Overview:
We are seeking up to two curious, creative, organized, and tenacious undergraduate honors students (i.e., rising junior/senior) with interest in rehabilitation science and/or computer science to join a project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and jointly run by the Children’s Participation in Environment Research Lab (CPERL) and the Natural Language Processing Lab at the University of Illinois Chicago.
The research assistantships will be for an academic year, starting in Spring 2023 (target start date: 1/9/2023). The successful applicants will be immersed in advancing an active extramurally funded project co-led by Drs. Mary Khetani and Natalie Parde.
The project pursues research regarding the manual and automated expansion of a current dataset of caregiver strategies for improving young children’s participation in valued home and community activities. This mentored research opportunity could lay the foundation for the student’s honors capstone project and could be beneficial to students who are on a pre-occupational therapy track or interested in pursuing a research-engaged career related to smart and connected healthcare.
Responsibilities and Funding:
These are part-time (12-16 hours/week) paid research assistant appointments. The successful candidates will be joining CPERL, directed by Dr. Mary Khetani, and they will regularly interface with members of the Natural Language Processing Lab, directed by Dr. Natalie Parde, for advancing the NSF project. The successful candidates will be immersed in an anti-racist research team that employs a team science model to advance participation-focused pediatric rehabilitation.
When working with us, you will have a unique opportunity to work in a thriving team with high productivity and high expectations. Your tasks will include mentored support with data annotation (i.e., grouping data to pre-defined categories) and analysis, therefore good analytic (i.e., systematic thinking) and excellent organizational and communication skills are required.
To Be Considered:
Please send the following to initiate the process of being considered:
1) an email with subject line “NSF Research Assistant” outlining your motivation for this research assistantship appointment
2) a resume attached to your email that includes details about your education and work history. Please submit these materials to Vera Kaelin (vkaeli2@uic.edu), Project Coordinator, by Friday, December 16th for earliest consideration.
Following an initial review of these materials, select candidates will be invited for Zoom interviews with the team to appraise mentor fit in December. Due to restrictions by the funder, only applications that are US citizens or permanent residents can be considered for these research assistantship appointments.
