Fall 2025: GRI Undergraduate Research Assistant

AidData and the Global Research Institute at William & Mary are hiring a paid undergraduate research assistant.

The research assistant will have the opportunity to learn state-of-the-art methods in deep learning, data preparation, programming, and geospatial analysis, while offering hands-on experience in accessing reliable datasets for real-world research.

The research assistant will support the team by using advanced deep learning algorithms to classify rainwater harvesting systems (demi-lune) in Africa, aiming to identify demi-lune structures and create high-quality maps for environmental analysis, with applications in climate-sensitive agriculture and biodiversity conservation.

This position will cover the fall semester and will start as soon as possible, with potential continuation in the spring semester. This position will pay between $12-15 per hour. The research Assistant will be expected to work an average of 10 hours per week.

Primary responsibilities

• Collect ground reference data through open-access geospatial datasets.
• Clean and preprocess raw data using programming languages or GIS software.
• Conduct literature reviews related to project topics.
• Write and edit scripts in Python and/or R.