Summer 2025: GRI Research Assistantship

AidData and the Global Research Institute at William & Mary has an opening for a paid undergraduate research assistant position.

The team is engaged in two projects. The first uses advanced deep learning algorithms to classify rainwater harvesting systems (demilunes) in African, aiming to identify demilune structures and create high-quality maps for environmental analysis, with applications in climate-sensitive agriculture and biodiversity conservation. The second is focused on a geospatial impact evaluation of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) in India, conducted in collaboration with economists at the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, to assess the program's impact on poverty reduction and women’s empowerment.

Both projects provide opportunities to learn state-of-the-art methods in deep learning, data preparation, programming, geospatial analysis, and impact evaluation, while offering hands-on experience in accessing data and applying evaluation methodologies for real-world research.

This position will start as soon as possible and cover the summer semester, with likely continuation in the fall. This is a paid position with an hourly rate from $12.00 to $15.00, depending on skills and experience. This position will be expected to work up to 40 hours per week during the summer.

Primary responsibilities

• Collect ground reference data through fieldwork and 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

Required Qualifications

• The ideal candidate should have completed GIS and programming courses at William & Mary
• Background in data analysis and economics
• Knowledge of GIS software, such as QGIS and ArcGIS
• Basic programming knowledge from data science courses

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong geospatial analysis skills
• Proficiency in using ArcGIS Pro for geospatial analysis
• Ability to write basic Python/R scripts