Latest revision as of 14:48, 18 November 2025

The Earth Surface Processes Institute

The Earth Surface Processes Institute (ESPIn) is a week-long immersive training experience for 25 early career scientists, including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, researchers, and faculty. ESPIn is designed to help participants advance their research in earth and planetary surface processes by teaching skills in numerical modeling; in modern, collaborative, scientific software development; and in the use of open source community cyberinfrastructure. A mix of experienced scientists, visiting faculty, and research software engineers provide instruction.

ESPIn is a combination of learning and doing.

ESPIn 2025 group photo — ESPIn 2025: learning and doing!

ESPIn uses the CSDMS Ivy course material, with topics including:

Project Jupyter
Introduction to the Shell
Text Editors and Development Environments
Python Distributions and Package Management
Virtual Environments
Introduction to Version Control with Git and GitHub
Python for Modeling
Landlab
CSDMS Data Components
The Basic Model Interface
The Permamodel Toolkit
The Python Modeling Tool (pymt)
Best Practices in Scientific Software Development

ESPIn kicks off with a big ideas, mini poster session: participants create a poster from two sheets of paper, one with research interests, the other with personal interests. This session helps participants introduce themselves and find shared interests.

ESPIn isn't just about instruction. Daily time blocks are dedicated to working in small, self-organized teams on a research, data analysis, and coding project. Participants can also work on developing and advancing their own research. Get a taste of past ESPIn team projects by checking out their webinars and labs.

ESPIn includes dedicated time for peer-to-peer networking, and professional development, including a career panel.

ESPIn concludes with team project presentations, which set up participants to continue to develop ideas.

For questions regarding ESPIn, please contact us at csdms@colorado.edu.

ESPIn 2026

CSDMS is excited to announce that ESPIn 2026 will be held August 3-7 at the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Community (SEEC) facility on the CU Boulder East Campus.

Important Dates

December 8: Application window opens
January 24: Application window closes
February 14: Notifications
August 3-7: ESPIn 2026

Application

To apply for ESPIn 2026, please fill out this Google Form (opens December 8, closes January 24).

For your application, please prepare one PDF document containing the following sections:

Motivation statement (250 words max). Why are you interested in studying earth surface processes? What research questions are you working on? What experience do you have in numerical modeling? What programming languages and development tools do you use? What do you want to learn?
Resume (half a page max). Be sure to list any experience in programming and model development.

Applications will be evaluated on a 7-point scale based on:

scientific motivation, relevance of research interests/goals to the CSDMS community, disciplinary background, and career stage (4 pts);
programming experience and motivation to improve skills (2 pts);

Travel Support

For all ESPIn participants, CSDMS will provide:

Shared lodging in Boulder, arriving on August 2 and departing on August 8
Breakfast and lunch on each teaching day (dinners are not provided)
Reimbursement of travel-related costs, including airfare, bus, shuttle, rideshare, mileage, and parking (but not including rental car costs) for up to $600 for U.S.-based participants, and up to $1200 for international participants

The ESPin Team

Lead:

Prof. Irina Overeem

Project Coordinator:

Lynn McCready

Instructors:

Dr. Tian Gan
Prof. Nicole Gasparini
Dr. Ethan Pierce
Dr. Mark Piper
Dr. Matt Rossi

Mentors:

Dr. Tian Gan
Dr. Ethan Pierce
Jocelyn Reahl
Dr. Yuval Shmilovitz

If you have any questions, please contact us at csdms@colorado.edu.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 <div class=AutoScaleImage>[[ File:ESPIn-mtns-skinny-transparent.png | ESPIn | center | link=https://csdms.colorado.edu]]<div>
 __NOTOC__
 {{PageTitle|The Earth Surface Processes Institute}}
-The Earth Surface Processes Institute (ESPIn) is a six-day immersive training experience organized by CSDMS for 25 early career scientists, including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, researchers, and faculty.
+The Earth Surface Processes Institute (ESPIn) is a week-long immersive training experience for 25 early career scientists, including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, researchers, and faculty.
-ESPIn is designed to help participants make advances in earth and planetary surface processes research by teaching cyberinfrastructure skills in numerical modeling, best programming practices, open source software development, and collaborative coding.
+ESPIn is designed to help participants advance their research in earth and planetary surface processes
+by teaching skills in numerical modeling; in modern, collaborative, scientific software development;
+and in the use of open source community cyberinfrastructure.
 A mix of experienced scientists, visiting faculty, and research software engineers provide instruction.
 <span style="color: forestgreen; font-weight: bold">ESPIn is a combination of learning and doing.<span>
+[[File:ESPIn2025GroupPhoto.jpg|frame|500px|alt=ESPIn 2025 group photo|ESPIn 2025: learning and doing!]]
+<!---
+<div class=AutoScaleImage>[[ File:CSS2022GroupPhoto.png | ESPIn is a combination of learning and doing! | right | 500px]]<div>
+--->
 ESPIn uses the [https://github.com/csdms/ivy CSDMS Ivy] course material, with topics including:
@@ Line 16: / Line 24: @@
 * Introduction to the Shell
 * Text Editors and Development Environments
-* The Anaconda Distribution
+* Python Distributions and Package Management
+* Virtual Environments
 * Introduction to Version Control with Git and GitHub
-* Basics of Python Programming
+* Python for Modeling
-* Python Programming for ESP Scientists
 * Landlab
+* CSDMS Data Components
+* The Basic Model Interface
 * The Permamodel Toolkit
-* The Basic Model Interface
+* The Python Modeling Tool (pymt)
-* The Python Modeling Toolkit
-* High-Performance Computing
 * Best Practices in Scientific Software Development
 ESPIn kicks off with a ''big ideas, mini poster'' session:
-participants create a poster from two pieces of paper, one with research interests, the other with personal interests.
+participants create a poster from two sheets of paper, one with research interests, the other with personal interests.
 This session helps participants introduce themselves and find shared interests.
@@ Line 36: / Line 44: @@
 Get a taste of past ESPIn team projects by checking out their [[Webinars|webinars]] and [[Labs portal|labs]].
-ESPIn includes dedicated time for a local field trip, peer-to-peer networking, and professional development,
+ESPIn includes dedicated time for peer-to-peer networking, and professional development,
-including a carer panel.
+including a career panel.
 ESPIn concludes with team project presentations, which set up participants to continue to develop ideas.
-{{#vardefine:espin_year|2023}}
-= ESPIn {{#var:espin_year}} =
-CSDMS is excited to announce that '''ESPIn {{#var:espin_year}}''' will be held May 8-15
-at the [[Contact us|CSDMS Integration Facility]] in Boulder, Colorado.
-Participant costs (transportation to and from Boulder from within the U.S., enrollment, accommodation based on shared rooms, breakfast and lunch on teaching days) are supported for 25 participants by CSDMS.
-Applicants are responsible for travel to the U.S., dinners, and all other incidental expenses.
-All applicants selected for ESPIn {{#var:espin_year}} are also expected to attend the {{#var:espin_year}} CSDMS Annual Meeting,
-held the following week, May 16-18, also at the CSDMS Integration Facility.
-CSDMS will cover costs of lodging, lunch, and the enrollment fee.
 For questions regarding ESPIn, please contact us at [mailto:csdms@colorado.edu csdms@colorado.edu].
-== Important Dates ==
+{{:ESPIn2026}}
-* December 1: Application window opens
-* January 27: Application window closes
-* February 15: Notifications
-* May 8-15: ESPIn {{#var:espin_year}}
-* May 16-18: {{#var:espin_year}} CSDMS Annual Meeting
-== Agenda ==
-The preliminary agenda for ESPIn {{#var:espin_year}} can be found [[ESPInAgenda2023|here]].
-This agenda will change slightly as we secure guest science lecturers,
-but the ordering and duration of the lesson topics and team project development blocks are likely set.
-== Apply ==
-To apply for ESPIn {{#var:espin_year}}, please fill out this Google Form (opens Dec 1, closes Jan 27).
-Prepare one PDF document containing the following sections:
-# '''Motivation statement (250 words max)'''. Why are you interested in earth surface process modeling? What research questions are you working on? Does your research involve modeling? What experience do you have in numerical modeling and data analysis? What programming languages and development tools do you already know? What do you want to learn?
-# '''Diversity statement (150 words max)'''. In your statement you can possibly explain how you contributed to diversity in the past and how you envision your future work to contribute to diversity.
-# '''Resume (half a page max)'''. Be sure to list your proficiency with programming and model development.
-Applications will be evaluated on a 10-point scale based on:
-# scientific motivation, relevance of research interests/goals, disciplinary background, and career stage ''(3 pts)'';
-# programming experience and your motivation to ramp up skills ''(3 pts)'';
-# diversity statement ''(3 pts)''.

ESPIn: Difference between revisions