PhD Student in AI research

About the role

The SCI Institute is a world-class research institute located within the new Warnock Engineering Building on the University of Utah campus. The institute focuses on creating new techniques, tools, and systems for scientists to solve problems affecting various aspects of human life. The position involves designing and developing systems that enable discovery and analysis of AI models used in scientific research publications.

Responsibilities

• Work with faculty, staff, and students in designing and developing computational tools in support of research projects.
• Aid in the specification of software requirements in coordination with faculty or team leads.
• Develop user interfaces, APIs with web front-end technologies like HTML5, SCSS, Vue, React, Typescript, D3.js, node.js, chart.js
• Back end server component development with technologies such as Flask, Django, CKAN, ArangoDB, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, and Elasticsearch.
• Create and maintain build, testing, and deployment systems with Git, Github, Slack, Docker, AWS, Circle-CI, webpack, npm and many others.
• Develop high quality and well documented code.
• Build CI/CD workflows to validate changes across multiple targets.
• Interface with collaboration partners and participate actively in a collaborative work environment to turn requirements into optimal solutions on a large scale.
• Contribute actively to team discussions on architectural design and solutions by continuously looking for improvements.
• Research and stay current with project-related scientific literature.
• Identify and implement creative solutions to overcome problems.
• Mentor postdocs, students, and junior software developers for best software practices.
• Support the end-user community by responding to user questions posted on the discussion list, fixing bugs, and incorporating feature requests.
• Help with the project website and discussion boards for user support, developer support, and announcements.
• Contribute to teaching activities by preparing and presenting educational seminars.

Requirements

• Current University of Utah graduate student who is supported on the Tuition Benefit Program.
• Strongly Preferred Skills:
  • Solid background and working knowledge of computer science fundamentals including algorithms, data structures, and object-oriented programming.
  • Experience with HTML and web technologies.
  • Good knowledge of server technology and databases.
  • Working with large codebases Containerization (Docker) and building software for web deployment
  • Strong understanding of Linux toolchains and debugging tools
  • Debugging and critical thinking skills including identifying bottlenecks, and bugs and devising solutions to these problems.
  • Experience with GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or similar CI/CD systems
• PhD in Computer Science, Scientific Computing, Data Science, Informatics, AI/ML, or a closely related area, or equivalent research experience.

Qualifications

• PhD in Computer Science, Scientific Computing, Data Science, Informatics, AI/ML, or a closely related area, or equivalent research experience.

Skills

• Experience contributing to scientific computing frameworks
• Knowledge of RDMA, libfabric, or similar low-level communication APIs
• MCP and NLP integration
• UI/UX design
• Scientific visualization
• CyberSecurity and AAI (OAuth2, Keycloak, etc)
• Cloud deployment and Kubernetes

Benefits

• Flexible working hours
• Professional career development opportunities
• Collaboration with a multidisciplinary and research-driven team
• Access to strong computing and research infrastructure
• A competitive benefits package through the University of Utah

Pay

Per TBP guidelines

Schedule

Full Time