospatial and socio-economic information services. EO4AGRI assists the implementation of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) with special attention to the CAP2020 reform, to requirements of Paying Agencies, and for the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) processes.
DataBio – DataBio proposes to deploy a state of the art, big data platform “on top of the existing partners” infrastructure and solutions – the Big DATABIO Platform. The work will be continuous cooperation of experts from end user and technology provider companies, from bioeconomy and technology research institutes, and of other partners. In the pilots also associated partners and other stakeholders will be actively involved. The selected pilots and concepts will be transformed to pilot implementations utilizing co-innovative methods and tools where the bioeconomy sector end user experts and other stakeholders will give input to the user and sector domain understanding for the requirements specifications for ICT, Big Data and Earth Observation experts and for other solution providers in the consortium.
NextGEOSS – The NextGEOSS project will implement a federated data hub for access and exploitation of Earth Observation data, including user-friendly tools for data mining, discovery, access and exploitation. This data hub will be supported by a strong commitment to the engagement of Earth Observation and related communities, with the view of supporting the creation of innovative and business oriented applications.
EUXDAT – EUXDAT proposes an e-Infrastructure, which addresses agriculture, land monitoring and energy efficiency for a sustainable development, as a way to support planning policies. EUXDAT builds on existing mature components for solving them, by providing an advanced frontend, where users will develop applications on top of an infrastructure based on HPC and Cloud.
PoliVisu – Policy Development based on Advanced Geospatial Data Analytics and Visualisation. is a Research and Innovation project designed to evolve the traditional public policy making cycle using big data.  The aim is to enhance an open set of digital tools to leverage data to help public sector decision-making become more democratic by (a) experimenting with different policy options through impact visualisation and (b) using the resulting visualisations to engage and harness the collective intelligence of policy stakeholders for collaborative solution development.
AfriAlliance – Africa-EU Innovation Alliance for Water and Climate – Africa is one of the regions most in need of innovative solutions for tackling water and climate change-related challenges; yet many parts of Africa are also suffering from the lack of water-related skills and capacity as well as wide-spread institutional fragmentation. AfriAlliance aims to better prepare Africa for future climate change challenges by having African and European stakeholders work together in the areas of water innovation, research, policy, and capacity development. One of the objectives of AfriAlliance is to help improve water and climate monitoring and forecasting processes and tools in Africa. AfriAlliance is developing a triple sensor approach, combining input from 1) remote sensors (satellite, drones, etc.), 2) in-situ sensors (e.g. official weather stations) and 3) human sensors (e.g. citizens’ own mobiles devices and private weather stations) and co-locating these in an online GeoDataPortal.
CSEOL – Citizen Science Earth Observation Lab – The potential of using Citizen Science (CS) approaches and new digital technologies in a suitable setting for experimenting and generating new Earth Observation (EO) products and services is faced with various challenges. The Citizen Science Earth Observation Lab (CSEOL) therefore facilitates an open innovation process for generating multiple ideas on how to explore the CS potential for validating and exploiting EO data towards concrete, implementable projects. The CSEOL Call for Ideas is open now, on how to involve citizen scientists and the wider public in validating and exploiting Earth Observation data (deadline 5 May 2019).
AFarCloud – AFarCloud will provide a distributed platform for autonomous farming, which will allow the integration and cooperation of Cyber Physical Systems in real-time for increased agriculture efficiency, productivity, animal health, food quality and reduced farm labour costs. This platform will be integrated with farm management software and will support monitoring and decision-making, based on big data and real time data mining techniques. 

February – March, 2019 Publications in the Data Science Journal and new Special Collections

February-March 2019:  Publications in the Data Science Journal and new Special Collections

Title: Research of LOB Data Compression and Read-Write Efficiency in Oracle Database
Author: Jianjun Wang, Yingang Zhao, Gaochuan Liu
URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-008
Title: Bringing Citations and Usage Metrics Together to Make Data Count
Author: Helena Cousijn, Patricia Feeney, Daniella Lowenberg, Eleonora Presani, Natasha Simons
URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-009
Title: The Time Efficiency Gain in Sharing and Reuse of Research Data
Author: Tessa E. Pronk
URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-010
Title: Intelligent Infrastructure, Ubiquitous Mobility, and Smart Libraries – Innovate for the Future
Author:  Yi Shen
URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-011

Call for Nominations and Applications: Editor-in-Chief, Data Science Journal, Deadline 14 April

The Data Science Journal is currently accepting nominations and applications to become the Editor-in-Chief of the journal: https://datascience.codata.org/

Applications can be made through the Google form at https://goo.gl/forms/ey60x1N2jO9YM1rY2

The deadline for applications is 12 midnight GMT on Sun 14 April. Read More

Articles are appearing in two new Special Collections in the Data Science Journal.

Göttingen-CODATA RDM Symposium 2018

This special collection contains selected papers from the Göttingen-CODATA RDM Symposium 2018: the critical role of university RDM infrastructure in transforming data to knowledge: https://datascience.codata.org/collections/special/gottingen-codata-rdm-symposium/

Guest editors:
  • Simon Hodson
  • Jan Brase
  • Michael Witt
  • Liz Lyon
  • Devika P. Madalli

Research Data Alliance Results

This collection contains papers documenting research results and outcomes stemming from the Research Data Alliance (RDA) community and efforts: https://datascience.codata.org/collections/special/research-data-alliance-results/

Guest editors:

  • Leonardo Candela, Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Informazione “A. Faedo”, Italian National Research Council, Pisa, Italy
  • Donatella Castelli, Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Informazione “A. Faedo”, Italian National Research Council, Pisa, Italy
  • Emma Lazzeri, Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Informazione “A. Faedo”, Italian National Research Council, Pisa, Italy
  • Paolo Manghi, Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Informazione “A. Faedo”, Italian National Research Council, Pisa, Italy

Humans of Data 29

“I’m a data scientist. One needs to be aware that data is important to do science. But it comes with lots of issues, to make good quality results. It’s not just about collecting data and using it. Any data-driven solutions you try to develop, you need to understand the users and their different roles. A lot of work on the data is not just about the technology. It’s also about the social aspects. It’s not just about setting up a system and saying, ‘The scientists will use it.’

What I learned from my computing science experience is that every domain is different. If you want to develop a computing solution for a domain, you need to get familiar with the user environment, workflows, best practices, language and so on, and it’s important to get familiar with this before coming up with a solution. Every domain I have worked in, I had to get familiar with the practice, so the users will see the computing solution as integrated, and they will use it.”

The Carpentries is looking for the Regional Coordinator – Southern Africa

The Carpentries is an open global community teaching the skills and perspectives to turn data into knowledge. We build capacity in essential data and computational skills for conducting efficient, open, and reproducible research. Through our mission, we are committed to “training and fostering an active, inclusive, diverse community of learners and instructors who promote and model the importance of software and data in research.” We believe in a world where more people have the computational skills and perspectives to work with data to address their questions in science, scholarship, and society. We aim to build that world by scaling evidence-based teaching, creating inclusive environments, and building communities of practice based on open principles.

We seek an engaged and collaborative individual who shares this vision for a full-time position as The Carpentries Regional Coordinator – Southern Africa. This position will be based in South Africa (preferably in Pretoria, Johannesburg, or Potchefstroom) and will lead growth of The Carpentries community across the African continent, with a focus on Southern Africa.

In this role, you’ll help The Carpentries support our volunteer instructor community and member organizations to increase our collective impact on researchers across the continent. In Africa, we have trained almost 200 instructors and have run nearly 100 workshops in 10 countries in the last 5 years. The interest in workshops and instructor training is growing rapidly.

You will lead our community engagement efforts to develop and support The Carpentries community in Southern Africa, creating pathways for participation and increased communication. You will lead recruitment of new instructors and institutional members, drive The Carpentries’ awareness efforts in Southern Africa, mentor instructors, and coordinate workshops within the region. You may also assist with workshop coordination in other regions of the continent, with support from The Carpentries Workshops and Logistics Manager. You will build and strengthen local communities through engagement with user groups such as R-Ladies and Python Africa. You will join a global team of Regional Coordinators who manage workshop logistics, assist in communicating with hosts and instructors, respond to general workshop inquiries, and support growth of their regional communities. You will be supported by The Carpentries Workshop and Logistics Manager and will also work closely with The Carpentries Community Engagement Lead.

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate for this position is proficient in communication and organisational skills, is confident in working independently, takes initiative, collaborates well in a community environment, and has a keen eye for detail. Enthusiasm for the idea of teaching people to program is also essential. The successful candidate will get to meet and work with a global network of dedicated volunteer instructors. Additionally they will be involved in helping organizations find funding to coordinate workshops and pursue grant opportunities.

Required:

  • Undergraduate degree or at least 2 years in a higher education environment
  • Demonstrated leadership experience in professional or volunteer settings
  • Proven experience in organizing, planning, or administering groups or events
  • Understanding of the need for digital skill building in Africa
  • Some evidence of community building efforts
  • Excellent communication and time management skills
  • Strong administration skills and attention to detail
  • Customer-service orientation
  • Ability to work with minimal supervision
  • Able to work virtually with a distributed team
  • Passion for sharing digital research skills

Preferred:

  • Experience with The Carpentries
  • Understanding of nonprofits and their communication needs
  • Experience working with a volunteer community
  • Experience teaching technical workshops
  • Project management skills
  • Familiarity with one or more of the following: Git, GitHub, R, Python, SQL, The Unix Shell
  • Some experience with the research process

This is a remote position and will be paid by our 501(c)3 fiscal sponsor, Community Initiatives. Compensation will be ZAR 300,000 – 350,000, commensurate with experience. Work space and internet access will be provided by the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) at NWU Potchefstroom Campus if you are local to that site. Access through other partner institutes may be available. You will be working with The Carpentries as an independent contractor and will not be employed through NWU or SADiLaR.

The Carpentries is dedicated to providing a welcoming and supportive environment for all people, regardless of background or identity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, citizenship, nationality, ethnic or social origin, pregnancy, familial status, veteran status, religion or belief, age, education, or socio-economic status. We encourage all qualified individuals to apply.

About The Carpentries

We’re a team of eleven staff and independent contractors, with a nine person Executive Council. We’re a fiscally sponsored project of the 501(c)3 Community Initiatives. We have a large community of instructors and contributors, and a much larger community of users. We use evidence-based teaching practices to teach the core skills for effective computational and data work, and we promote reproducible research and open science/open source widely.

To Apply

Please submit a cover letter and resume or CV to jobs@carpentries.org.

Application review will begin 19 May UTC 06:00. This position will remain open until filled.

Calls for Applications: OWSD PhD and Early Career Fellowships

OWSD is happy to announce that the 2019 Calls for Applications are now open for our two fellowship programmes, for PhD students and Early Career women scientists. We would like to ask your special assistance in helping OWSD to disseminate the Calls for Applications.

OWSD PhD Fellowship

The PhD Fellowship is offered to women scientists from Science and Technology Lagging Countries to undertake PhD research in the natural, engineering and information technology sciences at a host institute in another developing country in the South.

Costs covered include travel to the host country, tuition fees, board, accommodation and living expenses, and a special allowance for travel to international conferences. The programme is administered with funds generously provided by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and is offered in partnership with host institutes throughout the developing world.

Two types of fellowship are available:

  • A full-time fellowship (maximum 4 years funding), where the research is undertaken entirely at a host institute in another developing country in the South.
  • A sandwich fellowship, where the candidate must be a registered PhD student in her home country and undertakes part of her studies at a host institute in another developing country. The sandwich fellowship is awarded for a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3 research visits at the host institute. OWSD particularly encourages candidates to consider the sandwich option, which allows them to earn the PhD in their home country while accessing specialist researchers and equipment abroad, at the host institute.

The full Call for Applications is attached here in both English and French, as well as a poster which can be printed and distributed at your institutes, or sent digitally. All information regarding the fellowship, including full eligibility and selection criteria, required application materials, and the link to the application form, can be found on the OWSD website at: 

https://owsd.net/career-development/phd-fellowship

Application materials are also available in French at: https://owsd.net/bourses-de-doctorat

The deadline for applications for this fellowship is May 30, 2019.

Questions regarding the fellowship may be sent to fellowships@owsd.net.

OWSD Early Career Fellowship

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 eligible Science and Technology Lagging Countries (STLCs) who have completed their PhDs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects within the last 10 years and are employed at an academic or scientific research institute in one of the eligible countries. Early Career fellows are 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 attached Call for Applications. Fellows will also take part in two training workshops on leadership and entrepreneurial skills.

All details regarding eligibility, specifications of the research projects, selection and how to apply are available at: https://owsd.net/career-development/early-career-women-scientists-ecws-fellowships

The deadline for completed online applications is April 30, 2019.

The official language for the application is English; however, all information about the programme will also be available in French shortly at: https://bit.ly/2IKPfRZ

Questions about this fellowship can be sent to earlycareer@owsd.net.