Want to experience how research is done in some of the most advanced and successful research groups in the US and the world? Are you interested in learning how network science can model social, technical, physical, and epidemiological systems and solve applied societal problems? Examples of the diverse topics you could work on include: disease spreading, effects of public policies and health interventions, drug efficacy, improvement of health and security of human populations, science of success, shaping of social behavior, formulation of political beliefs, group decision making, geometry of networks, topological data analysis on graphs, anomaly detection, algorithmically infused societies, unifying the physics of networks with the mining of graphs.
At NetSI we are looking for highly motivated scientists from all fields to join us for a mentored research experience. We are hoping to create a cohort of talented co-op students per co-op term. You will receive hands-on experience working to answer one or multiple research questions our researchers are tackling at the time. Before assigning you a research project, we will take into account your prior experience to make sure the tasks requested from you will be appropriate for your level while giving you the opportunity to grow as a scientist and feel rewarded.
Key Components
• Mentoring (scientific and professional)
• Exposure to cutting edge research opportunities
• Problem solving, independent thinking, and collaborative mindset
• Team building (with professors, researchers, doctoral students, and staff members)
• Networking with mentors and collaborators
• Presentation of results (internally and outside the Institute)
• Access to educational activities
Outcomes
• Acquire knowledge and skills on network science pertinent to your particular discipline but also more broadly
• Develop collaborative relationships with a number of very distinguished researchers in the field
• Gain valued experience in a research setting as preparation for graduate school
• Open up the possibility of further collaboration in the future while on your graduate studies or later in your career
• Acquire skills on science communication and professional advancement
Educational Activities
Concurrently with your research co-op placement at our Institute, you will have the opportunity to participate in educational and social activities as our regular members do. Such acitivites include:
Speaker series. In this series we have high profile guests, external and from Northeastern. These guests give talks about their work and meet with our researchers and students. We also have some of our published doctoral students present their work to acquire experience and gain visibility within the institute and the university. You will have the opportunity to attend all these talks and seminars.
Professional development and science communication workshops. We organize workshops on the academic application process, fellowships and grants, promotion of research findings in social and traditional media, career path options, service to the profession, managing collaborations, ethics in research, maintaining balance in academic life, etc. You will have the opportunity to attend all these workshops.
Schools, workshops, and conferences at the institute. These are educational activities we organize either internally or with our collaborators in a broader context. You will be able to join such activities as well as present your work in these venues.
Opportunities for Continuing Education
The Institute offers a competitive Doctoral Program in Network Science as well as a Minor in Network Science. After your co-op at the Institute, you could choose to take one of the undergraduate courses for the Minor in network science or even choose to apply to our graduate program. We will be very happy to contribute to your scientific advancement and to also discuss possible future research collaborations.
Participants in the NetSI Research Co-op Program are expected to work 35 hours/week for a period of four to six months, to be agreed with the candidate before the start of the program. Occasionally, on a case-by-case basis, eight months could also be a possibility. The Education & Outreach Coordinator at NetSI will be your supervisor for the duration of the program, to oversee your overall progress. Once matched with a research project and/or a research lab, you will be matched with a research mentor for the duration of your stay in the particular lab.
Trainees will attend an orientation session at the beginning of their co-op training, to learn about basic concepts of network science, research lifecycle, research ethics, working at the Institute and program expectations. At least once per month you will be required to attend one of the additional academic activities open to you at the Institute. Depending on your research and career interests we will choose which of these activities are best suited for you, and we will make a personalized plan with you at the beginning of your assignment. You will be able to attend some of these activities individually and some of them you will need to attend as a cohort.
Program Deliverables
You will have to write a two-paragraph summary of each of the educational activities, and by the end of the program you will have created a portfolio of these summaries and of possible additional materials and resources you will have acquired by then.
Related to your research work, you will have the following responsibilities:
Complete particular research tasks relevant to your research project. Your research mentor(s) will be leading these tasks
Keep a repository (e.g. google doc) where you will list all readings that you come across that are relevant to your project.
Keep a journal with weekly entries on how your work is progressing. Log there what worked and what didn’t work each week as well as ideas you might have for additional things to explore with regards to your projects. You can also keep track of what you are learning and concepts that are fundamental or that you think will be useful to remember in the future.
Write a short report (~five pages long) on your work. This report will include an abstract, an introduction (i.e. literature review), your methods, your results, discussion of results and conclusions. The Institute’s Education Coordinator will guide you to prepare this report.
Showcase your results at the end of the program. To this end you will need to create: a. A poster presentation, b. A 15-min long oral presentation.
The Institute’s Education Coordinator will guide you to prepare these presentations.
Depending on the nature and tasks of your research project, we may assign to you some additional tasks to help you build research related skills that will be useful to your future career. Such tasks will include working on literature reviews, developing synopses of research manuscripts, contributing to research proposals, etc.
Qualifications + Background
We are looking for students from any major, with interest in the type of research work we do at the Institute. Previous experience in network science is a plus, but not having such prior experience is not an issue. Similarly, previous research experience is not required. However, having some quantitative/computational experience is required, as you may need to do some work with data at least at a basic level. We will make sure to give you appropriate tasks and scaffold your skills, so that you can progress well in the program and that this experience is fulfilling to you.
We ask that you submit your updated CV, your unofficial transcript, and a cover letter of 300-500 words, explaining why you would like to do a research co-op at the Network Science Institute, how you think that this experience will help you, what your scientific interests are, as well as your current career goals. It would be preferable if you could also designate at least one laboratory/research group/faculty member/Institute member that matches your research interests. Also, you can indicate your preferred duration of the position. In case you have research experience you can mention it in the letter and you are welcome to also share with us a research work sample if you have one. However, a work sample is only optional.
You can access the application here.
Open projects include but are not limited to:
Studying the evolution of human mobility using word embeddings
Studying changes in human mobility over time is challenging due to its sheer size and complexity. Advances in natural language processing, particularly *word2vec*, offers a means to tame this complexity by transforming it into a convenient and meaningful vector-space representation—a digital double that can be more easily studied to untangle the nuances of mobility. We will create representations for several domains of mobility including international travel, scientists' migration, and urban travel patterns. In particular, we are interested in *changes* in mobility patterns year-by-year, and particularly the extent to which these changes were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The key challenges of this project will be (a) creating these representations; (b) measuring yearly change in a sensible and intuitive way; and (c) creating effective visualizations to showcase these changes.
Past Projects
Introductions and Applications in Public Opinion Research
Co-op student: Samantha Cadenasso (Summer + Fall 2022)
Research Mentor: Dr. Jon Green
Fast Generation of Degree-Heterogenous Random Multigraphs
Co-op student: Tyler Krasnigor (Fall 2022)
Research Mentor: Harrison Hartle (advanced PhD student; DK-Lab)
Characterizing Heterogeneous Behavioral Patterns using High Resolution Mobility Data
Co-op student: Ankit Ramakrishnan (Fall 2022)
Research Mentor: Prof. Matteo Chinazzi (NetSI+Roux)
Mapping the Open Source Software Ecosystem
Co-op student: Zhouming Wu (Fall 2022)
Research Mentor: Prof. Dakota Murray
POTATO: Panel-based Open Term-level Aggregate Twitter Observatory
Co-op student: Aswath Senthil Kumar (Fall 2022)
Research Mentor: Alyssa Smith (advanced PhD student; CoMM Lab)
Online Communities: Learning, Open Source, & Fandom Engagement
Co-op student: Samantha Furey (Spring + Summer 2023)
Research Mentor: Robin Lange (advanced PhD student; CoMM Lab)
Rank and Peeling Numbers in Random Recursive Trees
Co-op student: Jakob (Huck) Stepanyants (Spring + Summer 2023)
Research Mentor: Prof. Dmitri Krioukov (DK-Lab)
The Episcore
Co-op student: Yicheng (Andy) Zhang (Spring + Summer 2023)
Research Mentor: Dr. Jessica Davis (MOBS Lab)
Art About Science Science About Art: Foreigners Everywhere [to Everywhere] through the Venice Biennale
Co-op student: Jacopo Conti
Research Mentor: Prof. Laszlo Barabasi
Human Mobility Towards an Early Warning System: Co-op student
Co-op student: Edward Berman
Research Mentors: Prof. Mauricio Santillana & Prof. Esteban Moro
Perceived Segregation in Public Transit Systems
Co-op student: Justyn Lewis
Research Mentors: Dr. Nandini Iyer & Prof. Riccardo DiClemente
Resources
Contact
David R. Dawson II
Senior Academic Program Manager
Evelyn Panagakou, PhD
Education & Outreach Coordinator
