Undergraduate Student Hourly Position

Undergraduate Student Hourly Position

Students must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States or its possessions.

The work is for a research project in semantic technology and geospatial data. Requires Java programming, your own laptop, and some familiarity with a database or spatial query language. Pay is $12/hour.

This Semantic Web project is to develop a Java tool to convert geospatial shapefiles to a linked data format (RDF) for the new GeoSPARQL query language. The code can be written as a plug-in to GeoTools, which is an open source Java GIS Toolkit (http://docs.geotools.org/latest/userguide/geotools.html). (GIS is Geographic Information Systems.) Test data converted into RDF will be stored in an instance of Parliament, a triple store (downloadable from parliament.semwebcentral.org). Then, GeoSPARQL queries will need to be run to query over the data to illustrate and test the conversion tool. Software documentation needs to be written so that others can do similar conversions using the tool.

Skill Set:

Java programming required.
Be able to write, decipher, and run software. Be willing to learn minimal basics of Semantic Web technology (e.g., RDF, SPARQL, and GeoSPARQL). Be able to write an instructional tutorial on the developed Java tool. Know or be willing to learn the basic format of GIS shapefiles and how to do projections, if needed. Because of the different aspects of the project, there are several people available to help answer questions.

This job could be done by a Computer Science student who would learn about shapefiles and spatial queries. Having had CS 564 (Databases) would be a benefit for basic understanding of querying to help use SPARQL and GeoSPARQL. SPARQL is the RDF query language, and GeoSPARQL adds spatial functions.

Alternatively, this job could be done by a Geography/GIS student who can program in Java, is familiar with shapefiles, knows how to convert coordinate systems, and knows basics of spatial-type querying. Such a person would have to learn the basics of database querying.

This project is interdisciplinary between Computer Science and GIS skills and is an opportunity for students to learn new Semantic Web technology.

To Apply

Please send an email of interest that includes coursework relevant to Computer Science and/or GIS and spatial data to:
Nancy Wiegand
Space Science and Engineering
1225 W. Dayton Street
wiegand@cs.wisc.edu