During the 2005/06 summer break TPAC will offer a number of intern positions to undergraduate or honours students in high performance or grid computing, or visualisation. Australian citizens or permanent residents enrolled at the University of Tasmania or Australian Maritime College are eligible to apply for these internships. Internship-holders will be required to write a report on their activities and to give a presentation on their research results.
The summer internships are expected to be carried out over 10 week during the summer semester break 2005/06. Successfull applicants will be offered a stipend equivalent to a PhD scholarship rate (approximately $420 per week). Financial support towards the summer internship comes from TPAC and its partners, as well as from the Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing (APAC).
Prospective applicants may bring forward their own summer intern research projects or choose from the following for 2005/06. The projects are expected to contribute to the activities carried out at TPAC. Please contact the project supervisor (using our online contact form) for further information on the projects.
Earth Systems Science: The climate can be viewed as a complex interacting set of components including the oceans, atmosphere, cryosphere, and biosphere.
Computer Modelling: Annual-mean surface air temperature from the CSIRO Mk3L atmosphere model (40 year average).
Extended Pole Model Grid: Analytically smooth alternative to standard tripolar grid, under consideration for AusCOM.
LAS Architecture: Providing server-side visualisation capabilities on the APAC Grid.
Projects for 2005/06
Grid enabling Coupled Climate Models
[Supervised by Jason Roberts, Glenn Hyland and others]
Coupled climate models allow researchers to investigate the sensitivity of the Earths climate to various parameters, the most widely reported of these is the sensitivity to atmospheric carbon dioxide. This project will modify an existing coupled climate code for deployment on the APAC computational grid infrastructure.
Expected outcomes:
- Grid-based version of a coupled climate model
- Submission scripts, including work flow management, for the APAC computational grid
- Web based front end for modification of the input parameters to the model (time permitting)
Toolkit of Empirical Orthogonal Functions for distributed climate data on the information grid
[Supervised by Petra Heil and others]
The TPAC digital library presents an archive of oceanographic and meteorological data derived from in situ or remote observation or from modelling or reanalysis studies. The aim of this project is to develop a information grid-based tool to calculate the Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOFs) and apply this to a data set on the TPAC digital library. The emphasis of this project is on the scientific analysis of the chosen data set, and its interpretation.
Expected outcomes:
- Grid-based EOF tool plus documentation.
- EOF analysis of one oceanic or meteorological data set.
- Interpretation and presentation of scientific results of EOF analysis.
Development of Data Visualisation Portal
[Supervised by Glenn Hyland and others]
TPAC has established a distributed library of oceanographic and climate data. The library is accessed via a web-based portal that presents the data in a common and easy to navigate format. This project will investigate the suitability of various open-source and/or commercial visualisation software packages for incorporation into the data portal and deployment on the APAC grid infrastructure.
Expected outcomes:
- Detailed plan for adding visualisation capabilities to data portal.
- Data discovery portal with visualisation capabilities (time permitting).
Eligibility:
Applicants should be students, who are currently finishing their 2nd, 3rd or Honours year (preferrably enrolled at the University of Tasmania or Australian Maritime College), and have a strong academic record. Due to funding regulations only Australian citizens or permanent residents are eligible to apply for those internships. Preference will be given to students who are interested in pursuing a career in advanced high-performance and grid computing.
Application material:
- Completed application form;
- CV including details of the student's computing and programming expertise;
- Names of one or two referees.
Application deadline:
24 October 2005 (via email using our online contact form).
