Hackweek Testimony: Network-Building at GeoHackWeek 2018
By Steven Pestana
Steven Pestana is a graduate student in the Mountain Hydrology Research Group in Civil and Environmental Engineering. Steven had the opportunity to participate in GeoHackWeek 2018, where he picked up a couple of helpful tricks and tools that he’s brought back to his graduate research. Here, he describes his hackweek experience.
Attending Geohackweek gave me a valuable introduction to the wide array of open source geospatial tools and software technologies available to researchers today. The week-long series of workshops and tutorials guided us through using python for analyzing geospatial data, leveraging data libraries specific to research goals, and how to follow software best practices for collaborative work and scientific reproducibility.
The team projects provided a chance to practice these new skills and apply them to a research question relevant to our interests. I came to Geohackweek with a dataset and a project in mind. NASA’s Airborne Snow Observatory uses LiDAR to measure snow depth in the Tuolumne River Basin, and I hoped to use this time series data to estimate trends in snowpack with respect to climate and topography. A team of nine Geohackweek participants coalesced around this data set and these science questions. In our project, we explored trends in snowmelt with python and xarray, visualized geospatial data with mapping libraries like folium, and worked collaboratively in parallel with git version control. Applying what we had learned to a relevant research topic was a rewarding learning experience and allowed us to progress beyond the the introductory lessons, testing and trying new things in a creative atmosphere.
Working with Geohackweek participants from other universities, companies, and countries was itself a valuable opportunity. The wide array of disciplines represented – from seismology to ecology to psychology – demonstrated the importance of geospatial data analysis across the sciences. I have already been able to apply the technical skills I’ve learned from my participation in Geohackweek to my own snow hydrology and remote sensing research work. Having formed connections with the participants and instructors, I can now share ideas or seek help from a network of peers and experts. This network-building demonstrates that beyond technical training, Geohackweek can help grow the community of users and developers of open source geospatial tools, which strengthens the sense of community among scientists with these shared interests.
If you’re interested in participating in a similar hackweek style event, consider applying to WaterHackWeek, hosted at the University of Washington’s eScience Institute, March 2019. Apply here by November 26, 2018.