News Release
NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates Summer Positions Available
Contact: Paul Redfern
Cell: (607) 227-1865
FOR RELEASE: April 30, 2019
$7,700 stipends available for 10-week summer 2019 Cornell positions
The Cornell University Center for Advanced Computing (CAC) has 3 National Science Foundation-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) positions available for summer 2019, each with a $7,700 student stipend. The 10-week Ithaca, NY positions are focused on developing cloud computing solutions for science use cases that are an integral part of the Cornell-led, NSF-funded Aristotle Cloud Federation project. See the science use cases at https://federatedcloud.org/ for research highlights. Undergraduate students are encouraged to apply for the opportunities listed below as soon as possible; employment will commence in May. Student applications are due May 11, 2019.
- High Fidelity Modeling and Analytics for Improved Understanding of Climate-Relevant Properties: Professor Sara C. Pryor and Postdoctoral Associate Tristan Shepherd, Cornell Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences – this project will examine the fidelity of high-resolution simulations of climate properties over the eastern USA and specifically
whether we can diagnose causes of (and solutions for) model errors. One particular focus is on the resource potential and operating conditions for wind turbines. Using output from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, the student will assist answering two linked questions (1) what are the key sources of simulation uncertainty? (2) what is the optimal model configuration to minimize error in wind turbine operating conditions? The skills that will be applied and enhanced are analytics and big data, applied meteorology, mesoscale and microscale modeling, MATLAB programming, and cloud computing. Eligible students will have some experience in atmospheric science/fluid dynamics courses, MATLAB, and an interest in high-performance computing. To apply, email your resume and course transcript to Professor Pryor
- Transient Detection in Radio Astronomy Search Data: Professor James Cordes, Cornell Dept. of Astronomy – this project is designing cloud-ready, flexible processing pipelines to discover transient signals in radio astronomy data, such as Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). The initial set of high time-resolution radio data is from the PALFA survey for Pulsars, conducted at the Arecibo Radio Observatory, for which the CAC hosts 500TBs of data. The student will help build the pipeline; topics on which they may work include parallelizing the searches, encoding and testing new search algorithms, and candidate-handling, visualization and analyses. The recruited student will have an interest in Astronomy research and training in the underlying physical science, but need not have extensive experience with computational research. To apply, email your resume and course transcript to Professor Cordes and CAC Computational Scientist Adam Brazier
- Cloud Computing for Science Research: Adam Brazier, Computational Scientist, CAC – assist in developing containers and container-related deployment software using Docker, Singularity, Nix, and possibly Terraform. The student will work on containerizing existing science use cases, making it easier to run them in either Docker or Singularity, or, in some cases, on bare metal (still using a declarative, portable specification such as Nix or Terraform). Terraform will be used to automate the provisioning of multi-VM jobs. The student will also need to write documentation as a result of their work and exploration. The student will have some experience in working with Linux or Unix-like systems and be interested in containerization. To apply, email your resume and course transcript to Adam Brazier
Successful REU applicants will be formally employed by the Center for Advanced Computing and will be compensated in 3 installments. The research activities will be undertaken within the respective departments in collaboration with Adam Brazier who is the Aristotle Science Use Case Lead. The exact period of employment may be negotiated to fit schedules, but will, in most cases, be May through July. Please note that REU students must comply with the following National Science Foundation requirement: "Undergraduate students supported with NSF funds must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States or its possessions."
