Assistant Research Scientist (PREP0003947)

Johns Hopkins University; Baltimore (MD); On-site; USD 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Johns Hopkins University is hiring a PREP Research Associate to advance research in the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Professional Research Experience Program. The role involves developing methodologies and software for drone communications simulations, focusing on enhancing safety protocols.

Candidates should have a Bachelor's degree and strong knowledge in network communications and robotics. Experience with software programming and modern AI tools will be crucial. The position contributes to real-world applications in Uncrewed Aircraft Systems.

Qualifications

• Knowledge of network communications, routing, and radio signaling.
• Experience with software development in Python, C, C++, Qt, JavaScript.
• Understanding of machine learning concepts and algorithms.

Responsibilities

• Conduct literature reviews for drone communications simulator solutions.
• Develop a software program for a new drone communications simulator platform.
• Evaluate technology challenges and identify gaps to address.

Skills

Network communications

Robotics

Software engineering

Python

Machine learning

Data structures

C++

Radio signaling

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, or related field

Tools

AWS

GCP

Azure

SQL

BigQuery

Snowflake

Job description

PREP Research Associate – Overview

This role is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Professional Research Experience Program (PREP). The selected candidate will be part of a team of engineers and researchers conducting research and development activities focused on accelerating the development and deployment of real‑world test methodology to evaluate communications protocols in Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) for first responder solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct literature reviews and document criteria for drone communications simulator solutions and the datasets used to train and test them.
• Prepare an industry landscape identifying long‑range communications, mesh networking, and best practices on developing methodologies for communications technologies.
• Develop a software program for a new drone communications simulator platform or retrofit an existing platform, integrating radio hardware communications components.
• Create and collect measurement data for the drone simulator.
• Document the dataset curation process for public use and determine target public safety datasets and enhancement options.
• Participate in public safety working groups and stakeholder testing to compare simulations with live UAS flights and curate shared information from collaborators.
• Evaluate drone simulator use cases and identify technology challenges and gaps to address.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, or a related field.
• Knowledge of network communications, routing, and radio signaling.
• Knowledge of robotics, UAS, or autonomous software programming (PX4, ArduPilot, AirSim, MAVLink).
• Knowledge of software engineering for virtual simulation applications.
• Experience with modern AI tools and applications (AWS, GCP, Azure, MLFlow, SQL, BigQuery, Snowflake).
• Experience with development and manipulation of software code (Python, C, C++, Qt, JavaScript).
• Knowledge of data structures, formats, and software coding curation processes.
• Experience with developing open‑source code, identifying use cases, and evaluating dataset quality and representativeness.
• Knowledge of mathematical probability and statistics, and optimization methods.
• Knowledge of machine learning, including supervised and unsupervised learning, deep learning, and model evaluation.
• Knowledge of dataset biases and labeling issues.
• Knowledge of translating operational needs into solvable radio signal or networking problems.
• U.S. citizen preferred.

Equal Opportunity Employer

The Johns Hopkins University is committed to equal opportunity for its faculty, staff, and students. The university does not discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status or other legally protected characteristics. The university is committed to providing qualified individuals access to all academic and employment programs, benefits and activities on the basis of demonstrated ability, performance and merit without regard to personal factors or demographic characteristics that are irrelevant to the program involved.