Data Science/Cognitive Science/Computer Science Graduate Research Assistant - Spring 2027 - SEAL
Georgia Tech Research Institute
Summary
This GTRI Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) position offers you extensive opportunities to participate in diverse scientific and technological endeavors, use state-of-the-art equipment and rapidly improve your technical and leadership skills. This position is for one semester (Spring 2027) of a quarter-time (25%) graduate assistantship.
Job description
Georgia Tech Research Institute's Sensors and Electromagnetic Applications Laboratory (SEAL) seeks a GRA to join our Command, Control, and Communications (C3D) team for Fall 2025 and Spring 2026. Students will assist Research Scientists in various Cognitive Science and Computer/Data Science related research tasks. Students should be interested in learning about C3 operations, design and development of human-centered artificial intelligence, cognitive modeling, and simulation. Students should also be capable of helping to conduct research under the direction of Research Scientists, participating in computational analysis using standard analysis packages such as R, SPSS, or others used in scientific research, and competently reporting the results of such analysis according to professional publication standards. Computing student applicants should have software engineering and AI/ML experience, ideally with past work/project experiences developing in Python. Psychology/Social Science applicants should have research experience such as guided literature reviews, research proposals, research design, data collection, data analysis and visualization, and research reporting.
Job Duties
Due to the nature of the work at GTRI, job duties will depend upon contract and sponsor needs. Students could participate in the following projects/tasks:
- Perform exploratory research (or human subjects research if applicable) to address sponsor interests
- Conduct and report on computational science/data analysis
- Coordinate with other research scientists/engineers to develop software for research testbed and experimental gaming platforms
- Contribute to technical reports and presentations
Requirements
- Pursuing a Master’s degree or PhD at Georgia Tech in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Human Computer Interaction, Psychology, Public Policy, or International Affairs
- Must be enrolled full-time (12+ credit hours)
- Must have a 3.0 or higher cumulative GPA
- Commit to 13-20 hours of work per week
- Ability to apply foundational cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and/or cognitive psychology principles and concepts to applied and exploratory research in artificial intelligence and human machine teaming
- Experience in contributing to academic research, ability to complete CITI training (as applicable) upon onboarding
- Experience with common programming languages or data analysis software packages for computational data science (e.g., R, SPSS, SAS, Java, Python, C++)
- Good academic writing and verbal communication skills
- Familiarity with office applications including Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
- Ability to clearly communicate technical ideas
- Ability to quickly learn new software applications and tools
- Ability to explore and quickly learn computational analysis and/or qualitative analysis approaches
- Experience with common programming languages for software development to support the construction of basic AI/ML applications (e.g., Java, Python)
- Experience with machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch/Tensorflow
- Knowledgeable about or able to quickly learn video gaming concepts and environments
- Ability to learn human systems engineering/human-centered design approaches with mentor guidance
Company overview
The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology, serving as one of the nation's premier university-affiliated research centers. Established in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has evolved into a comprehensive research organization that conducts cutting-edge applied research across multiple domains including defense systems, cybersecurity, telecommunications, energy systems, and biomedical engineering. With a workforce of over 2,000 researchers, engineers, and support staff, GTRI operates numerous specialized research laboratories and collaborates extensively with government agencies, industry partners, and academic institutions. The institute is particularly renowned for its work in radar systems, electronic warfare, and advanced communications technologies, contributing significantly to national security and technological innovation. GTRI's research portfolio spans both classified and unclassified projects, with a strong emphasis on translating fundamental research into practical solutions that address complex real-world challenges across defense, commercial, and public sectors.