SEN DataThon this Sunday at UC Berkeley

In collaboration with SEAD (Sustainable Environment Actionable Data), the NSF EarthCube-sponsored (Sediment Experimentalist Network (SEN) will be hosting a "DataThon" this Sunday, Dec. 11, 2016, at UC Berkeley to advance the cause of data sharing and reproducibility. A core group of early-career and more senior scientists, we will spend the afternoon uploading our datasets to SEAD 2.0 project spaces and describing our datasets and methods on the SEN Knowledge Base (SEN-KB). Let's make open data a reality!

More SEN and EarthCube events at AGU 2016

If you are attending the AGU 2016 Fall Meeting, here are some events in addition to the SEN-related presentations we recently posted.

• Raleigh Martin of SEN will be at the EarthCube booth #509, Wednesday 11:30a-12:30p if you'd like to chat about sediment experiments and the tools and resources we are trying to share.

 

• There is an AGU Data Fair with several relevant sessions on earth science data, data skills, data management, and more: http://fallmeeting.agu.org/2016/agu-data-fair/

• EarthCube has compiled a page of EarthCube-related sessions: https://www.earthcube.org/2016-earthcube-at-agu

SEN-related presentations at the 2016 Fall AGU Meeting

An incomplete listing of SEN related presentations at the 2016 Fall AGU Meeting. We tried to crowdsource this, but ended up searching the AGU Fall Meeting Schedule by ourselves and simultaneously (1) got a headache and (2) was amazed at all of the experimental work going on.

Is your presentation missing? Email sedimentexp@gmail.com.

Monday

AM

• 8:00, V11C-2794 Experimental Determination of Bed Conditions in Concentrated Pyroclastic Density Currents, Amelia Winner et al.,  8:00, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 11:35, EP12B-06 Controls of Ice Cover on Arctic Delta Morphodynamics and Depositional Processes, YeJin Lim et al., 11:35, Moscone West 2003

PM

• 13:40, OS13C-1833 Formation of Cyclic Steps due to the Surge-type Turbidity Currents in a Flume Experiment, Miwa Yokokawa, 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 13:40, OS13C-1838 Break-of-slope linked to unexpected downstream grain size coarsening in experimental and natural turbidites, Florian Pohl et al., 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall

Tuesday

AM

• 8:00, EP21C-0890 Towards an Analytical Model for the Seismic Signal Generated by Debris Flows, Maxime Farin et al., 8:00, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 8:00, EP21C-0903 Debris Flows in a Changing Climate: Experimental and Field Investigations of the Influence of Changes in Moisture on Matrix Properties, Interparticle Interactions, and Subsequent Debris Flow Behaviors, Kimberly Hill et al., 8:00, Moscone South Poster Hall

PM

• EP23D-01 Experimental Exploration of Particle-Scale Bed Load Transport and Near-Bed Fluid Velocities, 13:40, Siobhan Fathel et al., Moscone West 2007

• 13:40, EP23A-0929 Grain Size Variation, Discharge Rate, and Delta Island Formation, Indre Altman and Wonsuck Kim, 13:40 Moscone South Poster Hall

• 13:40, GC23D-1271 Experimental Investigation of River Avulsion and Land-Loss on a Backwater-Influenced Delta Undergoing Sea Level Rise, Kirby Sikes et al., Moscone South Poster Hall

• 15:12, IN23F-07 Understanding Geomorphological Processes on the Earth’s Surface from Laboratory Experiments and the Role of Communities of Practice in Generating Reusable Data, Leslie Hsu, 15:12, Moscone West 2002

Wednesday

AM

• EP31A-0927 Particle Size Reduction in Geophysical Granular Flows: The Role of Rock Fragmentation, 8:00, Gionata Bianchi and Leonard Sklar, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 11:20, EP32C-05 Bedform stability in steep gravel-bedded streams from field and flume data, Marisa Palucis et al., 11:20 Moscone West 2005

PM

• 13:40, EP33C-1003 Sediment and Vegetation Controls on Delta Channel Networks, Rebecca Lauzon et al., 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 13:40, EP33A-0965 Winnowing and Flocculation in Bio-physical Cohesive Substrate: A Flume Experimental and Estuarine Study, Yeiping Le et al., 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 13:40, EP33D-1011 Sensing fluid pressure during plucking events in a natural bedrock channel and experimental flume, Clare Wilkinson et al., 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 14:30, NH34B-03 Impact of Diverse Hydrologic Pathways, 3D Failure Geometries, and Unsaturated Soil Suctions on Shallow Landsliding, Mark Reid et al., 14:30, Moscone South 306

Thursday

AM

• 8:00, ED41A-0765 Bed structure and bedload transport: Sediment grain reorientation in response to high and low flows in an experimental flume, Megan Gurer et al., 8:00, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 10:20, EP42A: Integrating Experimental, Numerical, and Theoretical Studies of Suspended-load and Bedload Transport I, 10:20, Moscone West 2005

• 11:20, EP42A-05 Testing and Modeling Particle Excursion Lenghts for a Wide Range of Flow Conditions, Suleyman Naqshband and Brandon McElroy, 11:20, Moscone West 2005

PM:

• 13:40, NH43B-1854 Standard geological samples of tsunami deposits made in a large wave flume, Takumi Yoshii et al., 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall

Friday

AM

• 8:00, EP51A-0881 Whole-field velocity measurements of flow around interacting barchan dunes in a novel flume environment, Nathaniel Bristow, 8:00, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 8:00, EP51A-0862 Numerical and Physical Experiments on the Effect of Variations in Channel Width on Gravel-Bed River Morphodynamics, Jacob Morgan and Peter Nelson, 8:00, Moscone South Poster Hall

• 8:00,  PA51A-2255 Promoting Art through Technology, Education and Research of Natural Sciences (PATTERNS) across Wyoming, A Wyoming NSF EPSCoR Funded Project, Brandon Gellis and Brandon McElroy, 8:00, Moscone South Poster Hall

PM

• 13:40, EP53G-01 Variation in Sediment Mobility and the Active Width in Gravel-bed Braided Rivers, Sarah Peirce, Moscone West 2005
• 13:40, EP53A-0920 Decoupling flood and interflood deposits for delta island formation and channel bifurcation, Max Sasha Daniller-Varghese and Wonsuck Kim, 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall
• 13:40, EP53C-0989 Evaluating 2D models for fluvial bedform morphodynamics using flume experiments with profiling ADVs over a mobile sand bed, Robert Mahon et al., 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall
• 13:40, EP53E-1031 Scaling and normalization of river bathymetry spectra and bedform velocity, Michele Guala et al., 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall
• 13:40, EP53E Integrating Experimental, Numerical, and Theoretical Studies of Suspended-load and Bedload Transport II Posters, 13:40, Moscone South Poster Hall
• 13:55, EP53G-02 Spatio-temporal evolution of alluvial sand beds under unsteady flow, 13:55, Annie Ockelford et al., Moscone West 2005
• 14:10, EP53G-03 Hydrograph Shape Controls Channel Morphology and Organization in a Sand-Gravel Flume, Laura Hempel et al., 14:10, Moscone West 2005
• 15:25, EP53G-08 How Do River Meanders Change with Sea Level Rise and Fall?, Julianne Eileen Scamardo and Wonsuck Kim, 15:25, Moscone West, 2005

Experimentalist of the Month: Joel P. Johnson

SEN is starting up a new segment with featured experimentalists!

This month:

Joel P. Johnson

Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin

Joel with first-generation smartrocks in 2009

How did you first get involved with SEN?

I first attended a SEN-organized workshop a few years ago which was excellent!

What different types of experiments have you worked with?

Working in many cases with students, I have conducted experiments on bedrock erosion, flash flood sediment transport and sorting, tsunami deposition of suspended sediments, disequilibrium gravel transport and step-pool experiments, hillslope diffusion experiments that didn't entirely work, and of course debris flow experiments with smartrocks. I am currently working with a Masters student on experiments to compare dissolution vs. abrasion of bedrock rates and erosional morphologies. 

What is a favorite memory of yours in the lab?

Building a flume-within-a-flume, modifying a shopping cart to catch sediment, and throwing my first smartrocks into experimental debris flows with Leslie Hsu.

What do you hope SEN will help the experimental community to achieve?

We as a community have been both lazy and selfish about sharing data, and that should change.  Making sharing data the expectation, and also incentivizing doing so, is important.

--
Thanks for being part of SEN, Joel!

Send nominations for featured experimentalists to sedimentexp@gmail.com.

Tips for student presenters at AGU

Are you a student presenting at the Fall AGU Meeting?

Here are some tips from the EPSP Outstanding Student Paper Award organizers in 2014:

--
Thanks to the judges for their tremendous volunteer effort in the 2014 OSPA program! And thanks to our EPSP student community, you did a great job presenting your science. Here is a round-up of the 2014 AGU OSPA judging comments, which may help for future presentations:

Common judging comments:

1. Get people excited about your work. Enthusiasm, liveliness, and spark about your presentation help make a good impression and generally help earn higher scores.
2. Be able to answer the question "Why does it matter?" Know how your project will advance the field, how it fits into the already published literature, and your hypothesis. This was one of the most common issues that judges noted, either because it was successfully or not successfully addressed.
3. At a poster presentation, try to acknowledge and talk to all visitors. You don't know who might be your judge and don't want to keep them waiting too long! When discussing, it helps to make eye contact to everyone standing at the poster. Try to treat visitors equally and acknowledge them when speaking. When presenting, try to allow time for your audience to ask questions.
4. Don't overwhelm your audience with poster or slide text or content. At a poster, if asked for a five minute summary, aim for that and don't give your 15 minute speech. Too much text or figures that are too small are commonly noted by judges.
5. Be at your poster when you say you'll be, or leave a note. The judges use your specified time slot to make their schedules. Judges are busy, and if you are not there, you miss out on the chance to be evaluated (and you might make your judge a little agitated.)

Other notes from the judging comments:

1. Even if your project is still in the beginning stages, you can make a good impression by knowing the context of your work and your vision for the future of the project.
2. Emphasize the summary/take home points early and end strongly on them.
3. Phrase things in a positive light (without going overboard), as opposed to saying disparaging or inconclusive things about your findings.
4. Try to gauge audience knowledge - don't assume they know all about your technique unless it is extremely common, give appropriate background information.
5. Speak loudly enough for judges to hear you.
6. Several judges wished there were maps for context of the study.
7. If for some reason you cannot attend, withdraw your poster from the OSPA competition.

Ken Ferrier and Leslie Hsu - OSPA coordinators 2014