SEN Fall Newsletter

Dear Experimentalists,
 
We hope everyone had a productive summer and are getting geared up for an exciting fall with the Sediment Experimentalist Network.
 
This issue contains the following:

1. Graduate Student/Early Career AGU Travel Grant Contest
2. Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium Update
3. EC3 Field Trip Report
4. New Features and Updates on sedexp.net

 
Graduate Student/Early Career AGU Travel Grant Contest
The Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN) is sponsoring a data-sharing contest for graduate students and early career scientists who feel passionate about making their data public. The top three winners will be awarded travel grants in the amount of $1000 for use towards the 2015 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting.  The deadline for entries has been extended to October 15, 2015.
 
Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium Update
This September, SEN attended the 46^th annual Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium hosted by the University of Buffalo.  This year’s theme was Experiments in Geomorphology and featured tours of various lab facilities and talks covering a wide range of experiments (photos).  SEN’s own Brandon McElroy presented a talk on our recent Geomorphology paper.  Wonsuck Kim, Raleigh Martin, and Kim Miller presented posters, which can be viewed here.
 
EC3 Field Trip Report
SEN team member, Raleigh Martin, recently attended a field trip hosted by EarthCube Building Block EC3, Earth-Centered Communication for Cyber-infrastructure, which focuses on the challenges of field data collection, management, and integration.  Check out the blog post to read about what we as experimentalist can learn from the field about data sharing.
 
New Features and Updates on sedexp.net
The Knowledge Base/Wiki at www.sedexp.net now has an entry category for “Lab Facility”, which can be linked to equipment entries.  Use these entries to promote your lab or find other lab facilities for collaborations. 
 
Also, there have been several new entries over the last month including: Erosional landscape topography by Kristin Sweeney, Field saltation observations by Raleigh Martin, and Data for experiments in high-intensity bedload transport by Ricardo Hernandez.
 
For up to date information about SEN, please check out our blog athttp://sedimentexperiments.blogspot.com/ and follow us on Twitter (@sedimentexp).
 
Happy experimenting,
The Sediment Experimentalist Network
http://workspace.earthcube.org/sen

Raleigh Martin at EC3 Workshop 2015

Recently I participated in the EarthCube funded EC3 (Earth-Center Communication for Cyberinfrastructure) workshop at Yosemite National Park and Owens Valley, California.  The workshop brought together a mix of geoscientists and computer scientists to address challenges in field data collection and to brainstorm cyberinfrastructure solutions to make field data collection easier, more efficient, and more likely to result in useful long-term data preservation.

My own work encompasses both laboratory experiments and fieldwork on active sediment transport processes.  Through my engagement with SEN (Sediment Experimentalists Network), I have already thought substantially about laboratory issues, so participation in the EC3 trip gave me a chance to think more about field data.  To my somewhat surprise, the idea of “fieldwork” varies vastly among domains.  Whereas fieldwork for me primarily encompasses collection of instrumental time series records, during the EC3 trip the focus was on mapping of geological structures and stratigraphy.

Despite my somewhat outsider status, I learned several lessons from the EC3 field trip, which I hope to share with the SEN community:

1)   The most effective development of geoscience cyberinfrastructure occurs when software developers and geoscientists are tied together at every step of the development process.  Otherwise, there is a danger that computer tools will not be compatible with the way that scientists actually do their work.  For example, tablet-based apps might one day replace the field notebook, but only if they accommodate the free-form sketches that don’t fit neatly into metadata categories.

2)   Research progresses in an unpredictable, heterogeneous, iterative, and “messy” way that makes the adoption of uniform, comprehensive cyberinfrastructure and database tools impossible.  I could see this in how much my concept of “fieldwork” differed from other workshop participants.  Rather than seeking a grand solution to all of our data problems, we’re better off building smaller-scale solutions for specific applications, then linking these applications through semantics, i.e., clear, machine-readable assignments of meaning that allow computers to link together heterogeneous databases into shared resources.

3)   Computer scientists actually enjoy our data problems and view them as research challenges!  They are not simply contractors for hire to build specific pieces of software.  As geoscientists, we can view work with computer scientists as research collaboration, which includes applying for grants together and writing papers together.  This will also make the development of cyberinfrastructure feel more like fun and less like a chore.  The EARTHTIME project is one great example of the synergies to be found between geoscientists and computer scientists.

These lessons are my own personal opinions, and I’m open to debate with those who might disagree!  I encourage comments on these ideas and perhaps even further blog posts by members of the Sediment Experimentalist Network on this topic of development of cyberinfrastructure for the geosciences.

DEADLINE EXTENDED: SEN AGU Graduate Student/Early Career Travel Grants

The graduate student and early career travel grant contest deadline has been extended to October 15^th!  We are sponsoring a data-sharing contest for those who feel passionate about making their data public (more details below). The top three winners will be awarded travel grants in the amount of $1000 for use towards the 2015 AGU Fall Meeting.  Post your entries to sedexp.net and submit your application!

TRAVEL GRANT CONTEST DETAILS

The Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN) is sponsoring a data-sharing contest for graduate students and early career scientists who feel passionate about making their data public. The top three winners will be awarded travel grants in the amount of $1000 for use towards the 2015 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting.

The Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN) is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) EarthCube program as a Research Coordination Network (RCN). SEN integrates the efforts of sediment experimentalists to build a knowledge base for data collection and management. The network facilitates cross-institutional collaborative experiments and communicates with the research community about data and metadata guidelines for sediment-based experiments. This effort aims to improve the efficiency and transparency of sedimentary research for field geologists and modelers as well as experimentalists. More information is available here: http://earthcube.org/group/sen

The contest will be judged on the quantity and quality of participation in the SEN Knowledge Base (www.sedexp.net), which contains data catalog entries and descriptions of experimental setups, methods, equipment. To begin, create an account on the website and then start creating entries for your experiments. The more entries, the more likely you are to win!

Eligibility

This contest is open to current graduate students and early career scientists (within 5 years of graduating) who are interested in helping make data more accessible.

Requirements

1.    Sign up for the SEN Newsletter: http://goo.gl/s7dLjb

2.    Create a Knowledge Base account at www.sedexp.net

3.    Start posting entries of your experimental data, set-ups, methods, and equipment.

4.    Send a one-page document to sedimentexp@gmail.com as described below 

Contest Entry

To enter the contest, please send a one-page document containing contact information, short professional biography, and a list of your SEN Knowledge Base entries to sedimentexp@gmail.com. 

Selection of Winners

Winners will be selected on the quality (completeness of entry) and quantity (total number of entries) of entries to the SEN Knowledge Base. Winners will be notified via email and will be given instructions on the funding process. Names of winners will also be featured in the upcoming SEN Newsletter. Winners should acknowledge funding from NSF SEN when presenting their work at AGU.

REVISED Timeline

June 15th: Contest opens

October 15th: All entries must be received

November 1st: Notification of winners

Questions? Please contact SEN at sedimentexp@gmail.com.

SEN Travel Grant and Upcoming Events

Dear Experimentalists,

Hope you all have had a productive summer.  We just want to send a quick reminder about two upcoming SEN activities.  A full newsletter will be sent out at the end of September.

SEN AGU Travel Grants

The graduate student and early career travel grant contest deadline is soon approaching on August 31^st.  We are sponsoring a data-sharing contest for those who feel passionate about making their data public. The top three winners will be awarded travel grants in the amount of $1000 for use towards the 2015 AGU Fall Meeting.  Post your entries to sedexp.net and submit your application!

Questions? Get more information at http://sedimentexperiments.blogspot.com/2015/06/sen-graduate-student-and-early-career.html or contact SEN at sedimentexp@gmail.com.

Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium

Members of the SEN leadership team will be presenting a talk and posters at this year’s upcoming Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium, taking place on Friday, September 18 to Sunday, September 20, 2015 in Buffalo, NY, with the theme of Laboratory Experiments in Geomorphology.

See the second circular and more information at https://www.ubevents.org/event/bgs46.

Can’t make the symposium?  Not to worry; SEN presentation slides and posters will be made available in the next newsletter. 

For up to date information about SEN, please check out our blog at http://sedimentexperiments.blogspot.com/ and follow us on Twitter (@sedimentexp).

Happy experimenting,

The Sediment Experimentalist Network

http://workspace.earthcube.org/sen

sedexp.net - New ways to find and share data and methods

Have you visited the SEN Wiki lately? 

The SEN Wiki is a centralized place to link your data sets and descriptions of experimental set-ups, methods, and equipment. These tasks help to satisfy data management plan, publisher, and funding agency requirements.

Contact us at any time with questions, comments, or suggestions, at sedimentexp@gmail.com.

Also, don't forget about our Graduate Student and Early Career AGU Travel Grant Contest! You can earn $1000 toward AGU costs if you contribute enough content to the SEN Wiki*.

NOTE: If you set up Google log-in before May 2015, you may need to re-enable your Google account access. Log in with your sedexp.net username and password then edit your Connected Accounts under My Account. Contact us if you need help with this.

1. Find new information: New Browse and Search interface

• Browse all the latest entries at http://sedexp.net/kb.
• Enter search keywords, sort by type (data catalog entry, set-up, method, equipment) or post date.
• Data Catalog entries are now browsed along with all other types of wiki entries. 

2. Share your data and methods: New Quick Start Page

• For new users, a brief intro of how to create an entry. http://sedexp.net/quickstart

3. Save entries privately and publish later

• Use the "Save as Draft" option to keep your entry private until you are ready to publish.
• Access your saved entries using the "My Workbench" link in the upper left corner when logged in.

4. Check out these example entries:

• Data Catalog entry: Onset of Sediment Motion - Nature Communications paper 2014
• Experimental Setup: Summer Institute 2014 (SIESD) Delta Experiment
• Method: Live broadcast using Google Account and YouTube
• Equipment: High Density Plastic Accelerometer-embedded "Rock"

The SEN wiki is still under development. Have a problem or wish list feature? Let us know at sedimentexp@gmail.com. We love to hear from our users and want to help you publish and share your content.

Happy experimenting,
The SEN Team
Leslie, Raleigh, Kim, Wonsuck, and Brandon

* Due to funding constraints, UT Austin affiliates are not eligible.

Email: sedimentexp@gmail.com
SEN Wiki: sedexp.net
SEN Homepage: http://earthcube.org/group/sen
SEN Blog: http://sedimentexperiments.blogspot.com/

SEN Summer Newsletter

Dear experimentalists,

Wishing plentiful, efficient, and accurate data collection for those of you in the laboratory this summer.

Here is a list of opportunities that you won't want to miss!

• SEN AGU Grant Competition
• AGU and GSA Sessions of Interest
• Recent and Upcoming Workshops and Meetings
• New Resources

SEN AGU Grant Competition

The Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN) is sponsoring a data-sharing contest for graduate students and early career scientists who feel passionate about making their data public. The top three winners will be awarded travel grants in the amount of $1000 for use towards the 2015 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting.

AGU and GSA sessions of interest

AGU: EP015: Experimental Studies in Surface Processes

Session Description: Physical experiments are a useful tool for studying and simplifying the complex natural systems we seek to understand. Experiments allow us to isolate individual variables ranging from grain scale to landscape scale that are often difficult or impossible to measure in the field. Experiments are often scaled to natural landscapes using system characteristic dimensionless numbers. However, many scientists have been able to reproduce natural phenomena without rigorous dynamical scaling. This session aims to represent experimental studies in surface processes across all temporal and spatial scales. We especially encourage submissions that emphasize improvements on understanding experimental scaling and linking experiments to natural systems and numerical models.

Conveners: Anastasia Piliouras; Kimberly Litwin Miller, John B Shaw, Kyle M Straub

AGU and GSA sessions organized by the EarthCube Outreach team

• AGU: IN013: Creating Effective Information Access and Infrastructure to Resolve Complex Science Research Questions
• AGU: IN021: Facilitating Open Science and Data through Scientist Engagement and Evolving Technology
• GSA: T45. Transforming the Life of the Geoscientist from Planning to Post-Submission: Cyberinfrastructure as an Agent of Change

Recent and Upcoming Workshops and Meetings

Photos from the Mixed Sediment Modelling Workshop

In late May, the workshop on Modelling Mixed-Sediment River Morphodynamics took place in Delft, the Netherlands. See a photo album from the talks and experiments here.

Binghamton Symposium: Laboratory Experiments in Geomorphology

The 46th Annual Binghamton Geomorphology Symposium will take place on Friday, September 18 to Sunday, September 20, 2015 in Buffalo, NY, with the theme of Laboratory Experiments in Geomorphology. 

All are encouraged to bring a poster to share their work. Poster abstracts due on August 1.

See the second circular and more information at https://www.ubevents.org/event/bgs46.

New Resources

New experimental data description template

SEN has published a recommended experimental data description template in the paper Data management, sharing, and reuse in experimental geomorphology: Challenges, strategies, and scientific opportunities (2015, Geomorphology, Hsu, Martin, McElroy, Litwin-Miller, Kim). 

We are looking for feedback on the proposed template and any suggestions or comments. sedimentexp@gmail.com

Also check out the other articles in the Special Issue on Laboratory Experiments in Geomorphology.

A new interface to browse sediment dynamics models

Need a model for exploring your sediment-related research question? A large collection of community-contributed surface dynamics models reside in the CSDMS model repository. When was the last time you browsed it?

The EarthCube GeoSoft project has built a new interface that allows you to quickly search and compare CSDMS models.

Read more at New interface to browse sediment dynamics models. 

New interface to browse sediment dynamics models

Need a model for exploring your sediment-related research question? A large collection of community-contributed surface dynamics models reside in the CSDMS model repository. When was the last time you browsed it?

The EarthCube GeoSoft project has built a new interface that allows you to quickly search and compare CSDMS models. 

For example, you could search on keyword "delta," and choose to compare three models and simultaneously see their description, authors, software language, operating system, and test data. (Note: to see only CSDMS models, make sure to filter by "Publisher = CSDMS".)

GeoSoft's software comparison interface. Blue areas on the pie chart mean more information is filled out.

The site was recently released, and the GeoSoft project welcomes any feedback from the SEN community. How else would you like to search for and learn about models? You can email sedimentexp@gmail.com or the PI of GeoSoft, Yolanda Gil, at gil@isi.edu with any comments. 

GeoSoft is also developing easy methods for investigators to Publish software, using the OntoSoft vocabulary. (If you are very geeky you may enjoy exploring the documentation.)

Related links:

• GeoSoft Training (Documenting Software, Making Software Executable by Others, etc.)

With the help of projects like GeoSoft, we can all look forward to an easier path to making our scripts and software available for reuse and citation. This means more time for experiments in the lab!