User:Patri/2009InternshipProposals

New Proposals for Q3 2009

Background: Several of our current projects would greatly benefit from specific skills, and are the size (2-3 months) that doing them via internships seems right.

Funding: We will probably try to fund some or all of these using project-based fundraising, with TSI contributing a portion.

Oceanography Internship: Seastead Locations

The ocean is what we are settling, and we need to know more about its physical and legal environment. Most immediately, we need a better understanding of where seasteads will best be located and whether location can reduce some of our challenges (particularly waves). This internship will entail working on criteria with us and then finding locations that best meet our criteria (outside EEZs, low waves, close to first-world countries, shallow enough for mooring and/or little current, etc.). This will be done by combining various oceanographic datasets such as bathymetry, satellite wave data, and EEZ locations and then investigating the top results. A great location with small waves would lower the barrier to entry enormously because it would not require expensive spar platforms or breakwaters, we might be able to start a seastead outpost there in the near future.

The output of this internship will be a paper which we will make public so that other projects can benefit from our research. It will also be incorporated into the book.

Time: 3mo of half-time work.

Engineering Internship (wave mitigation / SFS design & analysis)

Much of what needs to be done for seasteading is engineering, yet TSI currently lacks internal engineering experience. We are searching for a permanent, full-time Director of Engineering, but it may take awhile. In the meantime, we have some critical projects that could be handled by a sufficiently skilled graduate student, either during a PhD program or as a postdoc. Ideally, a candidate will have naval architecture or ocean structure engineering training (BS in Engineering, some grad work), or at least training in civil or structural engineering.

The project consists of several phases:

• Figure out how best to do low-cost hydrodynamic analysis. Our previous analysis was done by consultants using an expensive simulation program we cannot afford. We have several ideas for how to proceed, they need to be explored and fleshed out. The end result of this will be a system that TSI & community members can use to analyze structure designs.
• Create and analyze structures in two main areas:
  • Wave mitigation. How to protect a medium to large city from the waves using engineered structures. Examples: Breakwaters, Wave Blankets...
  • Small seasteads. What design "beats a boat" for our needs (more comfortable, safer, roomier, perhaps much slower). This may include analyzing SFS grant proposals, working with SFS grant applicants, analyzing Patri & Wayne's proposed designs, and coming up with designs of your own.

Time: 3 months half-time (to start).

Business Internship (MBA for ResidentialShipStead)

TSI has done some research and business planning for a possible TSI-incubated Residential Cruise Ship as an incremental step towards seasteading (see blog posts). There is a lot of community interest, but some significant cost and logistical challenges to making it feasible. We are ready to have a business intern (MBA or MBA student with experience in analyzing business model financials) develop the plan in greater detail. This would entail:

• Researching detailed capital and operational costs for cruise ships, determining whether/how much they can be reduced.
• Market research on general interest and cost requirements, within the seasteading community and perhaps outside it as well.
• Determining the ideal location and/or itinerary.
• If costs are reasonable, possibly beginning the branding and PR outreach for the project.

Time: 3 months half-time.

Existing Roles

Development

This role is filled by Basia Montauk for summer of 2009.

Editing/Writing

This role is filled by Will Chamberlain for summer of 2009, described at: [1].

Drupal Website Development

This role is described at: [2]