START is
excited to announce their Spring 2014 internship opportunities. They are
looking for interns with a wide array of skills and majors (including but
not limited to: Criminology, Communications, Government, International
Relations, Public Policy, History, GIS, Geography, Economics, English and
Mathematics). In addition to the experience gained during an
internship, interns will also receive mentoring, training and be able to
participate in a calendar of professional development
activities. Internships are unpaid and students must be able to undertake
their work hours at START at the University of Maryland College Park.
Global
Terrorism Database (GTD)
The GTD
is an open source, unclassified database including information on terrorist
attacks around the world since 1970 (currently updated through 2011). The
database is maintained by researchers at START. The GTD includes systematic
data on domestic as well as international terrorist incidents that have
occurred during this time period and now includes over 104,000 cases. The GTD
intern team is organized into the following themes:
·
GTD: Incident Location and Geographic Identification
·
GTD: Perpetrator Identification
·
GTD: Target Classification
·
GTD: Understanding the Patterns and Use of Weapons and Tactics
·
GTD: The Consequences of Terrorism – Casualties and Outcome
·
GTD: Coding Intern At Large (Generalist)
Special
Projects
The Special Projects
Division consists of a number of intensive, shorter-term research projects
concentrated on three research topics within the larger study of terrorism and politically
violent non-state actors:
-
Unconventional Weapons and Technology
-
Extremist Origins and Trajectories
-
Threat Management and Influence
Intern positions are available
in the following focus areas:
· Pinch Hitter & Advanced Research
· Individual Radicalization
· Nuclear Security and Smuggling
· Unconventional Weapons and Technology
· Open Source Intelligence on Organized Crime
· Risk Assessment and Threat Analysis
· Failure Points of Smuggling Networks
· GIS Analytical
Naval Research Laboratory Adversarial Modeling and Exploitation
Office
Two
internships are available with AMX onsite at their offices in Washington DC.
The AMX has a number of ongoing research projects related to counter-terrorism,
behavior detection, law enforcement, crime analysis, and geospatial analysis.
The use of information by law enforcement, often called data driven policing,
is an ever evolving and expanding field.
•
Behavioral Indicators of Gun and Drug
Carrying
• System Engineering Analysis
& Support
• Statistical Analysis &
Modeling Support
·
Communications and Research Transition
Support
START
communications and transition team are seeking interns to assist with
communications, writing, copy editing and graphic design activities at the center.
Positions
available:
·
Communications Interns
·
Copy Editors
·
Graphic Designer
Dataverse
START is
continuing to develop the Terrorism Data Archive Dataverse. Interns for this
project will learn about terrorism-related data through archiving datasets and
reading over documentation. Interns will serve as Assistant Editors and would
be responsible for preparing data for archiving onto the START Dataverse.
Depending upon the dataset, there will also be opportunities to create
Codebooks and add labels and values to the data. Interns will receive training
in the archiving process.
Government
Actions in Terror Environments (GATE)
Recent research
suggests that governments have a vast set of policy tools at their disposal
vis-à-vis terrorist groups, and that pure reliance on repressive policies can
be counterproductive. While policymakers increasingly recognize the importance
of non-military counterterrorism tools in addition to military ones, it is not
yet known which type of government actions are effective; and when carrots
might be more effective than sticks in defeating terrorist groups. This is a
unique opportunity to better understand the terrorist conflict in the US and
across specific regions of the world and to get a unique view of how
governments deal with those conflicts.
Risk Communications Project
Risk
communication is an important element of threat assessment, resource
allocation, information delivery, and eventual behavior change. The Risk
Communication Training Project at START, involves the development, delivery,
and evaluation of a program focused on training local leaders in the United
States on effective risk communication practices related to homeland-security
threats. Additionally, the intern will be asked to contribute to a mobile
devices research project by gathering and analyzing media coverage of FEMA's
Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system. The intern will also have the
opportunity to participate in qualitative data analysis for the mobile devices
project.
START/State Department Terrorist Organizations Project Internship
Students
will gather and analyze statistics on terrorist organizations over time. Projects
will include collecting the number and type of attacks over time, looking at
trends, and possibly even modeling group capacity out into the future. Interns
will also provide assistance in researching open source information on the
leadership of some groups for possible future designations.
Interns
will be co-supervised by researchers at the University of Maryland and by
project leads at the State Department. The State Department leads will set and
give feedback on tasks. Interns will be based at START’s offices on the
University of Maryland campus.
Why
choose an internship at START?
· Experience
working with a large team of dynamic and experienced researchers.
· Exposure
to cutting edge theories and methods.
· Deepen
your understanding of current issues in terrorism and homeland security.
· Work on
projects of immediate interest to the practitioner and policy community.
· Hone and
develop a range of transferable skills attractive to future employers.
· Opportunity
to work with and meet other students and researchers with similar interests.
· Enrichment
activities offering wide opportunities for learning and personal growth,
schedule includes simulations, career presentations and research talks.
· Mentorship
from START staff and researcher in a successful professional environment.
· Internships
can be undertaken for academic credit.
General
requirements
Applicants
for all internships must:
· Have a
good academic record.
· Demonstrate
an interest in the subject matter.
· Be able
to complete their internship work hours on site at START.
· Agree to
attend orientation and training.
· Submit an
application by the deadline, all application packets must include:
o A
complete application for the correct semester,
o One page resume,
o Cover
letter,
o Writing
sample,
o Unofficial
transcripts from most recent institution.
Each
project may have additional requirements, including minimum credit hours,
preferred majors and compulsory meeting times. For specific requirements
and information visit: www.start.umd.edu.
How to apply
Application deadline Spring 2014:
Priority
Date: midnight Tuesday October 1
Final
Deadline: midnight Wednesday November 13
