OGGM on the cloud

Job openings for Innsbrucker students!

Posted by Fabien Maussion on April 17, 2019

I’m happy to announce that a project related to OGGM Edu has been funded by the University of Innsbruck!

The project is named “Glacier Modelling on the Cloud: Research and Education in a Web Browser” (short: GlacioCloud). You can download the proposal here.

It will be a cooperation between the ACINN, the Digital Science Center, the Distributed and Parallel Systems Group of the University of Innsbruck, and members of the Pangeo Project. It will run for one year (starting 01.05.2019) and is financed by the Förderkreis 1669 – Wissenschafft Gesellschaft (20k€).

Thanks to all people involved! Now, to the most important part:

Job openings

We are seeking to hire up to three master students at 8 hours per week for a duration of 6 months, renewable for another 6 months depending on performance. The net salary for 8 hrs/week is about 400€ per month. We are looking for students with a strong interest in programming, computer sciences and glaciology.

These openings are only available to master level students at the University of Innsbruck. Other candidates will not be considered.

Each student will work on one of the following tasks:

Task 1: educational notebooks

In this task, you will improve and extend the existing set of educational notebooks about glaciers. You will design modelling experiments and write notebooks to convey the experiments’ results.

Tools: Jupyter notebooks, MyBinder, OGGM

Your profile: creative, curious, interested in writing teaching material, with good programming and English skills and a strong interest in glaciology.

Task 2: interactive web applications

In this task, your will develop web applications to be hosted on the OGGM-Edu platform. An example of such an application can be found here. Interactivity is possible thanks to a server in the background, which runs python code. You will build similar applications using the OGGM model and the tools below.

Tools: Bokeh and PyViz (alternatively, Plotly and Dash).

Your profile: creative, interested in interactive visualization programming, independent learner, problem solver, strong interest in programming and in glaciology.

Task 3: cloud deployment

In this task, your will be responsible for setting up and maintaining a deployment of the OGGM model on a cloud infrastructure. Examples of similar deployments can be found on the Pangeo website. The goal is to provide a Jupyterlab interface to authenticated users, with the OGGM model installed and runnable in a scalable environment.

Tools: Google Cloud (or similar), Kubernetes, JupyterHub, Pangeo.

Your profile: proficient with linux, interested in IT administration with a focus on cloud deployment, independent learner, problem solver, ideally with a background in computer sciences.

For this task, it is recommended/possible to have a shorter contract with more hours per week. We provide more technical details here.

Please contact Thomas Fahringer or myself if you have any questions!

How to apply?

First, read the proposal carefully and explore the websites of OGGM and OGGM-Edu as well as the tools listed above. To apply, send me an email with:

  • a short CV (including list of project relevant lectures taken and grades, and work experience)
  • letter of motivation (max one A4 page) with a short statement about which task(s) you would like to work on, and why

All applications sent until Friday 26th of April will be considered. Later applications might be considered until the positions are filled. Note that if you expect to graduate within the next 6 months there is no need to apply, we are looking for students able to work for at least 6 months.

We are looking forward to welcome you in the OGGM team!