We are seeking a highly talented PhD Student with experience and interest in state-of-the-art AI technologies, data science, and research software engineering, a. This position offers the opportunity to work in a world-renowned research institute alongside faculty, software engineers, PhD students, and PostDocs on the development of cutting-edge AI-ready/agentic infrastructure for data and model discovery, model metadata extraction, and scholarly intelligence. The project will explore conceptual frameworks and system architecture to support data trust in the context of AI-enabled sience workflows. Experience and developing and deploying software is desired.
We are extending and maintaining the National Data Platform to support a new generation of discovery capabilities targeting AI-enabled (agentic) science workflows. . Building on ideas pioneered by the Democratizing Data
1 2 project ( insights.ndp.utah.edu ) , this project will explore approaches to discovery data and models that are trusted and fit for use by leveraging contextual information about their use derived from a range of sources including published literature. The approach includes extracting, linking, and presenting evidence from records to help users understand where models are used, how they are applied, what tasks they support, and how they evolve across scientific domains.
The successful candidate will contribute directly to the research and implementation of workflows for AI model identification, publication mining, metadata engineering, search and retrieval, and interactive user-facing systems. The role includes support for integration, development, deployment, maintenance, UI/UX, containerization, automation, and system-level optimization.
Please contact Jess Tate (
[email protected]) for further information.
The SCI Institute:
The SCI Institute is a world-class research institute located within the new Warnock Engineering Building on the University of Utah campus. We are a highly dynamic, driven group of over 170 faculty, staff, and students. The overarching goals of the SCI Institute’s scientific computing research are to create new techniques, tools, and systems, by which scientists may solve problems affecting various aspects of human life. We believe that to advance the state-of-the-art and create meaningful computational solutions for such complex systems, one needs to advance research in a number of areas within scientific computing, including: visualization, simulation, and modeling. The SCI Institute presents a highly challenging, collaborative work environment that can be deeply rewarding for the right individual. Further information is available at http://www.sci.utah.edu/.
Research Focus of This Position
This position centers on the design and development of systems that enable discovery and analysis of AI models used in scientific research publications. Rather than cataloging datasets cited by papers, this effort focuses on identifying and organizing information about:
- AI models mentioned or used in publications
- model families, versions, checkpoints, and architectures
- tasks and scientific domains in which models are applied
- evidence of reuse, benchmarking, fine-tuning, and comparison
- links among papers, models, repositories, benchmarks, and supporting resources
- search, ranking, and visualization interfaces for model-centric scholarly exploration
This work sits at the intersection of AI/NLP, scholarly knowledge extraction, software engineering, data infrastructure, and human-centered discovery systems.
Opportunities for Professional Development
Through the Cyberinfrastructure Professionals (CIP) Cooperative (Co-Op) at the SCI Institute, the successful candidate will access a strong community of research computing and data experts working together to support and sustain SCI’s world-class research efforts. SCI’s CIPs perform a wide range of advanced services that positively impact research outcomes, improve researcher productivity, and strengthen the growing SCI research enterprise. The Co-Op provides faculty and research staff with a stable environment for mentoring, growth, training, communication, and planning across diverse research projects. This role offers exceptional opportunities to:
- contribute to high-impact interdisciplinary research
- publish and present work in relevant venues
- collaborate with experts in AI, data systems, and scientific computing
- gain hands-on experience with production-grade research software and infrastructure
- mentor students and junior developers
- shape the future of AI-ready scholarly discovery platforms
Work Environment
You will contribute to cutting-edge computational methods for AI-ready model discovery, research knowledge extraction, and scientific search systems.
We offer:
- flexible working hours
- professional career development opportunities
- collaboration with a multidisciplinary and research-driven team
- access to strong computing and research infrastructure
- a competitive benefits package through the University of Utah
