Summer Internships at the ERDC Field Research Facility (Duck, NC)

[Nick Cohn]

Attention undergraduates and graduate students in coastal research!

The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Field Research Facility (FRF) has paid internship opportunities for summer 2021 for undergraduate or graduate (masters or PhD) students.  The FRF is a research facility located in Duck, NC renowned for its continuous coastal oceanographic observations.  Brief topic areas for potential topic areas are described below. 

Please send an updated CV, cover letter, and unofficial transcript to Jessamin...@usace.army.mil by 22 March 2021 for consideration. Please indicate which position you are most interested in. These paid internships will be a minimum of 8-weeks in duration between the period of June to September (start & end dates are flexible).  To be considered, all students must be U.S. Citizens and must be presently enrolled at an academic institution, or have an acceptance letter to start in Fall 2021. 

 Please direct all questions to Jessie Straub (Jessamin...@usace.army.mil)

 

(1)  Remote Sensing (RS) of Coastal Processes

Numerous potential opportunities are available to contribute to ongoing R&D on remote sensing of nearshore-beach-dune systems. The FRF operates fixed station and autonomous optical and lidar platforms for measuring surf zone and swash hydrodynamics, nearshore bathymetry, and beach-dune topography. Possible summer internship topics related to RS include:

• Development and analysis of 3D digital elevation models using structure from motion of beach-dune topography from high resolution satellite imagery (PI: Kate Brodie)
• Analysis of bathymetric inversion approaches from satellite data, with a particular emphasis on multi-spectral inversions and/or wave kinematic inversions (PI: Kate Brodie)
• Development of automated processing codes related to analysis of citizen-science CoastSnap images (PI: Ian Conery)
• Analysis of high-resolution repeat (daily to seasonal) 3D lidar data from mobile lidar platforms to investigate dune scarping mechanisms (PI: Nick Cohn)

(2)  Instrumentation and Field Data Acquisition

As an active field facility focused on nearshore processes, there are ongoing R&D projects focused on the novel approaches to measuring physical processes above and below water. Possible internship projects include:

• Building data acquisition systems and deploying sensors to measure wave-wave interaction in the swash zone (PI: Brittany Bruder)
• Contributing to the development and deployment of autonomous robotic instrument platforms in the surf zone (PI: Spicer Bak)
• Validation of new doppler lidar measurements of spatial wind fields over the beach (PI: Nick Cohn)

(3)  Programming and Numerical Modeling

Numerous projects are focused on the development of predictive tools for coastal applications. Opportunities exist to work on:

• Development of machine learning approaches to predict complex nearshore bathymetry and/or to improve processing of real-time data streams (PI: Kate Brodie)
• Contributing to code development for the Coastal Model Test Bed numerical model validation framework (PIs: Spicer Bak, Ty Hesser).
• Numerical modeling of dune accretion and erosion using analytical or process-based tools (PI: Nick Cohn)

_________________________________
Nick Cohn, Ph.D. (he/him)
Research Oceanographer
US Army Engineer Research and Development Center
Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory
Field Research Facility (Duck, NC)
nichola...@erdc.dren.mil