DataStart: Student internships with industry

The Southern Startup Internship Program in Data Science (DataStart) provides graduate students from the 16 states that comprise the South Big Data Regional Innovation Hub (South BD Hub) the opportunity to work with data-related startup companies on data-intensive business challenges important to the company. Students will be paid for their work through a grant to the startup company, and it is up to the students to identify their proposed host company. The program is designed to facilitate academic-industrial connections and enhance the entrepreneurial culture in the South. The application deadline is May 1, 2016. For more information, visit http://southbdhub.org/datastart.html

PEPI: Connecting early career faculty with industry

The Program to Empower Partnerships with Industry (PEPI) supports early career (pre-tenure) faculty members and postdocs, from the 16 states that comprise the South Big Data Regional Innovation Hub (South BD Hub). Summer exchange visits will be sponsored to data-related industry partners. The overarching goals of the program are to support early career faculty in developing industry relationships, increase the capacity of early career faculty to mentor and prepare students for the workforce, and create a diverse Big Data pipeline from university research through to real-world impact. Applicants can apply with our without an identified industry partner. If without, the South BD Hub will attempt to provide matchmaking services for strong proposals. The application deadline is May 1, 2016. For more information, visit http://southbdhub.org/pepi.html 

A Smart Grid (SG) Workshop

On April 28, 2016 at Texas A&M University in College Station, a workshop with the theme of “Smart Grids Big Data” (SGBD) is being held. This will be an opportunity to meet with hopefully most of the 200 partners from over 150 organizations that took part in the NSF SPOKE proposal and to explore the issues that were covered in the proposal further.  Planning is in full swing, so you may be contacted shortly for participation on panels, breakout sessions and invited talks that are part of the Workshop program.  The registration information may be found at our Smart Grid Center website: http://smartgridcenter.tamu.edu/sgc/web/. Industry donations to support student participation are appreciated. If you have not visited the campus before, you may either fly into College Station through Houston or Dallas, or drive from Houston or Austin (2 hours). Event contact: Mladen Kezunovic, kezunov@ece.tamu.edu

The White House Opportunity Project

South BD Hub’s members are eligible to contribute to a White House Open Opportunities Project. This summer, those interested in online data science curriculum development are encouraged to participate in developing an online training module for students, based on the newly released Opportunities Datasets. LNRG and the University of Chicago are partnering with the  South Big Data Hub to create the Civic Tech playlist and digital badges to connect young people across the U.S. to skills like data science. The National Data Science Organizers (NDSO) will coordinate a multi-city mentorship and internship program that will use Opportunity Project data and a new Civic Tech “playlist” to help youth both learn about and serve the needs of their local communities with technology.  To get involved please contact: Jane Zanzig at jzanzig@uchicago.edu

Open Data Users Guide

The CompTIA New and Emerging Technologies Committee will be compiling an Open Data Users Guide and are seeking case studies for the guide. Over the past few years, the Obama Administration has launched a number of Open Data Initiatives, including Project Open Data, designed to share best practices, examples, and software code to assist federal agencies with opening data. There are multitudes of open data sets but for true data driven innovation to occur, a practitioner needs to know how to use the data.  That’s where the CompTIA Open Data Users Guide comes in. The Guide will capture User Preparation, Best Practices (by vertical), Case Studies (by vertical), Open Data Dashboard for Smart Cities, FAQs, and Resources.  As this Guide will be a valuable resource for the entire end user community, CompTIA cordially invites the NSF Big Data Hub community to help populate our Best Practices and Case Studies sections.  If you would like to submit a best practice and/or case study, please submit them to me by June 2016.  The case studies can be on any topic, and can be USG data or OpenData projects. They should be submitted as MSWord documents, one page in length. Anticipated release is in the Fall.  If you have any questions, contact David Logsdon at DLogsdon@comptia.org

The First Workshop of Mission-Critical Big Data Analytics (MCBDA 2016)

The event will take place on May 16-17, 2016 at Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX, USA. This two-day workshop will cover the state-of-the-art research and development in big data analytics, especially for mission-critical applications. There will be keynote speech by invited renowned speakers, and tutorial sessions with hands-on training. Research works of cutting edge research topics in big data will be presented, plus a poster session and a demo session where students will present their works. South BD Hub Co-Executive Director Renata Rawlings-Goss will attend present on the hub. The primary contact for the event is Lei Huang of Prairie View A&M University: lhuang@pvamu.edu. For more information, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-first-workshop-of-mission-critical-big-data-analytics-mcbda-2016-tickets-20587633165

NSF Expeditions in Computing

Program Guidelines: NSF 16-535
Preliminary Proposal Deadline Date: May 2, 2016
Full Proposal Deadline Date:  January 18, 2017
The Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) has created the Expeditions in Computing (Expeditions) program to provide the CISE research and education community with the opportunity to pursue ambitious, fundamental research agendas that promise to define the future of computing and information. In planning Expeditions projects, investigators are encouraged to come together within or across departments or institutions to combine their creative talents in the identification of compelling, transformative research agendas that promise disruptive innovations in computing and information for many years to come. More information.

NSF/SBE Partnering in Round 4 of the Digging into Data Challenge

The National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences is partnering in the Trans-Atlantic Platform 2016 Digging into Data Challenge (T-AP DiD). Digging into Data is a grant competition open to international, collaborative projects that address research questions in humanities and/or social science disciplines by using new, large-scale, digital data analysis techniques. The Digging into Data Challenge has been funding cutting-edge digital research in the humanities and social sciences since 2009. Now under the auspices of T-AP, the program’s fourth round of competition will support collaborative research teams from three continents: Europe (Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom); North America (Canada, Mexico, the United States); and South America (Brazil and Argentina). For more, read the “Dear Colleague Letter” at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2016/nsf16056/nsf16056.jsp?org=NSF%20; full details about the competition, including links to application materials, can be found on the DiD application website at http://diggingintodata.org/about/application-materials

RDA/US Data Share Fellowship Program – Deadline Extended to April 18th

Graduate students, postdoctoral students and early career professions can apply for its Data Share Fellowship Program. The successful Fellows will engage in the RDA through carrying out self-proposed projects and through extensive networking and communication with the RDA community. The projects will be carried out independently, and be relevant to the goals and interests of an RDA Working, Interest, or Coordination Group (e.g., Technical Advisory Board).
Projects proposed by Fellows need to contribute to the RDA community through insight, effort or outreach. Previously funded projects can be found at http://us.rd-alliance.org/student-and-early-career-programs. The Program duration is 12 or 18 months depending on the nature of the project; accordingly, Fellows will receive a $5000 or $10,000 stipend. The Program also covers travel to RDA plenaries during the duration of the fellowship (international and domestic travel). Fellows are required to participate in a cohort building orientation workshop held at the beginning of the fellowship. More information at https://rd-alliance.org/application-deadline-extended-rdaus-data-share-fellowship-program

Job listing – National Science Foundation

Title: Deputy Assistant Director, Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE)
Job Announcement Number:  CISE-2016-0011 https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/433508600?org=NSF
OPEN PERIOD: Tuesday, March 22, 2016 to Thursday, April 21, 2016
POSITION INFORMATION: Full-time. – SES Career
Description Excerpt: Serves as a member of the CISE leadership team and as the primary assistant to the Assistant Director in all aspects of management of the CISE Directorate. U.S. Office of Personnel Management approval will be based on the selectee’s background in the following five executive core qualification areas: (1) Leading Change, (2) Leading People, (3) Results Driven Leadership, (4) Business Acumen, and (5) Building Coalitions. Information about the leadership requirements for SES-level positions is available on the OPM website.