Are you contemplating a PhD and interested in economic or social science applications of machine learning? You might be a good fit for our pre-doc position.
Deadline to Apply: March 24
Deadline to Apply: March 24
The Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence is recruiting pre-doctoral research professionals to tackle important and hard problems in economics and social science. We apply sophisticated machine learning tools to find innovative and effective solutions to real world problems with big impact. For example, we have worked to reduce discrimination against Black patients in healthcare algorithms, explain drivers of bias in the US judicial system, and help cardiologists identify patients at risk of death using medical data. Our toolkit includes CNNs for prediction, transformers for encoding, GANs for generation and Bayesian models for latent trait estimation. We use these advancing technologies to develop our understanding of foundational elements of economics and social science, with a focus on answering big questions about the human world around us.
Opportunities we offer
Research professionals contribute to our work at every level, developing their research capabilities and exposing them to some leading names in the field. Our research professionals have the chance to:
People we hire
We are looking for applicants who:
Will have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in a relevant field by mid 2023.
Are considering pursuing a PhD, enough to invest in or explore that interest, whether in economics, social science, data science, computer science, or some other related field. (If this doesn’t apply to you, but the other points do, get in contact! We have other positions available.)
Can write Python or R code for statistical analysis or machine learning.
Are analytically minded, detail-oriented, and a great communicator.
Apply now
To apply, please respond to this job posting and complete this application form by March 24. Applicants will be asked to complete a small initial assessment task and potentially a short screening call. A subset of applicants will then be asked to complete a larger assessment task. Finally, we will conduct two to three interviews before making final offers in December.
Learn more
If you have specific questions or are just interested in learning more, you are welcome to reach out to us directly with questions. Alternatively, you can check out PREDOC.org to learn more about predoctoral fellowships generally and find resources.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Below, we’ve included some of the other questions that we get asked often. If your question is missing, feel free to email us directly!
Pre-doctoral fellowships are an opportunity to work directly with faculty and experience research projects first hand for two years, before applying for a PhD. Our pre-doctoral fellows design and implement entire research pipelines, from data processing, to model development and evaluation, to summarizing and presenting results. In addition, fellows are able to connect with visiting experts and external collaborators, attend interactive seminars with University faculty, and participate in joint lab meetings, collaborating with and learning from other research teams.
For more information about pre-doctoral fellowship positions in general, including their benefits, help on applying, and even a thorough listing of other similar opportunities, we recommend visiting predoc.org. For more information about a pre-doctoral fellowship at the Chicago Booth School of Business, refer to the information session link above.
We are a research center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Our research lab includes principal researchers, pre-doctoral fellows (one of which could be you), part-time research assistants, designers and developers: you can find members of our team here. We use our diverse skills to create, publish and share some of the best and most exciting research in economics and social science. We value academic excellence, high-quality academic research and the ability to improve the world around us.
You can read more about the team on our website:
https://www.chicagobooth.edu/caai.
Our research focuses on using machine learning with impact. This means taking some of the most sophisticated tools from computer science, statistics, machine learning and AI, and applying them to a range of challenging problems. Here are some problems our pre-doctoral fellows have worked on:
Here are some researchers we’ve worked with in the past or are currently working with:
We are looking for candidates with a strong academic record, and an interest in pursuing research excellence in the future.
Candidates must have:
Candidates should excel in one of these skills, and want to learn about the others:
Experience training deep learning models is valued, but isn’t required to apply. Many of our pre-doctoral fellows have developed their model training skills since joining the team. If learning how to train a CNN sounds interesting, and you think you would be able to develop the skill, then we encourage you to apply.
Our most recent pre-doctoral fellows have secured PhD positions at Harvard, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and here at the University of Chicago.
We value diverse perspectives and experiences, and we especially encourage those from non-traditional backgrounds to apply.
We have sponsored Visas in the past and encourage international applicants to apply. We evaluate all candidates equally regardless of where they are applying from.
Yes, this position is in-person hybrid. Successful applicants are expected to join the team on the University of Chicago campus in Hyde Park and follow the current work location policies outlined by Chicago Booth.
We recommend applying for the first round of hiring if possible. If you miss the first deadline, we will consider your application for the spring hiring round. If you’d like to be considered independently of these hiring periods, please reach out directly.
We do our best to accommodate every applicant. If you need some variation to the application timeline, simply email with your name and request and we will do our best to accommodate you.
Successful applicants will generally start around July 2023. Earlier and later start times can be easily facilitated.
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