Proposed Start Date

This internship is available for 3 months, start date to be negotiated upon acceptance but must be completed prior to April 2013. Intern will be placed in the Universitat Jaume I of Castellón, Spain (http://www.geotec.uji.es).

Closing Date: Friday 23^th of November

Project Summary

The traditional model for crowd sourcing geospatial asks the public to use their free time collecting geospatial data for no obvious reward. This model has been shown to work to an extent on projects such as Open Street Map, but comes with some clear disadvantages such as reliance on small communities of ‘Neo-geographers’ and variability in content/quality of data collected. This project aims to tackle these problems by providing alternative motivation in the form of a service, specifically a mobile phone based computer game.

Geographical names (vernacular names/toponims) have been identified as potential targets as they are difficult to collect on a large scale and easy to collect locally, thus ideal for crowd sourcing. The data set will be a toponims database provided by IGN Spain . A location based game is targeted as it is easy to guide data collection with in-game rewards (points, badges etc.). Android is chosen for its accessible API and relatively wide use.

Who Should Apply

Candidates should preferably be studying currently at postgraduate level (Masters or PhD). The ideal candidate will have a Geospatial Sciences or Computer Science background.

Required Skills

• Programming experience (including for programming for mobile Android applications), i.e. Java, Python, etc.
• Ability to work independently or part of a team

Desirable Skills

Desirable Skills

Eligibility and financial aspects

This internship is for 3 months (full-time) and is aimed at current postgraduate students, particularly PhD students, and high-achieving undergraduate students. The successful applicant will be provided with a bursary of €600 €.

International postgraduate students with valid visas must have the permission of their home university to undertake the. Students having nationalities within the EEA region may undertake this internship without needing a visa. Non-EEA students must be able to secure entry themselves to Spain for the purpose of the internship, we are unable to sponsor visas for these positions – candidates are asked to check that this will be possible before applying for the internship. Candidates are asked to detail their eligibility on the application form, short-listed candidates will be contacted and asked to forward proof of eligibility prior to the interview.

This post will be based at the Universitat Jaume I of Castellón, Spain. We are unable to support travel costs to the host institution, however the weekly bursary is intended to provide funding for accommodation and personal costs during the internship.

Informal enquiries

Informal enquiries may be made to huerta@uji.es

Applications contain 1) A two page CV, 2) Two professional/academic references and 3) a motivation letter  outlining your interest in this project should be emailed to  huerta@uji.es  with ‘Incidental Crowd Sourcing: application’ in the subject line.