Contact: Michael Frumin <MFRUMIN@mtahq.org>
Equal Employment Opportunity
College Aide Program
Department: Bus Customer Information Systems
Division: COO
Project Manager: Sunil Nair
Title: Sr. Director, Bus Customer Information Systems
Work Location/Room Number: 7th Floor, 345 Madison Avenue
Work Telephone #: 212 878 4628
Title of College Aide Position: Real-time Bus Customer Information System Analyst
Name of Continuing Student (if applicable):
Number of Positions: 2
Major(s) Preferred: Computer Science or related field
Overview of Dept/Division:
The goals of the Bus Customer Information System (CIS) department are as follows:
- Provide passengers with accurate real-time information about the bus services they are waiting for or are planning to use
- Lower capital and operating costs and accelerate benefits from shared equipment and infrastructure
- Deliver a real time Bus CIS system based on Open Standards, Open Data, and Open Source.
Project Responsibilities:
The MTA is developing a one-route pilot of a low-cost real-time Bus Customer Information System (CIS) which will deliver information to passengers primarily via the internet and mobile phones, and through developer-facing open API’s. The MTA also wishes to test the display of this information in storefront windows along the pilot route, and the CIS server will include an automatically updating non-interactive web page view suited to such contexts.
The Candidate will assist the Bus CIS project team in developing a hardware and software package which can be installed in storefront windows along the pilot route. To reduce cost, the system will use commodity off-the-shelf hardware such as LCD monitors, small computers, and wireless 3G modems, and the free Linux operating system. The candidate will assist in configuration of the hardware and configuration and programming of the small Linux PC to automatically display the appropriate web page. If successful, the candidates’ design will be installed in multiple locations along the pilot route.
The candidate will work 20-30 hours/ week during normal business hours from MTA headquarters at 347 Madison Avenue. Compensation is $14/hour for graduate students (below 18 credits), $16/hour for graduate students (above 18 credits), $11/ hour for undergraduates, and the candidate will receive a free MetroCard for use of subway and local bus services in New York City.
Special Qualifications or Background Needed:
The candidate should be a graduate student or an exceptional undergraduate in Computer Science or a related field, with the following qualifications:
- experience with the Linux operating system and command-line environment is required.
- experience programming in open source languages such as Perl, Python, Java, PHP, and command-line scripting is required.
- motivated and able to independently problem-solve and educate oneself on technology and software is required.
- experience installing, configuring, and administering Linux is strongly recommended.