Undergraduate Research Assistant in Climate Impacts and Machine Learning_GEOSCI

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JOB DESCRIPTION AND POSITION REQUIREMENTS

The Department of Geoscience is looking for a qualified candidate for an undergraduate research assistant position. 

Drought is one of the most economically and socially impactful natural hazards, affecting agriculture, water resources, energy systems, ecosystems, and human well being. While many droughts develop gradually over months or years, some emerge much more rapidly. Flash droughts are a type of drought that can intensify within weeks, often leading to significant impacts with little warning. These events remain difficult to study and anticipate because there is no single agreed upon definition or standardized detection approach. In addition, their social, economic, and environmental impacts are not well documented, which limits our ability to assess risk and improve preparedness and response.

This research project aims to bridge that gap by combining climate science with machine learning and text analysis. Our team has compiled a unique dataset of approximately 120,000 news articles that reference drought across the United States. These articles contain rich but underused information about how droughts affect agriculture, water resources, ecosystems, and communities. The goal of this project is to help build the first public database focused specifically on flash drought impacts, linking physical climate processes with real world consequences.

The undergraduate research assistant will play a central role in this effort. The position involves manually labeling selected sentences from news articles by identifying the type of impact being described, such as effects on agriculture, urban water supply, energy production or ecosystems. These labeled examples are essential for training a machine learning model to recognize and classify impacts automatically across thousands of articles. Through this work, the student will gain hands on experience with applied climate research, data annotation, and the foundations of artificial intelligence used in environmental science.

Desired skills and interests

Applicants should demonstrate interest or experience in the following areas.

• Strong reading comprehension and attention to detail, with the ability to carefully interpret short text passages and identify relevant information.
• Interest in climate science, environmental studies, data science, or related fields.
• Curiosity about data analysis, machine learning, or artificial intelligence, prior coding experience is welcome but not required.

How to apply

Interested students should submit the following materials.

• A brief statement, no more than 300 words, answering the question:
  How does your previous experience and interests align with the job skills and requirements described above?
• Current CV or resume.

This position is ideal for students who are interested in climate impacts, interdisciplinary research, and learning how data driven and machine learning approaches can be applied to real world environmental challenges.

Approx number of hours per week

5 hours per week for 8 weeks                      

Salary per hour, and max allowance (if any).

$20 per hour.

Start and end date (again approximate is fine)

February 9 to April 30

 

BACKGROUND CHECKS/CLEARANCES

Employment with the University will require successful completion of background check(s) in accordance with University policies.

 

 

 

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