START Now Hiring Spring 2013 Interns

The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) is a research center, based at the University of Maryland, committed to the scientific study of the causes and human consequences of terrorism in the United States and around the world. START supports research efforts of leading social scientists at more than 50 academic and research institutions, each of whom is conducting original investigations into fundamental questions about terrorism. START is able to offer internships which can be taken for credit on several exciting projects. Please see the information below for details on each of the projects.

Global Terrorism Database (GTD)

 The GTD is an open-source database including information on terrorist events around the world since 1970 (currently updated through 2010). While the main task of this internship generally consists of identifying and coding data on terrorist attacks from 2012, the effort is organized into the following topical domains:

•  GTD: Incident Location and Geographic Identification

•  GTD: Perpetrator and Target Identification

•  GTD: Understanding the Patterns and Use of Weapons and Tactics

•  GTD: The Consequences of Terrorism – Casualties and Outcome

•  GTD: Coding Intern At Large (Generalist)

 For more information please contact Michael Distler: mdistler@start.umd.edu.

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.

AMX Projects:

• Behavioral Indicators of Gun and Drug Carrying

• Crime and Threat Analysis Systems

For more information please contact Sarah Fishering: sfishering@start.umd.edu

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.

For more information please contact Sarah Fishering: sfishering@start.umd.edu

Special Projects

 The Special Projects team works on a variety of different projects. Interns have the opportunity to work on one of the many varied projects all requiring different skills sets and expertise. All special projects interns participate in the Red Team Project. Intern positions available in the following focus areas:

•  Special Projects: Advanced Research

•  Special Projects: Pinch Hitter

•  Special Projects: CBRN Terrorism Research

•  Special Projects: Influencing Violent Extremist Organizations

•  Special Projects: Individual Radicalization

•  Special Projects: Nuclear Security and Smuggling (Europe)

•  Special Projects: Open Source Intelligence (Europe)

•  Special Projects: Anatomizing Chemical and Biological Non-State Adversaries

•  Special Projects: GIS Analytical

For more information please contact Lauren Pinson:

Communications Internship

START communications interns will report to the director of communications. Internships, responsibilities will include:

•  Writing and editing press releases

•  Planning and attending events

•  Writing and publishing feature stories

•   Creating media kits

•   Developing and tracking media lists

•  Monitoring social media

•  Assisting with strategic planning and implementation

•  Engaging in START’s educational enrichment program

For more information please contact Jessica Rivinius: rivinius@umd.edu

Why choose an internship at START?

•  Experience working with a large team of dynamic and experienced researchers on a large multi-year project.

• Hone and develop a range of transferable skills.

•  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.

•  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.

•  Complete and submit an application by the deadline.

•  Agree to attend orientation and training.

Projects may have specific requirements.

How to apply

Application deadline:

Priority deadline midnight Sunday October 7 2012.

Applications received after midnight Sunday October 14 2012 will not be considered.

Applicants must submit an application form and supporting documentation via email to education@start.umd.edu.

For more information about the projects, requirements and for the application form visit: www.start.umd.edu/education/