FODAVA: Seeking a Research Scientist

The FODAVA (Foundations of Data Analysis and Visual Analytics) Center at Georgia Tech is seeking a Research Scientist to join our team.

Enormous amounts of data are being generated every day in health care, computational biology, homeland security, commerce, and many other areas. Analyzing these massive and complex data sets is essential to achieve new discoveries, but is extremely difficult. An emerging research field known as data and visual analytics is concerned with synthesizing information and deriving insight from massive, dynamic, ambiguous and possibly conflicting digital data for increased understanding and effective decision making.

The FODAVA research initiative is dedicated to both defining the foundations of the data and visual analytics fields and advancing the state-of-the-art. Established in 2008, the FODAVA initiative is a collaborative effort funded jointly by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). For further information about the Center, please see http://fodava.gatech.edu/.

We are seeking a Research Scientist (RS) to join our group and assist with ongoing research. The position will involve work on two main projects. First, the RS will contribute to the Jigsaw project (http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/ii/jigsaw). Specifically, the RS will lead an effort into modifying the architecture of the system and creating a new API that will allow other software systems to better interact with it. Second, the RS will help build a visual analytics system for document discovery based on the fundamental data analytic theory and methods we have developed. The system will allow users to find and become aware of documents of interest among a sea of incoming documents such as research papers obtained with a crawler from acrossthe internet.

In addition to these two projects, there will be opportunities for the RS to collaborate on other ongoing research as well as to initiate new projects. Georgia Tech faculty are dedicated to working with the successful applicant in mentoring and career growth.

The ideal candidate should have at least an MS in a related discipline or a BS with equivalent experience. Prior work in areas such as visual analytics, data analysis, data mining, machine learning, and/or HCI will be extremely useful. Candidates also should have strong software engineering and programming skills (knowledge of Java and Swing is a must) and good verbal, writing, and communication skills. This is a 2-year position, beginning Fall 2011. To apply, please send a brief cover letter describing your background and interests, as well as a your current CV, to Ms. Lometa Mitchell (lometa@cc.gatech.edu). Please direct informal questions about the position to Prof. Haesun Park (hpark@cc.gatech.edu) and/or Prof. John Stasko (stasko@cc.gatech.edu). We will review applications on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.