Research Intern: Computational Social Science

Honda Research Institute USA; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 28,000 - 41,000; Full time

Job summary

Honda Research Institute USA in San Jose, CA is offering a research intern position at the intersection of computational social science and AI. You will develop and evaluate computational models of groups and communities to understand collective behavior and societal impacts of Generative AI.

The internship involves working with large-scale datasets, exploring LLM-based agents, agent-based simulation, NLP, and network modeling, and contributing to research design, experiments, and publications.

Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program in a quantitative field.
• Research experience in agent-based or multi-agent modeling; LLMs or NLP for social/behavioral questions.
• Strong programming and quantitative research skills, including ML, statistical modeling, or agent-based simulation.
• Experience analyzing empirical datasets and evaluating models against observed data.

Responsibilities

• Develop computational models of group and community behavior using agent-based or multi-agent methods, or LLM-based agents.
• Analyze large-scale behavioral datasets including text, online interactions, social networks, surveys, demographic data, or mobility data.
• Apply statistical, causal inference, experimental, or counterfactual evaluation methods to study interventions and tech-driven changes.
• Investigate societal impacts of generative AI and emerging technologies on adoption and community outcomes.
• Collaborate with researchers to refine new AI/human behavior research questions.
• Contribute to manuscripts, experiments, analyses, and figures for publication.

Skills

Agent-based modeling

LLMs

NLP

Large-scale datasets

Social networks

Education

PhD candidate in a quantitative field

Job description

Research Intern: Computational Social Science - Honda Research Institute USA

Research Intern: Computational Social Science

Job Number: P25INT-65

Honda Research Institute USA (HRI-US) is seeking a research intern working at the intersection of computational social science and artificial intelligence. The successful candidate will develop and evaluate computational models of groups, and communities to understand collective behavior and societal impacts of emerging technologies like Generative AI. Research may involve LLM-based generative agents, agent-based and multi-agent simulation, natural language processing, network-based modeling, to study community behavior. The candidate will have opportunities to work with large-scale empirical datasets such as online community interactions, text and discourse data, social networks, surveys, demographic data, or human mobility trajectories. The intern will contribute to research design, model development, empirical evaluation, and publication of research findings.

San Jose, CA

Key Responsibilities

• Develop computational models of group, and community behavior using approaches such as agent-based modeling, multi-agent systems, LLM-based agents, or related methods.
• Analyze large-scale behavioral datasets, which may include text, online community interactions, social networks, surveys, demographic information, or mobility trajectories.
• Apply statistical, causal inference, experimental, or counterfactual evaluation methods to study interventions and technology-driven changes in social systems.
• Investigate societal impacts of generative AI and other emerging technologies, including topics such as technology adoption, collective behavior, communication, coordination, and community outcomes.
• Collaborate with researchers to formulate and refine new research questions related to AI, human behavior, and society.
• Lead or contribute to manuscripts, experiments, analyses, figures, and other research outputs intended for publication.

Minimum Qualifications

• Currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program in Computer Science, Information Science, Computational Social Science, Data Science, Industrial Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or another related quantitative field.
• Research experience in at least one of the following areas: computational social science; agent-based or multi-agent modeling; LLMs or NLP applied to social or behavioral questions; large-scale social, behavioral, or mobility data.
• Strong programming and quantitative research skills, including experience with machine learning, statistical modeling, or agent-based simulation.
• Experience analyzing empirical datasets and evaluating computational models against observed data.
• Demonstrated ability to conduct independent research and collaborate on interdisciplinary research projects.

Bonus Qualifications

• Experience with LLM-based agents, generative agents, agent-based simulation, or multi-agent systems for modeling human or social behavior.
• Research experience using large-scale social or behavioral datasets, such as online communities, social media, networks, behavioral traces, surveys, demographic data, or mobility trajectories.
• Experience validating computational or simulation models using real-world, observational, or experimental datasets, including model calibration and comparison with empirical observations.
• Familiarity with causal inference, experimental methods, intervention analysis, or counterfactual simulation.
• Experience studying collective behavior, social interaction, technology adoption and diffusion, community dynamics, or the societal impacts of AI.
• Familiarity with developing visualization tools, interactive interfaces, or reusable dashboards for communicating research methods and outcomes.
• Publication record in relevant conferences or journals, including venues such as ICWSM, IC2S2, ACL, EMNLP, CSCW, WebSci, AAMAS, AAAI, NeurIPS, KDD, CHI, or comparable venues in computational social science, AI, NLP, social computing, and related fields.
• Experience leading or contributing substantially to the preparation of research manuscripts for peer-reviewed publication.

Years of Work Experience Required 0

Desired Start Date 1/18/2027

Internship Duration 3 Months

Position Keywords Computational Social Science, LLM Agents, Agent-Based Modeling, Multi-Agent Systems, Social Simulation, Network Science, NLP, Online Communities, Causal Inference, Counterfactual forecast