An integral part of the NCEAS experience is the exchange of both scientific and technical information that takes place among Center scientists. Residents at the Center regularly interact to share and discuss their research efforts, which often also involves discussion about which technology solutions to use when pursuing collaborative building of databases or partitioning analytical responsibilities. When Working Groups meet at NCEAS, there is a knowledge ‘cross-pollination' that occurs between the members as they fulfill the group's objectives both in terms of the scientific research aims, as well as the technological means they use to achieve those ends.

In addition to the atmosphere for continuous informal information exchange and learning, NCEAS provides consultation services for its scientists in the areas of programming and analysis and informatics; as well as general technical support. A Scientific Computing Knowledge Base serves as a portal for cataloging general approaches to computing in ecology as experienced at NCEAS. Focused training opportunities in an array of scientific and technical areas are also provided to NCEAS' residents and visitors.  

Resident and Visitor Consultation

At all times, NCEAS Ecoinformatics and Scientific Computing Staff welcome specific requests for information, training, and consultation that will enhance research undertaken by NCEAS residents and visitors. Scientific Programmer/Analyst support staff, Jim Regetz and Rick Reeves, are available to help orient new visitors to NCEAS' scientific computing resources, as well as to provide advice and assistance with scientific computing.  Nick Brand and Thomas Hetmank are available to address any general issues related to using the computers and networks at NCEAS.

 

Scientific Computing at NCEAS

A Scientific Computing Knowledge Base has been developed by the Scientific Computing and Systems Administration Staff to offer online information about a broad range of techinical issues. These include  general information about scientific software and hardware at NCEAS, course notes for training seminars, discussion about data sources of particular value to ecologists, and sets of generically useful scripts and examples of analyses.  The NCEAS Knowledge Base (Help WiKi) offers additional resources, including information for visitors about setting up laptops on the network, or about accessing printers.

 

Training Opportunities

Training and learning occur via a number of different mechanisms, ranging from weekly Ecolunch seminars, in which visiting scientists present summaries of their research, to multi-session workshops designed to instruct in focused topics such as the use of statistical software packages or new analytical methods.   

Seminars and Colloquia

NCEAS presents seminars and colloquia on a regular basis:

• Ecolunch involves informal presentations of current research efforts by NCEAS, UCSB, and visiting scientists. It takes place at NCEAS most Thursdays at noon, during the fall, winter, and spring quarters.
• Open House is held most Fridays in the NCEAS lounge. Open House is an opportunity to discuss issues of general interest to scientists in an informal atmosphere. Students, Postdoctoral Associates, and faculty from UCSB campus are particularly invited to meet NCEAS researchers in residence.

• Crunch Lunch is an occasional and informal lunchtime gathering of NCEAS scientists who wish to share their practical experience in computational ecology methods.  In each session a current NCEAS scientist describes a specific computational methods issue in his or her research, and the group explores alternative solutions.
• Dev Lunch is an informal lunchtime gathering of NCEAS, Marine Science Institute, and other technology developers and software engineers focused on developing technology solutions for the ecological sciences. It usually involves a technical presentation of emerging applications and frameworks in ecoinformatics or analysis.  It is generally held on Wednedays at the Marine Sciences Building, as an activity of the Ecoinformatics Center.

Scientific Computing Short Courses

The Center's Scientific Computing Staff offers multi-session short courses that provide instruction on analytic methods and computer software tools.

• Ecologists' Introduction to the R Statistical Programming Language - R is an open-source language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. This course is designed to introduce ecologists with training in statistics to the capabilities of the R environment. Course Outline
• Geospatial Analysis Techniques and GIS Software Tools for Ecologists: This seminar introduces ecologists to practical techniques for analyzing geospatial data (tool tip definition: data with a locational (e.g., latitude/longitude) component) using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial statistics tools contained in statistical / mathematical packages such as R and MATLAB.

Advanced Quantitative Methods Seminars

NCEAS and its affiliated programs sponsor and, in many cases, host seminars on advanced quantitative methods of interest to ecologists, presented by experts in their respective fields.

• The Paleobiology Database Project consists of three components: A purpose-built relational database and search tools, a Working Group, and regular training in the form of a four-week intensive course in theory and practice of Analytical Paleobiology.
• Postdoctoral Training Workshops - each year, NCEAS sponsors at least two training workshops for Postdoctoral Associates and other interested professionals and students:
  • Ecoinformatics Tools - NCEAS Ecoinformatics Research Staff train Postdoctoral Associates to use ecoinformatics tools that have been developed through NCEAS collaborative projects, such as Morpho and Kepler.
  • NCEAS Postdoctoral Associates choose a workshop that will provide training in tools of general interest to the group, such as analysis of multivariate time series in free open-source software.
    

Ecoinformatics Collaborative Training Intensives

• Collaborative projects such as The Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB) and the Science Environment for Ecological Knowledge (SEEK) regularly offer workshops to ecologists.
  

• KNB Data Management Tools Workshop: This workshop is designed to provide data managers with hands-on experience with ecoinformatics tools being created under the Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity Project . Participants learn  to use and apply Morpho, Ecological Metadata Language (EML) , and the Metacat to manage ecological data. The workshops are offered at field and research stations across the country.
• Informatics Training for LTER and OBFS: This two-week intensive training course is designed to teach field station and data managers tools for data acquisition and archiving.
• Postoctoral Symposium and Training: This one-week intensive course for early career faculty in biology, ecology, and related fields is designed to teach them how to incorporate ecoinformatics into their teaching portfolio.

Project Specific Training

• Specific Ecoinformatics Research Projects usually include training staff who will use products developed by NCEAS researchers.  For example, the Ecoinformatics Research Staff have trained rangers at Kruger National Park and managers in Ecosystem-based Management of Coastal Marine Systems to use a new data management system.
  
  

Distributed Graduate Seminars

• Data sharing ethics and tools are integral to the success of these large, geographically dispersed collaborations. Graduate students “learn by doing,” supported and trained by the NCEAS Ecoinformatics Research Staff and Scientific Computing Staff.