REU Research Intern Positions Available Fall 2013 and Spring 2014

Title: Research Assistant (2 positions to be filled)

Employment Period: September 2013 – May, 2014, with the possibility of continuing employment in the 2014-2015 academic year

Compensation: $8,000 stipend paid over the academic year

Description: A research assistant is needed for a National Science Foundation funded (NSF-funded) research project on the learning and motivation among volunteers in citizen science. Applicants must be US or resident alien undergraduate students with an interest in open online communities (e.g., Wikipedia or Open Software Development), or the learning and information sciences.

The research assistant will work closely with the project's principal investigators, doctoral student researchers, and master students with expertize in qualitative and quantitative research, learning and motivation in online environments, information science and information visualization. The Syracuse group is working closely with a team of scientists and web-developers at the Adler Observatory in Chicago to improve current and future citizen science projects at . The research assistant will be responsible for participating in research activities and undertaking tasks such as project documentation, literature review, data collection, evaluation, and writing for the research group.

Ideal candidates will be professional, highly motivated, and able to work effectively in a team environment, have an abundance of creativity, and have enthusiasm for research. Strong analytical skills, writing, and organizational abilities are a must. Experiences with databases and statistics are considered a plus.

This research project is an excellent opportunity to make substantial contributions to a unique research collaboration, and is an excellent resume enhancer!

More About the Project: The project strives to understand and support learning and motivation in citizen science. Citizen science is a phenomenon where ordinary citizens assist scientists with data collection and analysis tasks, usually through web or mobile technologies. This can include logging plants or insects on a mobile device while hiking, classifying characteristics of Hubble telescope pictures on a website, or even playing online games to generate new data. Through interviews, participant observation, surveys and experiments at this project strive to better understand how participants learn to hunt for planets in distant galaxies, classify violent cyclones, decipher bat song in Romania, identify species at the seafloor, or categorize animals on the savanna in East Africa.

Additional Requirements: Must be a Syracuse University student (undergrad ONLY), a US citizen or permanent resident.

To Apply: Interested applicants should contact Associate Professor Carsten Oesterlund by email at . Please include a cover letter stating why you are interested in and qualified for this position, as well as a copy of your resume. A portfolio or links to previous work are required.