Open Calls
Open funding calls
OVSN Technical Fellowship: Applications Due Dec 16, 2024
Link to Application
The Ocean Vital Signs Network (OVSN) program invites non-senior technical staff to apply to fellowships intended to advance the OVSN vision. Technical staff may bring important perspectives and resources to OVSN including operations and infrastructure expertise, computing and data systems expertise, and systems engineering. Transitioning the System Design and Challenges and Breakthroughs Projects presently funded to operational status will increasingly involve technical staff. OVSN aims to accelerate the process by fostering those connections now.
Funding: OVSN will fund up to 3 fellowships at $75k each. Funding is primarily for salary support, but up to $10k may be used for supplies, travel or other costs. Fellowships are expected to run Feb 1, 2025 to Jan 31, 2026 with up to a 6 month extension possible.
Eligibility: All technical staff ladders are eligible. Senior technical staff (Research Specialist, Senior Engineer, Information Systems Specialist, Program Manager and above) are not eligible. All other technical staff ranks are eligible to apply. Both exempt and non-exempt employees are welcome to apply. This call is intended to establish new connections; technical staff already embedded in an OVSN project may not apply to that project but are encouraged to apply to a different project.
Commitment: Fellowships represent a significant time commitment (2-5 months of salary support depending on rank), and all applicants are strongly encouraged to secure the endorsement of their supervisor before applying. OVSN project teams and committee members will develop a work plan with provisionally successful applicants that will require approval by all parties, including the applicant’s supervisor. Quarterly check-in meetings will serve to revise work plans as needed.
Application Process: Applicants should submit a short proposal and 2-page resume online. Candidates must indicate the OVSN project to which they are applying. Applications must briefly describe what work the candidate proposes to accomplish in the context of the project to which they are applying (1 page). Descriptions and ideas generated by project teams for potential fellowship projects appear below. The fellowship project descriptions provided by the OVSN project teams are not exhaustive and candidates are free to suggest other ideas in their proposals. Applications must separately describe how the candidate’s skills will serve the OVSN vision and future implementation of an observing network (1 paragraph). Candidates may apply to up to two OVSN projects. Candidates applying to two projects must submit twice (two independent applications). Candidates should not include a budget or breakdown of salary versus materials costs in their applications.
Selection Process: Non-conflicted members of the OVSN Steering and Implementation Team (SIT) will screen applications to ensure that applicants meet the eligibility requirements. Remaining applications will be reviewed by the OVSN System Design and Challenge teams who will then generate a short list. A final determination of whom to offer fellowships will be made by non-conflicted members of the SIT on the basis of alignment with OVSN objectives. Offers shall be subject to approval of a work plan.
Project Ideas from OVSN Funded Projects
System Design Team
Greg Britten, Gordon Zhang, Ke Chen
- Gather and organize large observational and model-generated datasets from the public domain.
- Write computer code to analyze the datasets, including calculating derived quantities, assessing model-data deviations, and creating visualizations.
- Facilitate collaborations with other OVSN teams, external partners, and WHOI IT team on model evaluation and data harmonization platform.
Establishing a glider-based biogeochemical observing network for the Gulf Stream
Robert Todd
- Setting up a server for handling two-way communications with deployed gliders;
- Further developing near-real time and post-processed data flow;
- Creating a public-facing website and related visualizations of glider observations and data products;
- Opportunities for hands-on lab and/or field operations and sensor testing.
Ship-of-opportunity leveraging for persistent observations of phytoplankton community composition across water masses and patterns of change in the western North Atlantic
Heidi Sosik and Magdalena Andres
- Advancing modular solutions for integrating sensors into underway systems on ships-of-opportunity;
- Adapting / testing computer vision and ML approaches from other disciplines for our applications in plankton image data processing and analysis;
- Harmonizing and visualizing interdisciplinary data products that cross space and time scales, including possibly;
- Having someone dig into the Oleander shipboard ADCP data analysis (and auxiliary data like satellite altimetry and Argo floats for context)
A scalable underwater sensor for dissolved inorganic carbon
Anna Michel and Jason Kapit
- Rapid mechanical prototyping and testing of sensor concepts and components.
- Designing in Solidworks, interfacing with fabrication shops, use of Dunkworks.
- Selecting and testing micro pumps for fluid handling.
- A plus would be the ability to work with Arduino-like boards to communicate with I2C components.