Advanced Training Course in Data assimilation and visualization in environmental sciences 15-19 Sep 2014

Fully-funded places are available for a NERC-funded advanced training course in Data assimilation and visualization in environmental sciences, to be held in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Reading, 15 -19 September 2014. The course will be delivered by scientists from the Data Assimilation Research Centre (DARC) from the University of Reading. The course is aimed at PhD students and early career researchers who are working in application areas and who wish to use data-assimilation and visualization techniques as part of their work.

Full details can be found here: http://www.reading.ac.uk/maths-and-stats/news/DA_Course.aspx. 

NERC Short Course on Software Development

We will be offering a short course in software development, aimed at environmental scientists.

Software engineering is a large and complex discipline and so this NERC short course will focus on the most important and relevant elements for scientists, crucial amongst which are usability, maintainability, accuracy, and readability. These are the foundations of professional code development skills.  We will teach and demonstrate the benefits of good initial design, thorough testing, algorithm re-use and code progression, the ideas of elegance, abstraction, performance and scalability.

There will be two levels to run sequentially with the caveat that applicants for the second level must demonstrate competence at the first level through use of an online assessment.

The courses are aimed principally at PhD students and early career scientists, but all applications will be considered.

Please see http://www.resc.rdg.ac.uk/training/training_main.php for full details.

Big Data Management and Visualization workshop, Harwell, 12th March 2014

Jon Blower will be presenting on ncWMS and the GeoViQua project at this workshop - see below for details. Thanks to Olly Clements and the teams at PML and the EarthServer project for putting this together!

Big Data Management and Visualisation - Earth Observation Community Workshop
Space Application Catapult - Harwell, Oxfordshire
12th March 2014

Overview
This free, one day, technical workshop is aimed at groups/teams that are developing or working with systems used to manage the storage, delivery and visualisation of large scale data sets. The workshop will focus on new/emerging technologies and techniques aimed at providing solutions for the management of big data.

Data are being created at faster and faster rates. To make use of these data new systems and paradigms need to be used to ensure that the maximum benefit can be obtained from the data. This workshop will focus on two elements of these emerging systems; storage/query of large scale data and effective visualisation of the data.

Participation/Registration
To register your interest for either attending or presenting your work, please visit http://earthserver.pml.ac.uk/big_data_workshop and follow the information there.

ncWMS now available on OSGeo-Live DVD 7.0

ReSC's ncWMS software is now available packaged with the excellent OSGeo-Live DVD. This is:

"a self-contained bootable DVD, USB thumb drive or Virtual Machine based on Xubuntu, that allows you to try a wide variety of open source geospatial software without installing anything. It is composed entirely of free software, allowing it to be freely distributed, duplicated and passed around. It provides pre-configured applications for a range of geospatial use cases, including storage, publishing, viewing, analysis and manipulation of data. It also contains sample datasets and documentation."
(quotes from the OSGeo-Live website)

The DVD contains a pre-installed version of ncWMS together with sample data. Thanks to Cameron Shorter and Guy Griffiths for making this happen!

Workshop on Citizen Science, Royal Society, 13th September 2013

eResearch South will be hosting a 1 day workshop on the 13th September 2013 at the Royal Society, London to investigate the current state and future of Citizen Science as a research methodology. This event will bring together leading researchers from climateprediction.net, Galaxy Zoo, Old Weather and SOCIAM to discuss their success and insights alongside an interactive day where will be chart where this paradigm can go.

The event will close with a reception to celebrate 10 years of climate prediction.net with guest speakers from some of the sponsoring media organisations and the project volunteers.

Please see the e-Research South website for details and registration: http://www.eresearchsouth.ac.uk/events/current-and-future-directions-of-citizen-science.

Paper on ncWMS published in Environmental Modelling and Software

A paper describing ReSC's ncWMS software has been published in Environmental Modelling and Software as an Open Access paper.  This is the paper to use as the primary means of citing ncWMS in the literature.

DOI
10.1016/j.envsoft.2013.04.002

Citation
J.D. Blower, A.L. Gemmell, G.H. Griffiths, K. Haines, A. Santokhee, X. Yang, A Web Map Service implementation for the visualization of multidimensional gridded environmental data.  Environmental Modelling & Software, Volume 47, September 2013, Pages 218–224

Abstract
We describe ncWMS, an implementation of the Open Geospatial Consortium's Web Map Service (WMS) specification for multidimensional gridded environmental data. ncWMS can read data in a large number of common scientific data formats – notably the NetCDF format with the Climate and Forecast conventions – then efficiently generate map imagery in thousands of different coordinate reference systems. It is designed to require minimal configuration from the system administrator and, when used in conjunction with a suitable client tool, provides end users with an interactive means for visualizing data without the need to download large files or interpret complex metadata. It is also used as a “bridging” tool providing interoperability between the environmental science community and users of geographic information systems. ncWMS implements a number of extensions to the WMS standard in order to fulfil some common scientific requirements, including the ability to generate plots representing timeseries and vertical sections. We discuss these extensions and their impact upon present and future interoperability. We discuss the conceptual mapping between the WMS data model and the data models used by gridded data formats, highlighting areas in which the mapping is incomplete or ambiguous. We discuss the architecture of the system and particular technical innovations of note, including the algorithms used for fast data reading and image generation. ncWMS has been widely adopted within the environmental data community and we discuss some of the ways in which the software is integrated within data infrastructures and portals.

Two new job opportunities

As part of the upcoming EU-funded CHARMe project (led by the University of Reading) we are seeking two new members of staff (one researcher and one project coordinator), to work closely with the ReSC and the National Centre for Earth Observation. See the ReSC jobs page for more details.

Job Opportunity at ReSC: Geospatial Software Developer

Grade 6 - £27,578 to £35,938 per annum

Closing date: 22nd October 2012
Interview date: 5th November 2012

We are seeking to appoint an imaginative and talented individual to develop new methods and tools for visualising complex environmental datasets.

You will have strong programming skills in the Java language and experience or interest in environmental science. Experience with open geospatial standards and technologies will be advantageous.

This post will offer many opportunities for career development through collaborations with academic partners, industry and government agencies.

For full details and to apply, search for job reference RS12053 in the keywords at http://www.reading.ac.uk/jobs.

For further particulars, please click here.

Please contact the ReSC Technical Director Jon Blower with informal enquiries. Applications must be submitted through the University website.

Job opportunity at ReSC: Deputy Technical Director

Grade 7 - £37,012 to £45,486 per annum

Closing date: 27th August 2012

Interview date: 6th September 2012

We need an imaginative and talented individual to take a leading role in designing and developing new applications and services based on cutting-edge scientific research and information technology.

You will have a strong background in Information Technology or Computer Science and experience or interest in Environmental Science. You will need to be able to work individually and in small teams and to be able to communicate effectively with a range of stakeholders.

This post will offer many opportunities for career development through collaborations with academic partners, industry and government agencies.

For full details and to apply, search for job reference RS12041 in the keywords at http://www.reading.ac.uk/jobs.

For further particulars, please click here.

Please contact the ReSC Technical Director Jon Blower with informal enquiries. Applications must be submitted through the University website.

NERC Virtual Observatory International Conference

There was a ReSC presence at the recent NERC Environmental Virtual Observatory (EVO) International Conference, which included the first public demonstration of the EVO web portal (developed by ReSC and other partners). The portal allows users to view water quantity and quality data in the UK, and to run simple hydrological and macronutrient models in the cloud, and to visualise the results.

The theme of the conference was 'Harnessing Emerging Technologies for Environmental Science' and included talks by international speakers from the US, Australia, EU, UK Government, the IT industry, and the academic and research sector.

The EVO web portal was one of a number of demonstrations and was well received. The feedback from this event will be invaluable in helping to shape the future vision of EVO in general and the web portal and cloud services in particular.

ReSC involvement in the NERC Virtual Observatory

The Reading e-Science Centre is involved with creating the web portal for the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Environmental Virtual Observatory pilot (EVOp).

EVOp is a proof of concept project to develop new cloud-based applications for accessing, interrogating, modelling and visualising environmental data. By developing local and national scale exemplars, EVOp is demonstrating how cloud technologies can make environmental monitoring and decision making more efficient, effective and transparent to the whole community.

The key feature of EVOp is that it will allow users to run simple hydrological models in the cloud. ReSC is involved in creating the web interface from which these flooding and water quality models will be run.

The prototype web portal will be demonstrated at the upcoming EVO international conference at the Royal Geographical Society on the 16th of May (see http://www.evo-uk.org/evo-cloud-services-portals/get-involved/evo-international-conference-london-16-may-2012/). For more information on EVOp see http://www.evo-uk.org.

Job opportunity at ReSC: Scientific Software Engineer

Grade 6 - £27,428 to 34,745 per annum
Closing date: 18/12/2011
Interview data: 10/1/2012

We need an imaginative and talented Researcher/Programmer to develop innovative software applications in support of cutting-edge research in climate science, oceanography and meteorology.

You will have a strong computer programming background and a keen interest in environmental science. You will need to be able to work individually and in small teams and to be able to communicate with colleagues from different disciplines.

This post will offer many opportunities for career development through collaborations with academic partners, industry and government agencies.

For full details and to apply, search for job reference RS11039 in the keywords at http://www.reading.ac.uk/jobs.

UK e-Science All Hands Meeting Press Release

Press Release

16 August 2011

Media Information: Caron Lett 01904 322029

Towards the cloud

A major international e-Science conference at the University of York will explore the concept of cloud computing to enable better use of software and data from research and industry.

The tenth UK e-Science All Hands Meeting, Towards the Cloud – Infrastructures, Applications, Research, from 26 to 29 September will bring together over 200 international delegates from industry and the academic community.

The main themes will be shared infrastructures, using the cloud in research, end-user engagement and applications, including e-Science, e-social science and research in the arts and humanities.

The meeting will be co-chaired by Professor Jim Austin, from the Department of Computer Science at the University of York and Professor Jie Xu, from the School of Computing at the University of Leeds.

Professor Austin said: “We are very pleased to host such a prestigious event in York and will be welcoming delegates from companies such as Rolls Royce and BT, and from countries including the United States, Germany and Sweden.

“Cloud computing is an exciting development which is now being rolled out world-wide as a major approach to cost-saving in computing – essential in the current economic climate.”

Cloud providers deliver applications via the internet which are accessed by a web browser, with business software and data being stored in servers at a remote location. Cloud provides businesses and other organisations with a means of increasing capacity or adding capabilities without the need to increase infrastructure or license new software.

Professor Xu said: “Ten years ago, e-Science was something we worked on in our labs. Today it underpins a revolutionary technology – cloud computing – that is going to change the way industry uses IT. With cloud computing, IT services can be delivered and developed in a far more open and seamless way.

“By 2020, the cloud computing market is predicated to top $241 billion. And by the same year, large US companies that use it are predicated to be able to achieve annual energy savings of $12.3 billion. Many companies, large and small, are now starting to see how this technology can improve the way they work and do business, hence the interest we have seen in this conference.”

The event, held in the superb Ron Cooke Hub which sits at the heart of the University’s £750 million campus expansion at Heslington East, will feature keynote presentations, workshop sessions, poster presentations and demonstrations.

The conference has sponsorship from Microsoft, Esteem, Cybula Ltd, the Technology Strategy Board Information and Communications Technologies Knowledge Transfer Network and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) as well as workshops run by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

A series of tutorials for delegates will be held on Monday, 26 September. Papers will be peer reviewed and a selection of these will be published in a special issue journal. There will also be an exhibition area and opportunities for networking.

For more information or to register for the conference visit www.allhands.org.uk.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

• For further information on the UK e-Science All Hands Meeting 2011 visit www.allhands.org.uk

• More information on the Department of Computer Science at the University of York at www.cs.york.ac.uk

• More information on the School of Computing at the University of Leeds on www.comp.leeds.ac.uk

Research Environments of the Future: e-Research South Newsletter, March 2011

The March 2011 issue of the e-Research South quarterly newsletter is themed on "Research Environments of the Future".  Articles include:

• Research Environments of the Future by Anne Trefethen
• Computational Neuroscience and the Neurohub Project by Phillip L Newland
• A Virtual Research Environment for Cancer Imaging by Susana Avila Garcia and Anne Trefethen

View the newsletter here, from where you can also subscribe to future editions.

UK e-Science All Hands Meeting 2011: Call for Abstracts

The tenth e-Science All Hands Meeting (AHM) will be held from 26th-29th September 2011, in the historic city of York, United Kingdom. The conference will feature keynote presentations, workshop sessions, poster presentations and demonstrations, from the domains of e-Science, e-Social science and the arts and humanities.

Authors are invited to submit abstracts of unpublished, original work of not more than 3 pages in length to AHM2011 themes and workshops, using single spaced 10 point size on A4 pages - including 2 pages of text and (optionally) 1 page of figures and tables. Authors are to submit abstracts satisfying the Formatting Guidelines as a PDF file using the AHM 2011 Abstract Submission system.

Submission to Themes

Authors are asked to submit to one of the following themes or as a

'general paper':

* Theme 1: Cloud computing for e-Research

* Theme 2: Shared Infrastructures, Systems and Tools for e-Research

* Theme 3: Applications and end-user engagement in e-Research

* Theme 4: Data-intensive Research

* Theme 5: Organisation, Trust, Security and Validation

* General Paper

All themes are applicable to the domains of e-Science, e-Social Science, and the arts and humanities. This year, we especially encourage industry collaborators to engage fully in the conference (we will shortly be including information on the website detailing Exhibit and Sponsorship opportunities), including contributing to papers.

As in previous years, authors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit full papers (after AHM 2011) to be considered for inclusion in a special edition of a journal (to be confirmed). It should be noted that conference proceedings will not be published.

Workshops and Tutorials

The 2011 All Hands Meeting has scheduled time for a limited number of half day workshops. Interested parties may submit proposals for workshops (1 A4 page) to tom.jackson@cs.york.ac.uk. The deadline for workshop proposals is 3rd April 2011.

Important Dates:

23 May 2011 - The deadline for abstract submission

25 July 2011 - Decisions to authors.

Website:  http://www.allhands.org.uk

Press release: Reading research to help improve the world’s environmental data

Released on 1 March 2011 via University of Reading website

The University of Reading is part of a European project to improve the use of environmental information to ensure the correct global policy decisions are made on issues such as climate change and catastrophic events.
The £3.5 million research project will ensure that the users of the data have the information they require concerning the quality of the various available sources. Thus, when a catastrophic event occurs, such as the New Zealand earthquake, users can make confident and properly-informed decisions about which information they should use to reduce the disaster's impact.

The three-year GeoViQua project is led by the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) in Catalonia with partners in France, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands as well as the UK, and the European Space Agency. GeoViQua will contribute to the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), through which its results will be put into action.

The goal of GEOSS is to provide decision-support tools to a variety of users, through which decision-makers can access information from huge and diverse observing systems and data repositories around the world, directly addressing several areas of societal benefit, including climate, biodiversity, agriculture, energy and health.

Reading researchers are leading the visualization tasks within GeoViQua and will be surveying various end users in academia, agencies and industry to ascertain their requirements and provide them with the tools to gather and visualize information about data quality. Information about quality will be provided through a diverse set of end-user tools, from professional Geographic Information Systems, through ‘consumer' tools such as websites and Google Earth, to mobile devices, including tablets and phones.

Dr Jon Blower, Technical Director at the University's Reading e-Science Centre, said: "The results of the project will have a global impact, improving decision-making and helping to address global problems like climate change, catastrophic events or loss of biodiversity.  Most problems in these areas rely on the synthesis of many diverse sources of data and it is extremely important that users are aware of the quality of the datasets, how they were produced, and what their strengths and weaknesses are for a particular situation. Unfortunately, this vital information is not currently always available and that is what we will address in this project."

PRESS RELEASE ENDS
For more information please contact Rona Cheeseman, press officer, on 0118 378 7388 or email r.cheeseman@reading.ac.uk

Notes to editors
Reading e-Science Centre specialises in environmental e-science with particular expertise in geographical data visualization on the web.  It develops and applies new and innovative tools for visualizing and fusing diverse sources of data using interactive techniques, helping to drive scientific discoveries.

The Reading e-Science Centre also represents Reading in the e-Research South consortium (with the University of Oxford, University of Southampton and the Science and Technology Facilities Council e-Science department) which is creating a sustainable e-Research platform across the South of England.

Job opportunity at ReSC: Scientific Software Engineer

Grade 6 - £27,428 to £33,734 per annum
Closing date: 28/03/2011

We need an imaginative and talented Researcher/Programmer to develop innovative software applications in support of cutting-edge research in climate science, oceanography and meteorology.

You will have a strong computer programming background and a keen interest in environmental science. You will need to be able to work individually and in small teams and to be able to communicate with colleagues from different disciplines.

This post will offer many opportunities for career development through collaborations with academic partners, industry and government agencies.

For full details and to apply, search for job reference RS11009 in the keywords at http://www.reading.ac.uk/jobs.

e-Research South Quarterly Newsletter, December 2010

The December 2010 issue of the e-Research South quarterly newsletter has been published (sorry this post is a little late!).  It is themed on Data and contains updates on the two new ReSC-led data projects MashMyData and BlogMyData.

View the newsletter here, from where you can also subscribe to future editions.

e-Science paper wins Lloyds "Science of Risk" climate change prize

Dr Simon Gosling from the University of Reading's Walker Institute has been awarded ‘best paper' in the climate change category of the Lloyds ‘Science of Risk' prize.

Dr Gosling was awarded the prize for his paper on climate change and water scarcity published earlier this year. The research demonstrates where there is strong agreement across climate models that river flows will decrease and water scarcity will increase (e.g. western Europe and the Mediterranean) as well as highlighting where there is relatively more uncertainty in how these risks will change (e.g. south-eastern China). The paper was led by Dr Gosling and co-authored with Dan Bretherton and Prof Keith Haines, from the Reading e-Science Centre and Prof Nigel Arnell, Director of the Walker Institute.

The research was enabled by the Reading Campus Grid, which greatly accelerated the computations involved, reducing the computing time from weeks to hours.

Full press release

Job opportunity at ReSC: Environmental e-Researcher

We need an imaginative and talented researcher to develop innovative computing techniques in support of cutting-edge research in climate science, Earth observation and other areas of environmental science.

You will be either an environmental scientist with a strong interest in computing or a computer scientist or software engineer with a strong interest in environmental science. You will need to be able to work individually and in small teams and to be able to communicate with colleagues from different disciplines.

Please see here for the full details of this opportunity.