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Vacancy Announcement No: UPU/16/Intern/ISHIP/143
Title: Traineeship: Postal Big Data: Visualizing Network Anomalies
Grade: Intern
Type of contract: Internship
Duration: Three to six months
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Publication Date:
2 May 2016
Application Deadline:
16 May 2016
Vacancy Filled
Organizational Unit:
Regulation Economics and Markets Directorate (DREM)
Duty Station:
Bern Switzerland
Scheduled date for taking up appointment: As soon as possible, by agreement
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Organizational Context:
The Universal Postal Union (UPU), a specialized agency of the United Nations and the principal forum for cooperation between postal sector stakeholders, is developing predictive models in the area of international shipments tracking.
The UPU consolidates real-time data on international postal exchanges generated by tracking systems which enable a continuous monitoring, from origin to destination, of any international postal shipment. It is endowed with a unique database gathering several billion tracking records every year. This postal big data is analysed to improve the quality of international postal services, design innovative logistics services for e-retailers and e-shoppers, and pulse global economic and social conditions across the world.
The aim of the internship is to develop a visual analytics framework for detecting scale-dependent spatial-temporal patterns and anomalies in postal big data generated by tracking systems managed by the Universal Postal Union. The detection of anomalies/disruptions in postal shipment patterns (both temporal and spatial) might help to identify events that impact the postal network and build knowledge if those anomalies can be related to extreme weather events, political crises, health crises or other types of events. Selected visual analytics methods will be analyzed based on a theoretical evaluation and a user requirements analysis. The outcomes will be validated by expert interviews. The protection and strengthening of public facilities and physical infrastructure, such as postal networks, is one of the key activities for reducing the underlying risk factors of disasters related to geological events, weather, climate change or other types of disruptive events. The time needed to recover from different types of disruptions shall further be part of the analysis, as it might provide additional information about the resilience of the postal network in different countries/regions as well as strengthen UPU's predictive models of transit times.
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Main duties:
The trainee will:
1) participate in the exploration of network anomalies in postal big data for increasing the resilience of the global postal network;
2) study and compare a range of visualization techniques to discover relevant signals and anomalies in a unique set of data with a strong geographical information system component.
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QUALIFICATION AND SKILLS REQUIRED |
Education:
The trainee must be:
- a student registered in a Master's programme with a focus in the disciplines mentioned below;
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- a Doctoral student preparing a thesis on a subject related to the fields described below.
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Technical knowledge:
The trainee will preferably:
-have a strong background in any field related to data science and/or geography, visualising and mapping;
-knowledge of one or several programming languages would be an asset;
-have preferably knowledge of GIS and network visualization.
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Additional Information:
In line with UPU rules, this traineeship is reserved EXCLUSIVELY for students. Any other candidate profile will not be considered. Recent graduates in the areas described above are also invited to apply. They must have graduated within six months from the date of this announcement.
The traineeship will be remunerated in accordance with current UPU rules.
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| The conditions of service are governed by the Staff Regulations and Rules of the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union.
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Please note that all candidates must complete an on-line application form.
All applications must be received by the closing date as stated in the vacancy announcement.
Only candidates under serious consideration will be contacted. |
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Applications from women and member states are particularly encouraged.
The UPU promotes diversity and work-life balance. |
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| For further instructions regarding the online application process, please visit the UPU internet page at: https://upu.int/en/Universal-Postal-Union/Careers |
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Vacancy Filled |
This vacancy is shown for viewing only. It is not currently open for applications
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The UPU has a smoke-free environment
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