USDA-ARS Fellowship on Software Development of an Information Delivery System for On-Farm Management

*Applications are reviewed on a rolling-basis.

ARS Office/Lab and Location: A research opportunity is currently available with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) located in Beltsville, Maryland. 

The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific in-house research agency with a mission to find solutions to agricultural problems that affect Americans every day from field to table. ARS will deliver cutting-edge, scientific tools and innovative solutions for American farmers, producers, industry, and communities to support the nourishment and well-being of all people; sustain our nation’s agroecosystems and natural resources; and ensure the economic competitiveness and excellence of our agriculture. The vision the agency is to provide global leadership in agricultural discoveries through scientific excellence.

The Adaptive Cropping Systems Laboratory (ACSL) at USDA-ARS Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC), Beltsville, Maryland conducts modeling and experimental research focused on quantifying the response of crops and soils to abiotic factors including climate and management inputs. We develop, validate, and apply mathematical models to study topics including climate impacts and adaptation strategies for crop production, land suitability, food security, on-farm resource management, and other agricultural system challenges.

Research Project: The participant will contribute to software engineering for front-end development of a web-based information delivery system (IDS) that integrates laboratory crop and soil models with on-farm data sources, online digital weather and soil relational databases, and weather forecasts. This application programming interface (API) will provide decision support to end users, such as crop advisors, farmers, and scientists, with regards to optimizing site-specific farm management associated with resource use efficiency.

Under guidance from the mentor, the participant will provide creativity and assist with designing, developing, coding, and deploying the IDS platform. Various computer programming languages (such as PYTHON, SQL, JavaScript and others) will be used along with JSON formats to help develop and maintain relational databases, a graphical user interface, and integration of laboratory crop/soil models within a web-based software tool. The participant will collaborate with scientific staff to port components of an existing Windows desktop graphical user interface into this web-based system. Opportunities to help develop portable versions of our models using artificial intelligence methods for interacting with mobile platforms can also be pursued.

Learning Objectives: The participant will collaborate with an established multi-disciplinary team with international expertise in crop and soil modeling and learn about climate change impacts on agriculture, and crop and soil responses to genetic, environment, and management inputs. The participant will learn new abilities and skills in computer code proficiency with front-end development and relational databases, and gain knowledge regarding crop and soil model application for decision support technology for agricultural systems.

Mentor(s): The mentor for this opportunity is David Fleisher (david.fleisher@usda.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research please contact the mentor.

Anticipated Appointment Start Date: December 2023.  Start date is flexible and will depend on a variety of factors.

Appointment Length: The appointment will initially be for two years, but may be renewed upon recommendation of ARS and is contingent on the availability of funds.

Level of Participation: The appointment is full-time.

Participant Stipend: The participant will receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience. The current stipend range for this opportunity is from $78,592 - $112,015 per year depending on qualifications.

Citizenship Requirements: This opportunity is available to U.S. citizens, Lawful Permanent Residents (LPR), and foreign nationals. Non-U.S. citizen applicants should refer to the Guidelines for Non-U.S. Citizens Details page of the program website for information about the valid immigration statuses that are acceptable for program participation.

ORISE Information: This program, administered by ORAU through its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), was established through an interagency agreement between DOE and ARS. Participants do not become employees of USDA, ARS, DOE or the program administrator, and there are no employment-related benefits. Proof of health insurance is required for participation in this program. Health insurance can be obtained through ORISE.

Questions: Please visit our Program Website. After reading, if you have additional questions about the application process please email ORISE.ARS.Northeast@orau.org and include the reference code for this opportunity.

Qualifications

The qualified candidate should have received a bachelor's or master's degree in one of the relevant fields (e.g. Computer Science, Data Science, Software Engineering), or be currently pursuing one of the degrees with completion before the appointment start date. 

Preferred skills:

• Coding proficiency in front-end development (e.g. HTML, CSS, JavaScript);
• Working experience with programming languages such as PYTHON;
• Experience with PyQt;
• Experience with relational databases and query languages (e.g. SQL);
• Ability to test and troubleshoot software programs using debugging tools;
• Experience with designing innovative solutions to streamline processes and project flow;
• Familiarity with source control management (e.g. Team Foundation), deployment, and task management tools;
• Ability to document work for benefit of team effort;
• Team oriented with a desire to learn and apply creativity in a collaborative environment.