Research Fellow, Centre for Trusted Internet and Community

The National University of Singapore Centre for Trusted Internet and Community (CTIC) is dedicated to the inter-disciplinary study of the Internet and its implications on the society of the future. The first-of-its-kind centre will integrate social and behavioural science research, digital technologies, data-driven approaches, and policy studies to holistically examine the Internet and its societal impact including topics such as the future of privacy, freedom of expression, misinformation and disinformation, as well as maintaining social security and stability.

This is an exciting opportunity to join us as a Research Fellow in Computational Social Science under a new programme titled “Digital Information Resilience: Restoring Trust and Nudging Behaviours in Digitalisation”.

As a Research Fellow in Computational Social Science with CTIC, you have demonstrated an exemplary track record of research and publishing, so you will be tasked with planning and executing a research project under the CTIC Digital Resilience research grant.

You will work closely with the Principal Investigator on a research problem related to news on social media.

Postdocs with a communication research background will be tasked to focus on human evaluation and news consumption (Communication research). 

Postdocs with a computer science or related background will be tasked to focus on natural language processing and generation (NLProc, Large Language Models or LLMs, Computational Linguistics).

You will be handling and contributing to research and innovative findings in a team, leading to publications in top-tier conferences/journals as well as exciting real-world implementations. The level of responsibility and independence entrusted would be commensurate with prior experience and academic qualifications

As a Research Fellow with CTIC, you will have the following duties: 

Administration
•    Plan and prepare research-related reports, presentations, and financial documents.
•    Plan and monitor and optimize grant expenditure and budget.
•    Plan the tasks for and co-supervise RAs, interns and student projects with the PI

Research:
•    Plan and lead literature review efforts
•    Plan and design studies 
•    Plan research paper and publishing timelines

•    Comm Research postdocs:
      o    Plan and conduct experiments on human perception and consumption of online news.
      o    Collect data and analyze it using tools like SPSS, R, and Excel

•    CS Research postdocs:
      o    Plan and conduct experiments on the modeling of different facets of news and news quality
      o    Train models, finetune LLMs, collect data and analyze it

•    Write op-eds for university blogs and popular media.

Coordination:

•    Oversee participant recruitment and logistics for survey experiments
•    Manage and maintain IRB documentation.
•    Collaborate with vendors for research equipment/materials.
•    Engage in knowledge exchange with external partners, scheduling syncups when necessary

Each research paper will have the following phases to it: 

•    Phase 1 – Literature reviews 
•    Phase 2 – CS research design, or Social Science research design, including IRB applications. 
•    Phase 3 – Data collection and pre-processing.
•    Phase 4 – Data analysis and result tabulation.
•    Phase 5 – Research communication and writing of papers.
 

•    Minimum PhD or close to completing PhD in Computer Science or Communications (or in any other closely-related field).
•    Relevant research experience with publications, in one or more of the following areas:
      o    Experience for Computer Science PhDs
            -    Natural language processing, machine learning and/or knowledge representation and reasoning.
            -    Prior first- or second-author publications and/or technical reports or theses
      o    Experience required for Communications PhDs
            -    Advanced statistical tests (e.g. moderation/ mediation, hierarchical regression etc.) 
            -    Running standard statistical tests (e.g., using SPSS or SATS or R, for regression, ANOVA, etc.) 
            -    Prior first- or second-author publications and/or technical reports or theses
•    A good team player with effective communication skills, exemplary organization skills, and the ability to work closely with faculty, staff, students and external collaborators

•    Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

•    Proactive problem-solving skills and a forward-thinking approach.

•    Demonstrated ability to manage time and data efficiently.

•    Proven track record of consistently meeting deadlines and following up on tasks.

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Location: Kent Ridge Campus

Organization: NUS Centre for Trusted Internet & Community

Department : NUS Centre for Trusted Internet & Community

Employee Referral Eligible: No

Job requisition ID : 22368