Education

The technology used for data analysis and visualization changes rapidly. Making the most effective use of new hardware, software ecosystems, services, and even programming languages requires continuous education in highly specialized areas. VAST provides numerous educational resources and training opportunities to help geoscientists at all stages of their careers stay current with many technologies used in analysis workflows.

Foremost is Project Pythia, an NSF EarthCube funded, community driven, web-accessible resource that helps geoscientists learn how to use the burgeoning Scientific Python Ecosystem for data analysis. Pythia provides an extensive collection of geoscience-focused, self-paced workbooks, examples, webinars, and documentation, all aimed at helping earth system scientists make use of Python, Jupyter Notebooks, GitHub, and more. As part of our commitment to open science and helping modernize the scientific workforce, a notable aspect of Pythia is that not only does it teach scientists how to use open source resources, Pythia places particular emphasis on teaching scientists how to contribute back to these communities.

VAST also provides training on the use of its internally developed open source analysis packages, such as VAPOR and GeoCAT. We organize in-person tutorials at conferences such as AMS, AGU; hold periodic on-line webinars, and produce a variety of topical webcasts covering various aspects of the tools. Many of our recorded sessions are available on YouTube and can be accessed from the respective project’s websites.

Additionally, VAST is involved in the Earth System Data Science (ESDS) initiative. ESDS aims to build a community of technical support for geoscientists by addressing common big data challenges. ESDS has four main goals: to facilitate the development of diagnostic frameworks, to improve coordination on analysis workflows, to explore science at scale, and to develop and curate educational materials. By building the bridge between software engineers and scientists, VAST-created tools and packages are better tailored to the needs of NCAR’s scientific community and made more accessible via adequate training and support. If you are an NCAR scientist in need of Python support, schedule an office hours appointment.