BSOS Paid GA Position: Web Content Developer/Coordinator (Drupal)

Title: Web Content Developer/Coordinator—Graduate Assistant

Division: College of Behavioral and Social Sciences

Department: Office of External Relations

Work Hours: 20 Hours per week

The Communications and Marketing unit of the Office of External Relations within the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSOS) seeks a creative and committed graduate student to fill the position of Web Content Developer/Coordinator. This Graduate Assistantship position will be responsible for developing and editing content for the College’s websites under the guidance of the Director of Communications and Marketing and the Associate Director of Communications and Marketing.

Job Description:

Supports the Communications and Marketing unit and the unit’s internal and external clients by:

·       Building customized models and pages within the Drupal framework to accommodate a wide range of content types;

·       Working with clients across the College to update/edit content for a variety of BSOS Drupal users and to help other Drupal users build content management skills;

·       Assisting with the regular updating of content on the College’s websites and coordinating applicable Web services to include the staging of graphics, text and embedded multimedia;

·       Assisting in the population of visual content using the Visix Digital Signage (video screen) platform—training will be provided;

·       Performing a limited number of administrative tasks and other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

·       Experience with current versions of Drupal

·       Excellent interpersonal skills and comfort working in both a team environment and independently

·       Strong written and verbal communication skills

·       Ability to prioritize workload and respond appropriately to deadline pressures

Preferences:

·       Thorough knowledge of Drupal best practices and experience working on enterprise websites

·       Available to work a few hours every day M-W; alternative schedule of longer hours over fewer workdays can be determined as needed

Salary

·       Payment consistent with the regular University of Maryland graduate assistantship rate

·       Benefits of this appointment include: 10 Credits for Spring Semester, 10 Credits for Fall Semester, 8 Credits for Summer Term, 4 Credits for Winter Term, and participation in the employees’ health benefits program

Contact: Laura Ours, Director, Communications and Marketing, 301.405.0464, lours@umd.edu

RFP: Synthesis Research for Graduate Students

RFP: Synthesis Research for Graduate Students

The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), funded through a National Science Foundation grant to the University of Maryland, seeks proposals by graduate student teams for independent synthesis research that brings together social and environmental data in novel ways to address critical socio-environmental research questions.

Teams will conduct an independent synthesis research project that involves a series of face-to-face meetings at our Center in Annapolis, Maryland. Although the composition and number of participants in each team will depend upon the skills, expertise, backgrounds, and time necessary to complete the proposed activities, we anticipate that core teams will be composed of 5–7 PhD students. In addition to the PhD students, teams may also recruit up to three "external experts" whose targeted experience can provide supplemental input on how synthesis products may yield actionable outcomes. If recruited, external experts will supplement the activities of the core team as needed, and may include, for example, policy professionals, decision makers, government analysts, academic faculty, postdocs, NGO workers, master’s students, undergraduate students, and members from end-user communities.

SESYNC will provide support for travel and accommodations for all team members to attend meetings at the Center in Annapolis. Additional resources and expertise—particularly in areas of data aggregation, computational science, and informatics—may be available through SESYNC.

Upon project completion, each core team member will receive a $2,000.00 stipend and the title of SESYNC Graduate Student Fellow.

More Information & Submission Instructions

Visit www.sesync.org/opportunities/grad-themes-2014 for complete opportunity details.

Proposals must be submitted by July 30, 2014.

EBay Policy Scholars! Apply Now!

SESYNC: Professional Development and Training Opportunities

The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) is excited to offer new professional development and training opportunities specially designed for graduate students interested in conducting research on the complex interactions between human and natural systems.

We are now accepting applications from currently-enrolled PhD students in the natural, social, and computational sciences for a Networking & Proposal Writing Workshop. This workshop will provide graduate students with:

§  introductions to SESYNC, socio-environmental synthesis research, team science, and actionable science;

§  networking opportunities to build professional relationships with other students, particularly those from different disciplines interested in the same types of research questions;

§  training sessions on the methods, challenges, and strategies associated with writing successful proposals, especially those related to the type of work SESYNC supports; and

§  an overview of the two graduate research Themes, for which SESYNC will solicit proposals following the Networking & Proposal Writing Workshop.

The workshop will be held over 2½ days in Annapolis, MD, from January 15–17, 2014. It is intended to maximize progress by graduate students intending to apply to the research opportunities described atwww.sesync.org/graduate-student-themes . Travel to our facilities in Annapolis, MD, accommodations, and food expenses for workshop attendees will be provided by SESYNC in accordance with our travel policies.

Deadline for applications: September 20, 2013

For more information, including how to apply, visit www.sesync.org/opportunites/graduate-theme-workshop .

About SESYNC

The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) is a national research center funded through a National Science Foundation grant to the University of Maryland.

Located in Annapolis, MD, SESYNC is dedicated to solving society’s most challenging and complex environmental problems. We foster collaboration amongst scholars from a diverse array of the natural and social sciences (such as ecology, public health, and political science), as well as stakeholders that include resource managers, policy makers, and community members.

Melissa Andreychek

Communications Coordinator

The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC)

www.sesync.org

mandreychek@sesync.org

(410) 919-4990

UMD Geographers Participate in Joint GEO-GLAM/CEOS Workshop on Satellite Observation Requirements for Global Agriculture Monitoring

By Alyssa K. Whitcraft

Drs. Chris Justice and Inbal Becker-Reshef, along with graduate student Alyssa Whitcraft, travelled to Montre- al, Canada in July 2012 to participate in a joint wor kshop between GEO-GLAM (Group on Earth Observations – Global Agriculture Monitoring G20 Initiative) scientists and CEOS (Committee on Earth Observation Satel- lites). The workshop focused on tabulating the necessary satellite observation requirements (spatial resolution, frequency, and timing/duration of coverage) for the GEO-GLAM initiative, whose goal is to reinforce the inter- national community’s capacity to produce and disseminate relevant, timely, and accurate forecasts of agricul- tural production at national, regional and global scales . The small and highly collaborative meeting was hosted by the Canadian Space Agency, and attended by scientists from around the world; in all, the group of sixteen was comprised of ten different nationalities, thereby providing a range of regional perspectives to strengthen a global collaborative network of agriculture monitoring systems.

The workshop was a part of an ongoing international initiative to secure adequate Earth observations for na- tional/international operational agricultural monitoring programs, thereby establishing a coordinated network of monitoring “system of systems” for agricultural produc tion and food security. The two day meeting involved a suite of presentations on regional and global monitoring activities followed by a lively discussion on how to best characterize the wide array of imagery needs into a quantifiable and actionable set of requirements for CEOS and the space agencies to review and implement over the next six years. Dr. Becker-Reshef gave a presentation on the EO perspectives and considerations for implementation of the GEO-GLAM components and on relevant ongoing work at UMD as a part of the GEO-GLAM initiative – including examples from her own research on yield forecasting as well as Ms. Whitcraft’s dissertation research on agricultural growing sea- son calendars and cloud cover probability throughout the growing season. Dr. Justice presented the meeting objectives and helped guide the discussion and synthesize the requirements into a cohesive document. Dur- ing the coming months, these requirements will be strengthened through the addition of spatially explicit articu- lation of imaging timing and resolution requirements, a process that UMD Geographical Sciences is helping to implement and lead.

More information on GEO-GLAM can be found through this press release: http://www.earthobservations.org/ documents/pressreleases/pr_1111_geo_glam.pdf

UMD Geographers Bring Expertise to Workshop on Monitoring Agricultural Production and Land Use in Latin America

By Alyssa K. Whitcraft

In late September, five members of the Department of Geographical Sciences traveled to Buenos Aires, Ar- gentina to participate in a four day workshop focused on monitoring agricultural production and land use/land cover (change) in Latin America. The workshop was hosted by INTA, Argentina’s “Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria”, and co-organized by Chris Justice and Inbal Becker-Reshef of UMD. It was an in- ternational workshop attended by scientists representing public, private, and academic agricultural research organizations from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Par aguay, and Mexico, as well as by scientists from Eu- rope, North America, and Asia who are a part of the GEO Agriculture (Group on Earth Observations) Commu- nity of Practice. The workshop was held within the framework of a new GEO Agriculture initiative called GEO- GLAM (GEO Global Agriculture Monitoring) which was ado pted by the G-20 in June of 2011 and is co-led by Chris Justice with partners from the USDA, the European Commission Joint Research Center (JRC), China, France, Canada and the GEO Secretariat in Geneva.

The goals of the workshop were to discuss the state of the art of agricultural monitoring in Latin America, to share methodologies used in agricultural monitoring applicati ons, to identify gaps and priorities specific to Latin America, and particularly to strengthen connections between agencies and organizations that share overlap- ping research objectives and themes. The workshop was conducted in both English and Spanish as facilitated by two very capable translators who provided an opport unity to bridge an otherwise challenging language gap.

Drs. Chris Justice, Eric Vermote, Matt Hansen, I nbal Becker-Reshef and graduate student Alyssa Whitcraft have been conducting agricultural monitoring research and/ or providing scientific & programmatic guidance for the GEO Agriculture Task and the GEO-GLAM initiative for several years. Each UMD Geographer presented agricultural related research and activities, and were reciprocally enriched through insight gained on cropping practices and agricultural monitoring methodologies employed throughout Latin America. During the workshop, it was reiterated that remotely sensed data must be relia- bly & freely available, interoperable, and of high-quality in order to be adopted by regional and national agencies for operational agricultural monitoring. This fact is at the core of the GEO-GLAM initiative: data quality, accessibility, and continuity are paramount in encouraging the use of EO for operational agricultural monitoring.

The final day of the workshop involved a field trip to the rolling Pampas of Argentina, where attendees visited ag- ricultural fields that grow wheat, corn, or soy, as well as pasture lands. Local agricultural experts accompanied the trip and discussed their cultivation practices. This unique opportunity provided insight into the processes that many remote sensing scientists see in the data, but are not always capable of explaining by EO data alone, highlighting the key linkages between local knowledge on field level processes and regional or global scale anal- yses performed remotely using EO data.

Agricultural research has been central to the Department of Geographical Sciences for many years, a tradition that the GEO Agriculture task and its GEO-GLAM initiative is now strengthening and continuing through inter- national collaboration and coordination with strong support from UMD. The outcomes of the workshop will be summarized in a joint synthesis paper outlining the lessons learned and the path forward to generate an inter- national network of EO-based agriculture monitoring. More information on the meeting can be found at: http:// sepa.inta.gov.ar/sites/default/files/imagenes/workshop/index.htm , and more information on GEO-GLAM can be found through this press release: http://www.earthobservations.org/documents/pressreleases/pr_1111_geo_glam.pdf

Eric Vermote, Inbal Becker-Reshef, Matt Hansen, Alyssa Whitcraft, and Chris Justice taking in the agricultural landscape of the Argentine rolling pampas, outside Buenos Aires.