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Intern Programs Home SURE UseIT Mentor(s): Danielle Sumy, Elizabeth Cochran (USGS), and Robert de Groot (USC)
The Quake-Catcher Network (QCN) uses low-cost seismic sensors to record data in real-time on volunteer computers, and places the science in the hands of everyday people. We seek a motivated intern to coordinate a pilot program with ~3-4 museums, libraries, and other free-choice learning institutions within southern California to facilitate the installation and marketing of the QCN sensors. This project is a joint effort between the QCN and the Earthquake Education and Public Information Center (EPIcenter) Network to further encourage earthquake and tsunami preparedness in California. The intern will document how the QCN sensors are used by the pilot institutions and the effectiveness of the sensors as a learning tool. In addition, the intern will be involved in designing web content and educational pamphlets for use in the installation and marketing of the QCN sensors. With sufficient density of sensors, QCN may one day be used as an earthquake early-warning and forecasting tool, which complements the goals of the Uniform Earthquake Rupture Forecast (UCERF) version 3. UCERF provides a scientific hazard estimate for California that is currently under-development and will be released by the US Geological Survey in mid-2012. Since some local travel is involved, it is desirable for the intern to have access to a vehicle. Research Location: Pasadena, and Los Angeles Institution: United States Geological Survey Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: A computer science background is a must. A basic knowledge of HTML, and word processing skills is very desirable. Desirable Skills/Coursework: A general earth science background is desired. General Time Span: 6/4-8/17 Mentor(s): Zhigang Peng (PI), Chastity Aiken (graduate student), Hongfeng Yang (Research scientist)
Deep tectonic tremor and episodic slow-slip events have been observed at major plate-boundary faults around the Pacific Rim. They appear to be extremely stress sensitive, and could be instantaneously triggered by distant earthquakes and solid earth tides. However, many important questions remain open. For example, it is still not clear what are the necessary conditions for tremor generation, and how remote triggering could affect large earthquake cycle. The summer intern(s) will join a group of graduate students/postdocs to continue our search of triggered tremor around the world. Possible work regions include: southern California, Alaska, Caribbean, Central and South America. Research Location: Georgia Tech Institution: Georgia Tech Number of Interns Needed: 1-2 Required Skills/Coursework: Basic computer skills, familiar with Geophysics. Desirable Skills/Coursework: Familiar with the Unix/Linux environment, shell script, and Matlab. General understanding of earthquakes, seismology, and signal processing. General Time Span: May-June through August. Mentor(s): Sally McGill
I seek two interns to help with collecting GPS data from the San Bernardino Mountains and vicinity and to help with a paleoseismic trench across the San Jacinto fault. The fault trenching will most likely occur from mid-May to mid-June, and will involve scraping trench walls, setting up string grids on the trench walls and interpreting and documenting the stratigraphic and structural relationships exposed in order to decipher the record of prehistoric earthquakes on the fault. The trench will be excavated by a "track-hoe" but some hand-digging will be necessary to create new exposures where the relationships on the original trench wall are obscure. In the collection of GPS data, interns will work with a large group of other undergraduate students as well as high school and middle school teachers. Participants will learn how to set up and operate geodetic-quality GPS antennae and receivers and will then travel in pairs to remote locations in the San Bernardino Mountains and vicinity to set up GPS equipment over existing benchmarks. This will often involve hiking several miles to reach remote benchmarks and may involve camping at less remote benchmarks in order to guard the equipment from theft. The group training for the GPS project will begin July 22 and the data collection and group instruction on data analysis will last through August 2. Applicants who would like to focus their research poster for the SCEC meeting on the GPS project should plan to stay an additional week (through August 9) to complete their poster. Research Location: Moreno Valley/Hemet and San Bernardino Mountains, California Institution: California State University, San Bernardino Number of Interns Needed: 2 Required Skills/Coursework: Trigonometry (pre-calculus) Map-reading and use of a compass Introductory Geology (especially plate tectonics) Desirable Skills/Coursework: Structural Geology Tectonics Sedimentary Geology General Time Span: The timing of this internship is somewhat awkward. The internship should be 8-10 weeks long, but the GPS data collection will finish 11-12 weeks after the fault trenching begins. One option is for interns to participate in both projects (from May 20 to August 2), but to take a couple of weeks off in late June or early July. If this is not convenient (e.g., for interns coming from out of town) the other option is to participate fully in one of the two projects and to make that project the focus of your poster for the SCEC meeting, and to participate in the other project only to the extent that the 10-week duration of your internship allows. Thus, a student wishing to focus their SCEC poster on the trench could take their internship from May 20 - July 26, which would enable them to participate fully in the trenching, but only in the first week of the GPS project. Alternatively, a student wishing to focus their SCEC poster on the GPS project could take their internship from June 17- August 9, but the fault trenching would most likely already be completed by June 17. Mentor(s): Kathleen Springer, Senior Curator of Geological Sciences Robert de Groot, SCEC
The San Bernardino County Museum(SBCM) is completing a suite of exhibits in our new Hall of Geological Wonders. The SBCM is a free choice learning environment and part of the EPIcenter (Earthquake Education and Public Information Center) network in California, providing earthquake awareness and preparedness messaging. Many of the new exhibits are focused on earthquake science, utilizing place-based learning to teach big ideas in geosciences. One of these exhibits interprets paleoseismology, which will include a three-dimensional recreation of a paleoseismic trench on the San Andreas fault, with the addition of two actual peels from the San Andreas Fault - one from Pallett Creek, the other from Wrightwood. Our intern will build on an interpretive field guide for Pallett Creek that that has already been produced -- this guide was created as a companion piece to the static exhibits in the Hall, inviting the visitor to explore their world. The 2013 SCEC intern will create a web-based virtual field trip for the Pallett Creek experience - complete with content, illustrations and links to other earthquake science/educational resources. The web-based Pallett Creek interpretive guide will allow the SBCM to cast our interpretive net wider, welcoming distant visitors as well as other EPIcenters to experience the museum with a full complement of resources, making their virtual visit both educational and meaningful. Research Location: Redlands, CA Institution: San Bernardino County Museum Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Geological Sciences coursework; preferably a geology major; basic computer skills and web design; knowledge of most common computer programs; good communication skills including writing. An interest in teaching, in both an informal and formal educational setting Desirable Skills/Coursework: geology curriculum; student interested in geoscience education General Time Span: June -early August Mentor(s): Russ Welti Patrick McQuillan
Modernize a popular seismology-related website by replacing a Flash object with JavaScript, CSS3 and DOM manipulation techniques. If time permits, improve the CSS file to be more fluid and reusable. The Flash object downloads a text list of URLs and sets up timeouts and event handlers to rotate through the URLs as well as allow a user to press buttons to advance forward or backward linearly through the URLs. All the functionality is now available using HTML5 techniques and we'd like not to be dependent on Flash. Also this moves us toward being able to be viewed on an iPad. Research Location: USC Los Angeles Institution: Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: HTML (HTML5) JavaScript CSS DOM ftp client Desirable Skills/Coursework: jQuery AJAX basic UNIX skills General Time Span: early June and for ten weeks. Mentor(s): Lisa Grant Ludwig (UCI) and Sinan Akciz (UCLA)
We seek one intern to help with a series of 3D paleoseismic trenches across the San Andreas Fault. The fault trenching will most likely occur from mid-June to mid-July, and will involve scraping trench walls, setting up string grids on the trench walls, surveying critical contacts with a total station and interpreting and documenting the stratigraphic and structural relationships exposed in order to document the surface slip that occurred along the SAF in the Carrizo Plain during the 1857 rupture. Each new exposure of The trench will be excavated by a "back-hoe" but some hand-digging will also be necessary. For field work, we will be staying at a motel in Taft (CA). Driving to and from the field site should take about 45 minutes each way. This is a collaborative project between UCI, UCLA and ASU. Office time will mostly be spent at UCLA with Sinan Akciz, but regular visits to UCI campus will also be made. Research Location: Taft (CA), UCLA, UCI Institution: University of California, Irvine Number of Interns Needed: 1 Required Skills/Coursework: Sedimentary geology, Structural Geology, Trigonometry Desirable Skills/Coursework: Field work experience, figure drafting on Adobe (or similar) software General Time Span: June 3 - August 12, 2013 For more information contact: SCEC Education Programs Office of Experiential Learning & Career Advancement internships@scec.org 213-821-6340 |
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SCEC Internship Programs
SCEC Internship Programs
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