Data Science - Student Service

The student in this position will join Purdue’s Rosen Center for Advanced Computing (RCAC) as part of the Data Science and AI Services team, contributing directly to the development and growth of Purdue GenAI Studio—a campus-wide platform that enables faculty, researchers, and students to explore and apply generative AI in teaching, research, and innovation.
This role offers hands-on experience with applied data science, generative AI tools, and large language models (LLMs). It will also involve active participation in grant-funded AI and data science projects, supporting proposal development, implementation, and reporting across multiple research initiatives at Purdue.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the design, development, and maintenance of Purdue GenAI Studio, enhancing its functionality, scalability, and usability.
• Assist in building modular tools and applications within GenAI Studio for research, education, and administrative use cases.
• Develop interactive dashboards and interfaces using platforms such as Streamlit or Gradio.
• Support documentation efforts, user onboarding, and internal training materials for Purdue stakeholders.
• Collaborate with faculty and researchers to prototype generative AI solutions aligned with academic needs.
• Provide technical and analytical support for grant projects and proposals related to AI and data science.
• Contribute to cross-functional initiatives that promote the integration of AI tools across the Purdue research ecosystem.

Learning Opportunities

This position provides a dynamic and collaborative environment for exploring real-world applications of generative AI in academia. You’ll gain hands-on experience with production-level AI systems, interface design, interdisciplinary collaboration, and grant development workflows. The role also provides opportunities to co-author or contribute to research publications emerging from Purdue’s AI initiatives.

Skills Required

• Strong foundation in data science, including statistics, modeling, and data analysis.
• Proficiency in Python and experience with common libraries such as Pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, and Transformers.
• Interest or experience in generative AI, LLMs, or natural language processing (NLP).
• Experience with building web-based tools (e.g., using Streamlit, Gradio, or Flask).
• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills, with the ability to work collaboratively.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with Hugging Face Transformers, Ollama, OpenAI APIs, or similar LLM ecosystems.
• Exposure to containerization (e.g., Docker) or cloud-native environments is a plus.
• Experience supporting academic research, grants, or collaborative projects.
• Enrollment as a student at Purdue University in Computer Science, CNIT, Statistics, or a related field.

• Must be a currently enrolled student at Purdue University.
• Hybrid work arrangements are possible, though some on-campus presence in West Lafayette may be expected.

Compensation and Time Commitment

• Up to 20 hours per week during the academic semester
• Up to 40 hours per week during summer
• Possibility of extension into the following semester
• Compensation is aligned with Purdue’s student employment guidelines