Junior Research Scientist

Description

The Social Machines and Robotics (SMART) Lab at New York University Abu Dhabi focuses on the development of socially intelligent machines (computer applications, robots, Virtual Agents) that are capable of interacting and communicating in a natural way with humans, expressing through their figure a high degree of social intelligence, with a focus on applications in education and healthcare.

The SMART Lab seeks to recruit a motivated and passionate Junior Research Scientist to work under the supervision of Dr. Hanan Salam on topics including: (i) Human-Machine Interaction, (ii) Social Robotics, (iii) Artificial Intelligence for Diagnosis and Therapy of Individuals affected by Neurodevelopmental Disorders, (iv) Bias in AI.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and evaluate human-centered AI systems for SMART Lab research projects.
• Support data collection and experimental pipelines involving human participants, multimodal data, or robotic platforms.
• Publish research findings in high-impact journals and conferences.
• Communicate and present research findings at international academic conferences.
• Create, maintain, and document high-quality research code for reproducibility.
• Collaborate with PhD and post-doc researchers in the lab.

Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor’s or preferred Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Human-Computer Interaction, Robotics, Cognitive Science, Psychology, or a related field.

• Strong programming skills, preferably in Python, with experience in machine learning and data analysis.
• Familiarity with one or more of the following areas: artificial intelligence, natural language processing, computer vision, multimodal learning, affective computing, human-robot interaction, social robotics, or human-centered AI.
• Experience with machine learning frameworks, data processing libraries, APIs, web development, robotics platforms, or experimental research methods is desirable.
• Excellent communication skills in English (oral and written communication)
• Willingness and capacity to work in a multidisciplinary environment consisting of PhD-level scientists, graduate students and undergraduate students.
• Self-motivated with an ability to work independently and in a team to get the work done.
• Willingness to learn and confront new challenges.

For consideration, applicants need to submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, transcript of degree, one page summary of research accomplishments and interests, and at least two letters of reference, all in PDF format.

The appointment will be for one year, with the option to renew further depending on performance. The terms of employment are very competitive and include housing and educational subsidies for children, together with full health insurance and retirement contributions. The UAE does not levy income tax.