ORGANIZATION
Elder Research, Inc. (ERI) s a boutique DS/ML/AI consulting firm headquartered in Charlottesville, VA, and founded in 1995. Our 100 consultants work with clients in the private sector, Civilian government agencies, and Defense and Intelligence agencies throughout the Mid-Atlantic. We exist to provide our clients with the most trusted analytic solutions in the industry.
SPONSOR
William Goodrum, Director of Research and Development
PURPOSE
R&D @ ERI exists to discover, incubate, and accelerate viable and proven technologies into marketable solutions that solve challenging problems in data science. We accomplish this primarily through applying state-of-the-art research in the areas of machine reliability and materials, text mining, and geospatial analysis to practical problems. This work is funded primarily through the Federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program at NASA. Success in SBIR relies on a variety of elements, including (but not limited to):
- Proving the viability of an idea prior to proposing an R&D program to be funded under SBIR
- Research agency needs and identifying gaps that current solutions may not address
- Identifying new and emerging technology areas that may align with current and future client needs
Internship effort can provide vital support to each of these important elements.
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
This internship will prepare intern for careers in any of the following:
- Faculty
- Industry and For-profit
- Data Science
- Patent and Commercialization
- Entrepreneurship and Venture capital
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
This internship will provide experiences to develop and polish the following skills:
- Communication to diverse audiences
- Self and career Management
- Interdisciplinary team collaboration
- Thought leadership and innovation
- Grant training and pitching for funding
- Problem-solving and analytical
RESPONSIBILITIES
As an R&D intern, you will help with any one of the following activities:
- Continuing development/exploration of ongoing proof-of-concept activities on new algorithmic methods
- Identifying new areas for proof-of-concept (including available data) through literature search
- Researching possible overlap between ERI interests and agency missions and programs at NASA
MENTORING PLAN
The intern will be mentored directly by Will Goodrum at ERI. Some goals for this experience will be to identify a project, scope out relevant work tasks, and execute the research; whether this constitutes technical work or research investigation. The outcomes from this experience will be multifaceted. The intern will learn about:
- Project and problem scoping
- Technical execution in practice
- AI/ML state-of-the-art
- Pathways for R&D funding (and proposal requirements)
DESIRED QUALITIES
Ideally candidates will have a background in the physical or biological sciences, with prior exposure to open source analytical languages (e.g., R or Python). Specific prior experience in machine or materials reliability, autonomy, Natural Language Processing, or geospatial analysis/remote sensing/earth sciences would be very relevant.
The duration of this effort is ongoing and flexible to the needs of the intern. We prefer this internship to begin in the Summer of 2021. Interested candidates with availability in the Summer or Fall of 2021 should apply. Typically, a minimum of 8-10 hours per week is preferred, given the deep technical nature of our context.
This internship is funded up to $5000 over the semester.
Information Session
To learn more about the organization and the Data Analyst internship, participate in the Information session with Will Goodrum, Director of Research and Development at the Elder Research Institute, on Monday February 22 at 12 pm.
Register below to receive zoom link